They call them "polygons", like the military ones. Here, however, they don't shoot, they dig. They've been doing it for years, at least sixteen, according to Macchiareddu's poison maps. In this document, cataloged in the Ministry of the Environment as table 8, a variant project for the reclamation of Island 5, there is everything and more. There is history, secrets and mysteries enclosed in that handkerchief of 4 hectares of unhealthy land, armored as if there were no tomorrow inside the Alcatraz wall, the one that surrounds the chlor-soda petrochemical plant, the last outpost of the Eni in Sardinia. According to internal reports from the state body, the cleanup should have ended with the end of the second year of the pandemic. However, there is no trace in the official papers of the closure of the construction site, forbidden to prying eyes. The last acts, those of the variant in progress, are, however, the most embarrassing. The timing is that of a surreal exchange of letters between the Ministry of the Environment and the top management of ENI. At stake is what is happening inside the perimeter of the Macchiareddu plant.

State purifiers

The state purveyors want to close the game as soon as possible. They report "anomalies" in the ground to the Rome offices, with materials to be subjected to further reclamation. It is a pity that they noticed it at the end of the reclamation, when they declared that they had completed 93% of the activities planned to return those lands to a better life. The department in charge is not ready to close the game of the "new pollution" as a "modest" deviation from the original reclamation project. It is for this reason that he "orders" a real "variant" to be sanctioned with official approval, just to leave a trace of what is happening inside the poison concentration camp. The documents presented in November 2021, however, are a minefield, where every statement about the new "discoveries" of poisons blows up what is written in the reclamation project approved with all the trappings, first, provisionally, in 2016 and then, definitively, in April 2019.

The "yellow" in the map

In the map that we publish, table 8, yellow rages. The legend reads: polygons with the presence of buried waste. The first confirmation is on the surface: it goes from the 27,000 square meters of the reclamation approved in 2019 to the 40,000 proposed for the variant in progress at the end of 2021. This significant increase would be enough to open a chapter on the "truthfulness" of the analyzes carried out at the basis of the reclamation project submitted for approval by the Ministry of the Environment. But there is more to the map we are publishing: all the polygons investigated and marked in yellow indicate the type of sampling performed in that area in 2006, 2008 and 2009. 90% of those areas had been subjected to surveys, supplementary exploratory surveys, short and deep surveys.

280 empty excavations

Most of the checks appear to have been made in the recalled years with excavations of depths varying from 4.5 meters up to 50 meters. It is the details of those surveys, in an area of 47,000 square meters, that leave you speechless: in 2006 drillings were carried out for 24 geognostic surveys, in 2008 147 exploratory excavations and in 2009 supplementary surveys for mapping the waste with drillings for 53 geognostic surveys, as well as 57 exploratory excavations. In practice 281 between excavations and surveys. However, no one had noticed that pollution discovered only at the end of 2020, by chance. The bewilderment is mitigated by the official words reported in the variant project: "The most relevant aspect that emerges during the execution phase of the reclamation, including the investigations described above - and not envisaged by the original Reclamation Plan - was the discovery, among the buried waste, fragments of materials containing asbestos and soil mixed with these fragments".

5,000 tons

Not trivialities, but the beauty of 5,000 tons of land full of asbestos. The story of the "Caporetto" of the environmental "characterization" is marked by the variant project presented by Eni in amnesty: «During these activities, samples of soil potentially reusable for the embankments were taken (according to the forecasts of the approved Reclamation Plan ), which were subjected to analyzes to verify the effective possibility of recovery. Out of 74 samples subjected to analysis (verification of compliance with the limit values) 15 resulted compliant with the limits mentioned (20%), while n. 59 were non-compliant (80%)». In short, a blunder, without ifs and buts. Is it an unjustifiable error in the analysis plan at the basis of the remediation project? We are certainly faced with a sequence of facts that all need to be explained, not only in terms of timing, but also in the executive methods. A costly "crime". According to the data available to us, for the reclamation of that area, minimal but exemplifying with respect to the entire Eni sector and Macchiareddu, Eni Rewind had planned to spend the beauty of 20.6 million euros for just 47,000 meters paintings. The error, if you want to define it that way, led to a frightening increase in costs, with a 40% increase, reaching a figure of 32.75 million euros. Not a simple variant, but a real bloodletting. What does not add up, however, is a detail of no small importance. In those same areas, with analyzes that "skipped" asbestos, unspeakable substances were found, capable of "laying down" anyone forever. In the various reclamation "polygons", those of Island 5, impressive values were ascertained on various extremely dangerous substances: in some coring quadrants 2700 milligrams of hydrocarbons C were ascertained per kilogram, against a legal value of 250, in order not to talk about Mercury, with values of 70 milligrams against the 5 provided by the environmental decree.

Coastal Deposit

From this chapter to the side of the "Coastal Deposit" the step is short. Also in this case, the variant proposed by Eni is the landing place for attempting to remedy a situation which in the field is much more disturbing than the original papers. In this game, however, the area becomes very large. We are at the crossroads between the SS.195 towards Pula and the main route of Macchiareddu, in line with the pier intersected on the industrial roundabout, the one devastated by the stench of the nearby Cacip waste platform. Yet another minefield in the industrial area. The orange net is the eloquent sign of the areas in check of the poisons. In the endless waste of time that marked and mark the land reclamation game close to the Santa Gilla salt pans, the approval of the variant proposed by ENI is still a matter on the high seas. The last step in the proceedings is a videoconference. The report is dated November 14th. The launch of the variant, with many prescriptions, should have been imminent, even if the project, the one originally approved, dates back to 31 August 2017. The clash in the records, however, is eloquent. The extension of time this time is marked by the request to move the groundwater treatment plant with respect to the original project. Eni doesn't agree: the prescriptions are not acceptable. He disputes them at the root, starting from the analyzes that the Ministry would like to impose for the limits on discharge. They even go so far as to declare, "It's just not possible to monitor the output of the groundwater treatment plant for each inflow." The clash is also over PAHs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Eni claims that those values must be excluded from monitoring. The Ministry postpones. On land reclamation, a stone's throw from the salt pans, it is still time for mysteries, forgetfulness and postponements. There is no hurry for the pollution of Macchiareddu and its surroundings.

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