The Sassari Provincial Industrial Consortium has expressed a negative opinion regarding Eni Rewind Spa's request to activate a new discharge into the sea at the industrial port of Porto Torres. This position was decided during the Services Conference for the review of the company's Integrated Environmental Authorization (IEA). "In our opinion," stated Consortium President Simona Fois, "the environmental characterization should be conducted before authorizing any new discharge into the sea, so as to have a clear understanding of the contamination status of the environmental matrices: water, sediments, and biota. Only then will it be possible to fully evaluate the activation of the discharge proposed by Eni Rewind, consisting of wastewater from the remediation of the aquifer, which, as is well known, is heavily contaminated."
Currently, the water within the port basin, where Eni Rewind plans to locate the new SF2 discharge point, already receives treated water from the consortium-managed wastewater treatment plant. The environmental condition of this portion of the sea is therefore the result of both previous industrial activities carried out on the site, first by SIR and then by Eni group companies, and current emissions from the consortium's wastewater treatment plant, whose discharge is constantly monitored by the Consortium and the relevant regulatory authorities. The entire industrial port area will be subject to a comprehensive environmental characterization—including water, sediments, and biota—for which €2,119,727 in funding is already available. In July 2025, the Regional Department for Environmental Protection proposed to the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security that the Sassari Industrial Consortium be the entity responsible for carrying out these characterization activities. Indeed, CIPS itself is keenly interested in understanding the environmental quality of the marine-coastal area and the beaches in front of the Site of National Interest, also in light of future planned infrastructure projects in the industrial port and inland areas, such as shipbuilding and maritime economy activities, already agreed upon with the Sardinian Sea Port System Authority and the Municipality of Porto Torres. "This way," adds President Fois, "it would also be easier to identify any responsibilities in the event of a deterioration in water or sediment quality. Otherwise, the results of future monitoring could be difficult to interpret and responsibilities could be confused among multiple parties, including our agency." Eni Rewind, authorized to carry out the aquifer remediation project approved in 2011, believes that the water treatment it manages "allows it to achieve more stringent contamination limits than those currently in force for discharge into the sea for the consortium's wastewater treatment plant, where the company currently delivers its water." Therefore, it has submitted a request for direct discharge into the sea, which is currently underway as scheduled by the Decision-Making Services Conference of September 29th. President Fois reiterated that the Consortium's position is not one of opposition but of method: "Our no is not an ideological refusal, but an act of responsibility. Before any decision is made, a comprehensive technical and scientific framework is needed, based on up-to-date and verifiable data. Only in this way can we guarantee transparency, environmental protection, and sustainable industrial development." Finally, the Sassari Industrial Consortium confirms its full willingness to collaborate with the Region and the Ministry of the Environment to begin the environmental characterization of the marine-coastal area and the beaches of the Porto Torres SIN, "an essential step," she concludes, "to ensure a balance between production and environmental protection."
the decision
Porto Torres, the industrial consortium rejects the discharge into the sea requested by Eni Rewind.
The agency requests that the environmental characterization of the port be completed to evaluate the impact of wastewater.