The WTE is a «Danger to the environment, quality of life and health». This is the key reason with which the Province of Brescia has started the l‘process to revoke the integrated environmental authorization (Aia in technical jargon) and close the installations to the company that produced the “pseudo” defecation plasters by not working properly the sewage sludge, spreading 150 thousand tons on 3 thousand hectares of fields between Lombardy, Emilia, Piedmont, Veneto between 2018 and August 2019. (Read the full story here)
Authorization that had been rejected several times over the years. The revocation procedure is valid for all three plants (Quinzano d’Oglio, Calcinato, Calvisano) and has been communicated to the municipal administrations invited to evaluate whether to apply some measure of article 17 of the royal decree 1265 of 1934. Slightly ancient article but which essentially gives the mayor (at the time podestà) the possibility of “prescribing rules to be applied” when noxious vapors or liquids coming from factories or factories can cause damage to public health. If we take into account that the review judge also rejected the WTE’s request for the release from seizure of the warehouses, it is not hazardous to say that the company will hardly be able to reopen, certainly not in the short term.is. And to think that on March 29, two months before the kidnapping, the WTE itself had started the procedure for the re-examination of The Hague in the Province, which at this point becomes waste paper.
The most important concerned the non-use of calcium oxide to reduce the bacterial load contained in the sewage sludge collected by various multi-utilities (from Bolzano to Padovano, from Garda Uno to Valcamonica). Carabinieri and Procura, which availed itself of the consultancy of engineer Santo Cozzupoli, demonstrated that the processing of sludge was not based on the principle of basic hydrolysis: the calcium oxide present in the finished product must derive from that reaction and not ” from the mere addition of calcium sulphate “. The Environment sector of the Province, led by Giovan Maria Tognazzi, had noticed this. And in April 2019 he had banned the WTE from simply adding calcium sulphate, requiring it to carry out an effective waste recovery treatment, removing the pre-treatment operation from the Hague before for the Calvisano and Calcinato plants.
Furious about Broletto’s provision «Giustacchini adopted an ingenious subterfuge to bypass the production methodology functional to the hydrolysis reaction». How? With the help of some trusted employees, he commissioned Andrea Azzola of Unicalce Spa (also under investigation) to produce a mixture composed of 30-50% calcium oxide and the rest of filler, calcium carbonate and sulphate of calcium, a mixture they called “special oxide” to sidetrack controls. “Only the direct savings achieved by using non-compliant raw materials exceeded 460 thousand euros”. Giustacchini saved on the purchase of all reagents: the calcium sulphate came from demolition waste or from chemical industry by-products while the sulfuric acid was purchased from Chemicals srl and ECO 92 coming from exhausted batteries where “the contaminants contained, in particular heavy metals, were spilled directly on land “.
So the sludge was not only not worked properly, removing the bacterial load and the unbearable stench but became even more polluting. In fact, the treatments mentioned did not apply to metal and chemical pollutants, which Arpa discovered to be well beyond the limits of the law. In this case the sludge should not have become gypsum but ended up in incineration plants or in landfills. In the light of these crimes we understand the phrase of the geologist Antonio Maria Carucci: “I think about it every now and then, who knows the child who eats the cob of corn grown on the mud.” AlI expect it will play its part in the process: huge quantities of plaster were scattered on the land; not a ton per hectare as indicated by the 1992 law but from 30 to 60 tons per hectare. For this reason, in addition to Giustacchini and his associates, the owners of six contractor companies are being investigated.
June 13, 2021 | 10:06
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