The question is legitimate. It is even more so if it is posed by none other than the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, the scientific technical arm of public health in Italy. A question that opens up disturbing scenarios on serious and unconfessable choices imposed on the heads of Sardinia and the Sardinians. It is no coincidence that the scientific summit of Italian health, with nine authoritative signatures at the bottom, expresses a contrary opinion, without ifs and buts, to the realization in Portovesme of a hybrid regasifier, which in theory should float but which, instead, it would be totally anchored to the mainland, that of the port of the industrial area of Sulcis.
The heavy questions
Even before going into the merits of the risks and dangers of that still to produce gas, the scientists of the Institute's Environment and Health department ask themselves a lashing question, already cutting edge: why are floating regasifiers positioned throughout Italy? in the open sea, while in Sardinia you want to attack it by force in the industrial area close to the town of Portoscuso? The question is not enough. The doctors of the Istituto Superiore recall the cases one by one: the Rovigo Porto Viro offshore regasifier 15 km from the coast, the La Spezia plant located at one end of the port about 2 km from the inhabited areas, the offshore regasifier of Piombino about 22 km from the coast.
Cross-eyed Republic
When they put pen to paper the opinion for the Ministry of Ecological Transition, they are not affected by awe, on the contrary: "The installation of the plant which provides for the presence of an FSRU unit inside the small port of Portovesme represents an anomaly with respect to to similar regasification plants already present in Italy ". In short, a "cross-eyed" Republic emerges where two weights and two measures continue to be used: in the rest of Italy the regasifiers float offshore, in the middle of the sea, in Sardinia, on the other hand, they dock in a port where, ferries loaded with passengers to and from Carloforte dock 15 times a day. As if the Moby Prince tragedy, with the collision with an oil tanker, was just a fictional drama. And it is no coincidence that the “Department of the Environment and Health” of the Institute of Health recalls the load that that tiny industrial port should bear, already subjected to a dangerous stress due to the careless survival of industrial traffic with passenger traffic. The heart of the scientific attack, however, is all about the type and results of the analyzes carried out to support that floating unit project to be docked in Portovesme. There is a common thread that the Institute openly disputes to the proponent: that gas carrier transformed into a regasifier would not settle in a "virgin" reality, but it is one of the most compromised and polluted areas in the country.
Pollution oasis
A pollution that in the evaluations of the scientific body of the State emerges as serious, not analyzed and camouflaged, as if there was a heavenly oasis of environmental well-being around it. It is not so. The Institute says it without half measures: it is not a problem of a few decimal places more or less in pollution, but it is the sum of all the polluting factors that are concentrated in a storm that is extremely dangerous for human health. They write it openly, as if to signal the paucity of attention paid to the environmental and health issues. The ISS writes: "For the purposes of the impact on air quality for the consequent health impact estimates, an overall study of how environmental conditions will change should be carried out, taking into account all the interventions that have been authorized and proposed in the 'area, evaluating the contribution of emissions from conveyed and diffused, fixed and mobile sources ».
Forgetful
As if to say: you forgot to consider that this is an industrial area declared «at high environmental risk». The scientists of the Institute do not reveal the back thoughts, but they certainly will not have rejoiced when they realized that "the document sent includes an update on the study of air quality which, however, stops at 2020, a year that is not representative of environmental concentrations due to the lockdown which reduced the functionality of many public and private, industrial and civil activities ». In the opinion opposed to the construction of the floating unit, the list of "holes" in the investigations proposed for the approval of the project is substantial: "It must be emphasized that the proposal advanced for the eco-toxicological evaluation, to be considered exhaustive, lacks an investigation referring to the soil matrix, moreover, no genotoxicity test is inserted in the battery for marine waters, which could, on the other hand, provide useful information and alert for human health ».
Salmonella wanted
It is not enough and they add: "Finally, a single sample cannot be sufficient for the marine water sector and the proposal to apply only the" Salmonella "test for the following years is too simplistic to have a picture that is able to indicate alarm variations for the whole system ». In practice, not only did they not envisage the chemical-physical examination of the soil, but to “sample” the environmental quality in the future they would have relied only on the examination of «salmonella». It is when environmental conditions and risks to human health are discussed that the position becomes severe and without appeal: "Finally, the existing carcinogenic risk has been calculated" relative to various values, those of atmospheric "particulates" and Benzene, and others are missing, and both data "already exceed the incremental risk reference value for single carcinogenic substances and consequently also the cumulative one".
Respiratory risk
The summary is very hard: "The work in question will lead to an increase in emissions for pollutants that also have an effect on the pathologies of the respiratory system". There is more in the opinion of the scientific body: "overall the assessments of emissions and impacts on health are, in some respects, underestimated compared to what is actually expected in the area". Finally, the sentence: "It is believed that the proposed project is not suitable for this territory as it is capable of determining an impact, in particular on the air matrix, which is added to that already present and foreseen with the reactivation of other sources of industrial emission . This situation determines an additional contribution to the environmental concentrations of pollutants in the air, which is reflected in an increase in exposure for the resident population, against which the possibility of non-negligible health risks arises, especially considering that this population presents already some fragility due to health effects possibly associated with the pollutants emitted by the activities related to the proposed project ». The final device is a condemnation: "The project presented is not acceptable for the purposes of protecting the health of the population residing in the area".
"Arctic" Odyssey
The Odyssey of the Golar Arctic is not over. The rain of contrary opinions that rages at the Ministry of Ecological Transition should lead everyone to pursue more realistic ways for a serious energy rebalancing for Sardinia. The Department of Urban Planning of the Region in no uncertain terms declares: "From the urban planning point of view, the intervention is not compliant as it is not foreseen in the municipal planning instruments". But that's not all. Once again, the seabed stops the regasification terminal from entering the port. Behind the scenes, everyone knows that if you ever managed to start work on the first lot, which had been stopped for seven years, it would never be enough to get the gas ship into port. The second lot, already planned, but not financed, foresees, in fact, a further excavation of 650 thousand cubic meters of seabed. More than the first batch. At least 22 million euros would be needed which, however, no one has ever allocated.
Aground ended
And that that port is totally inadequate is revealed by a document that has ended up in our hands: “Portovesme maneuver simulations”. Tests carried out by Cetena SpA on behalf of Technip Energies. The tests on the maneuvers of entry and exit from the port, according to the varying marine weather conditions typical of the area, by a floating unit and two gas carriers, carried out from 9 to 11 May last, are a disaster: "The tugboat of stern has no space to operate safely. It is not possible to position the two ships in such a way as to align the collectors ». The other simulation is much worse: «The ship passes at the entrance at about 6.5 knots to counteract the action of the wind, which hinders the transit causing the ship to drift towards the shallows. The bow of the ship passes close to the floating unit during the evolution and runs aground on the embankment ». Aground, in fact.
