(Paolo Titta) It is news of last July that sees the TAR of the Lombardy Region comply with the requests of fifty-one mayors of the Lodigiano and the Pavese, following the issuing of the resolution of the Giunta Maroni, passed the 11 last September, which increased the limits of the hydrocarbons present in the sludge used in agriculture by 200.
In fact, there are thirty-one mayors of the province of Pavia who, together with twenty-six other Lodigiano colleagues, last April 6 requested the Tar to invalidate the choice of Pirellone. The thesis carried out by the municipal administrations is addressed to fertilizers produced by sewage treatment plants. The limit of the threshold would in fact passed from 50 mm / kg (decided by a sentence of the January Cassation 2017) to the current 10.000 mm / kg, too many according to this group of mayors. It was the Municipality of Lodi Vecchio, gathering adhesions from Bertonico, Brembio, Camairago, Casaletto, Castelnuovo, Casale, Castiglione, Castiraga Vidardo, Cavacurta, Cervignano, Cornegliano Laudense, Corno Giovine, Crespiatica, Fombio, Graffignana, Casalpusterlengo, Merlino , Mairago, Orio Litta, Ossago, Pieve, San Martino in Strada, Somaglia and Tavazzano, to present the request to request the suspension of the regional resolution.
"A victory for the protection of the territory, the health of the citizens of Pavia and Lodi, against limits introduced without criteria by a regional government more committed to promoting an inconsiderate use of sludge on a territory that supports the spread of 80% of the sludge produced to enter into the merit of a sustainable use of resources "reads the declaration of these Councils following the approval of the TAR.
The other side of the coin sees this limitation as a serious damage to the waste management system by the various companies involved in the ruling are throughout Lombardy. For Andrea Mariani, director of Secam, for example, this prevails "the technical and authorization impossibility to store on site beyond the limited production of 2 / 3 days in the plants present in the province, with consequent odor production and the inevitable subsequent spillage in the water bodies of the wastewater if the application was not revoked ". In fact, the withdrawal of containers by landfills has been blocked for some time now.
In addition, the managers of the regional purification sites received an urgent notice in Milan from the environmental assessor Raffaele Cattaneo, in order to draw up an intervention program also in consideration of what the latter has previously established with the new Minister for the Environment Sergio Costa. Therefore, the managers request the suspension of the operation of the sentence of the TAR, but first of all the entry into force of the Ministerial Decree on which there is already the agreement, which represents in this condition also the only provision able to solve the criticality that has come to create.
At the same time, the Councilor for Agriculture Fabio Rolfi declares that Lombardy will be able to launch a fanghi-free logo in order to signal the agri-food that it produces without using them, while at the same time blocking the incentives for use. Further provision will concern the stop to the sludge coming from other Regions (Lombardy alone disposes of the 40% of the national total). "We are not the landfill of Italy," said the Northern League, which then proves to be in complete harmony with the demands of local mayors. "We are talking about 500 thousand tonnes per year and 400 thousand tons imported from other regions, which have tighter meshes on disposal. In Lombardy, in short, a million tons of sludge is disposed of. An impactful load. Not sustainable, in numbers "concluded Rolfi himself.
This problem from mid-July has also spread to Tuscany, involving the governor Enrico Rossi, all the prefects of the Region, starting from that of Grosseto Cinzia Torraco, and especially the president of Fiora and Aquaser Emilio Landi. Having the judges canceled the indication in the resolution on the acceptance limits of hydrocarbons in soils, for the spreading of sludge or products deriving from their treatment, the managers of the Lombard injection plants to which a large part of the sewage sludge has been started for some time of the provinces of Siena and Grosseto (to name two) from the 23 July have ceased the importation of these results. It is necessary to consider here that in the area managed by Acquedotto del Fiorase alone, 15 / 20 thousand tons per year are produced, not without difficulty in disposal. "The situation for the managers of the dozens of sewage treatment plants now becomes extremely critical, with no immediate outlet for the recovery and disposal of sludge, estimated in Tuscany in over 10 thousand tons per month" he said - Giuseppe Sardu, coordinator of Confeservizi Cispel Toscana. "The Tuscan managers", Landi added, "are involved in investment projects in order to have an adequate and self-sufficient plant system in the next few years, but the provision of the Lombardy Tar risks producing its effects from the coming days with risks for the marine waters. We, for example, were already in difficulty, forced to refuse the cleaning of campsites and to calculate the storage facilities very carefully. This novelty has a huge negative impact. I do not even want to think about it ".
In the event that the operators did not find an area to dispose of the residual sludge from the purifiers, those that would disperse could be dirty waters, with immediate effects on the sea-bathing of our coasts.
So much so that among the latest proposals there is even a request to send sludge to Poland, a solution that would naturally increase the costs for the community that will suffer a price hike from the current 70 euro per ton to the potential 300-350.