"Foreign" poisons, the case to the TAR and Prosecutor's Office

The hell of poisons is closed. From this morning to eight, even the last of the custodians of that infinite heap of hazardous waste between Carbonia and Gonnesa stopped guarding that ecological bomb placed between the ancient mining remains of Barega and the promontories of Sulcis. The communication with which Riverso also sends the guardians of that oasis of pollution home has been completed. They had announced it ten days ago and today the sad rite of expulsion is marked on that card that stamps the end of the shift.

End of shift

Last check, because from this morning to wander around that basin there will be only one patrol, unarmed in all senses and without any expertise in the field of landfill. La Riverso SpA, the landfill of the Neapolitan Colucci family, not only transferred money and baggage elsewhere, but also decided to layoff the last four workers who have always supervised entrances and water levels, the most delicate ones to avoid the catastrophe. . Sent home without a shot being fired like the remaining 42 who had already "conquered" them despite the social safety nets for three months. Four vigilantes remain from a security agency in Olbia, catapulted from the Costa Smeralda to Monte Onixeddu to check the fence and nothing else.

From the Coast to poisons

From the golden oasis to that of poisons. For the rest, in the six days of coaching with the “historical” custodians imposed by the company for the handover, they have learned nothing else. After all, the training to supervise that explosive pile of poisons could not be entrusted to improvisation. And this is precisely this, from today, the most serious of the dangers that loom over the whole territory. That landfill is primed. That desert of hazardous waste had to be made safe, if it were ever possible, complete with surface isolation, an intervention that not only has never been carried out, but which now appears impossible to carry out given the premature escape from Serra Scirieddus.

Water above and below

Ending above and below those piles of waste will be infinite quantities of water, the meteoric ones and those of drainage of the area, since anyone who understands plumbing has realized that this is a valley, or where, due to converging slopes, the surface and underground waterways of the surrounding slopes flow. Therefore, to monitor there are the levels of the "basins of first rains" and above all those of leachate, in practice in basins downstream where in theory the waters transformed into liquid poisons are collected. A distraction on that front would be enough to ensure that the poisons end up directly on the ground, creeping everywhere and above all, if it has not already happened, wedging into the water tables of the downstream area. Now, in the staff of the Universe, there is no one left and that task of verifying those levels of guard seems entrusted to the Holy Spirit.

The time of the complaint

The danger, however, has been under the attention of the Public Prosecutor of Cagliari since yesterday. The report of the Uil Trasporti, provincial coordination of Sulcis Iglesiente, also transmitted to the Noe, the ecological operational unit of the Carabinieri, leaves no room for maneuver: in danger - writes the union - there is the safety of the landfill. The company's decisions - according to the document sent to the investigators - "do not guarantee adequate safety and maintenance of a plant in which technicians with proven experience worked and, specifically, these tasks were guaranteed by the custodians". The accusation is serious and circumscribed: at risk there is "the transfer of leachate from the wells to the containment tank and its monitoring, the control of the rainwater and the rainwater collection tanks". The union is very hard: "One wonders, what is the real intent of the Riverso company, also by virtue of what was reported in the journalistic investigation of the Sardinian Union and whether this period of uncertainty is actually due to events that got out of hand, as for for example, the difficulty of finding a surety policy or that the company has escaped from responsibility after having pocketed millions of euros ".

Redundancy fund

For the trade union organization, then, there is the complaint relating to the replacement of workers "sent" in layoffs, using social safety nets, paid by the state, carrying out an illegitimate act by calling an external company. The Public Prosecutor's Office now has a clear statement with two fixed points: the legality of replacing the custodians with an external guardian company and the guarantee for the correct management of all environmental problems that could occur in the absence of qualified personnel. The risk, especially with the winter season just around the corner, is around the corner. A potential environmental disaster on which Arpas, the Province and the Region cannot stand by. Meanwhile, the Prosecutor's Office has the Riverso dossier on his desk.

From the Prosecutor's Office to the Tar

It is a short step from the Criminal Prosecutor's Office to the Regional Administrative Court. Landfill lords don't give up. The latest assault is yesterday. Public audience in the austere hall of the meetings of administrative judges. At stake is once again the millionaire business of imported poisons, those that the landfill owners would like to bring from the other Regions to the land of the Nuraghi, with the sole objective of making cash behind the island and its environment. . This time to appeal to the magistrates of the Tar, Dante D'Alessio, President, the Judges Antonio Plaisant and Tito Aru, speaker, is Ecoserdiana, one of the waste giants in Sardinia.

No extra-regional

The dispute is always the same: the Region has authorized the extension of the Su Siccesu and S'Arenaxiu landfill in Serdiana, but has explicitly excluded the delivery of extra-regional waste. Ecoserdiana, coincidentally supported by Riverso, the two companies are respectively members with one percent, has challenged the acts of the Province and the Region. In reality, in the motivation for the rejection of the application, both the Region and the Province had adopted an elementary motivation: in your expansion project you did not even ask to import extra-regional waste. At the hearing the clash is on the point of law. The judges don't have much time to waste.

Without frills

President D'Alessio's question to Ecoserdiana's lawyers is tight and without frills: what do you intend to do? In reality, Ecoserdiana, in the meantime, has submitted a new request to the Region. In practice, it took note of the response of the Region and asked for the extension of the landfill, also claiming the authorization to import extra-regional waste. Therefore, a new request and a new evaluation by the Region. Ecoserdiana, however, prevaricates in answering the judges.

He would like to keep both the first and second instances standing. The lawyer of the landfill lords tries the double card: a decision is made unless the TAR deems it necessary to postpone.

Region decided

The lawyer of the Region, Mattia Pani, has full mandate: the appeal can be decided because the object of the appeal is the first request of Ecoserdiana, while the second is autonomous, new and separate, as well as based on new documents and different requests. At stake are millions of cubic meters of poisons that could be shipped to Sardinia in a more comprehensive operation which, as we have seen in Carbonia, only aims to overfill those landfills transformed into a waste slot machine. The judges know the case like few others. They know that the subject of the dispute is high. The panel's question is still for Ecoserdiana's lawyers: given that the two instances are different, do you still have an interest in the first? Ecoserdiana feels cornered and explicitly asks for the cause to be postponed, in fact until the Region has decided on the second instance. The game is on the point of law, but also of procedural strategies.

Judges pursue

The judges do not want to waste any more time and directly address the question to the Region: when will you decide for the second instance? The answer is clear, like the one the judges expected: we will decide after the sentence on the first instance. The College has just the time for a joint look. The President closes the game: the case is decided. In the coming days the sentence. Another chapter in the saga of “foreign” waste in Sardinia. With the Region that seems determined to keep the bar to starboard in the ban on letting extra-regional waste enter the island.

Proximity and movements

Moreover, the national and European regulations on waste are peremptory: the disposal of waste and the recovery of unsorted municipal waste must take place in one of the suitable plants closest to the places of production or collection, in order to reduce the movement of waste. themselves, taking into account the geographical context or the need for specialized facilities for certain types of waste.

A single figure would be enough to close the question forever: Sardinian landfills are insufficient for the same hazardous waste produced on the island, let alone if Sardinia can even afford to import it from other regions.

The circle of poisons

The result would be compulsory hospitalization: first we get the hazardous waste to Sardinia from northern and central Italy and then, with the same trucks, we bring the Sardinian waste to the Continent. The only ones to gain would be, once again, the lords of poisons. For them, taking the poisons of half of Italy for a walk on a caravan of trucks towards the land of the strawberry tree is an endless business.