They weren't expecting it. The blitz was lightning-fast and without appeal. When the order car passed the Serra Scirieddus gate, on the top of Monte Onixeddu, between Carbonia and Gonnesa, the cold dropped into the poison dump. The carabinieri of the Noe, an ecological operational unit, are not used to pleasantries. The mission was a delicate one, to verify what was really happening in one of the most environmentally risky areas of one of the most violated territories of the island. Nine o'clock in the morning has just struck when last Monday the commander of the blitz gives the first order: let's check the functioning of the spy wells under the canvas.
Without preambles
No preambles. To ascertain is whether that landfill filled with all kinds of poisons is polluting the subsoil or not, with consequent environmental disaster for all the aquifers downstream. A real bomb placed in the highest part, towards Gonnesa, with the gaze projected towards the southwestern coast. The Noe's question is a kind of shot, for those who witness the scene. The manager of the Riverso landfill , a company of the Neapolitan group owned by the Colucci family, is not yet on site, he will arrive only an hour later, when much of the blitz has already written down a first verdict.
Undercover mission
The underlay is the last stage of a landfill, which practically must prevent any leachate from reaching the subsoil. Practically, to be in a workmanlike manner, that pile of waste must be secured with the construction of a real underground safety belt with a sheathing sheet capable of making the bottom of the landfill waterproof. Under that sheet, this provides for the norm, spy wells must be made, capable of monitoring the subsoil. To be sure that the landfill does not "lose" poisons, constant and continuous checks must be made of the "undercover".
The mystery of controls
It is therefore evident that Noe's question is a jab. If by chance liquids were to come out of those spy wells, it is evident that the landfill was probably "punctured" with all the harmful consequences, starting from the water tables. When the men of the weapon order the pumps to be put into operation, they would never have expected to find themselves at a first misdeed. The pumping pumps are not positioned on the bottom of the underlay, but raised by no less than 6/7 meters with respect to the check point. The electric cable to lower them to the depths was "hidden" inside the well. A fact that not only made the Noe experts raise their antennas, but raised a first question: how many times do you check the underlay? The answer is slurred: once a week. The Carabinieri do not believe it and do not send him to say it.
Wells-spy
There are three spy wells, one upstream, one in the center and one downstream of the landfill. It starts with number three, the one downstream. They unroll the pump to reach depth. The result is chilling: there is an abundance of nauseating liquids, a sign that something serious is happening under the landfill. They move to pit two. In this case the pump fails to run. It seems to freeze 4 meters before the bottom. In reality, at that point there would be an obstruction linked to a fitting of a pipe in the subsoil on which the pump hooks up, preventing it from reaching the bottom. The operational team writes everything, without leaving out details.
The proof of liquids
The finding of well three, due to its positioning, is more than sufficient to collect the leaked "liquids" and send them to laboratory analyzes. The exchange of words between the managers who arrived at the construction site can be summarized with an epitaph for the landfill: nothing should come out from underneath. And, instead, the liquid comes out copiously. In reality, however, the real node, the most important one is precisely the spy well number two, the one positioned at the center of the landfill, in fact the point of the toxic waste heap that undergoes the greatest load and pressure, such as to be able to tear and then “potentially” break through the background sheet.
Four hours of checks
The men of the Core will leave the landfill after 4 hours of checks, with reports and samples taken. They will have to make comparisons, starting from the project levels to understand the real depths of the underlay, especially for the spy well number two. It is necessary to examine in every detail the reason for those cables coiled and hidden inside the wells , as if the checks have always been done with the eduction pumps suspended in the vacuum without ever really reaching the level of the underlay, actually sucking in air, instead of sewage. If this is confirmed, it is clear that it would be a matter of unprecedented gravity. The Carabinieri, however, before leaving did not miss the state of the ring 5 of the landfill. According to insiders, they found bags of poisons, perhaps asbestos, not closed and not covered, in total contrast with the management forecasts of the landfill.
The cards of the blitz
The blitz cards are now being examined by superiors and it cannot be excluded that the Prosecutor's Office has already been informed of the matter for the consequent measures given the gravity of the situation. The effect of the blitz, however, was not long in coming. Out of the blue, already the following day, the landfill managers would have ordered the immediate commissioning of pump two with a peremptory order: to pump as much as possible every type of liquid that was under the underground sheet of the landfill. Operation lasted several hours, apparently without prying eyes.
The day after
An operation to be done quickly, to probably prevent further checks. The result is chilling. We monitored it live, with images and videos, discovering that yesterday, for hours, the "bilge" pump was running with the release of real dark colored sewage. The pipes, as you can see from the images, have poured everything into a sort of basin for washing vehicles connected to the leachate tanks, those that concern the surface of the landfill and its interior. We wrote that the landfill was a very serious danger for the territory in an investigation by our newspaper on that pile of poisons, reporting an internal document of the Arpas geological service that had put the danger in black and white. Egidia Bruna Melis was the geologist officer in charge of exposing the risks of that landfill. The conclusion of the Arpas report hit the ground with the management of the subsoil: "There is no agreement in believing that" the runoff of such waters through the horizon below the landfill drain is not capable of altering the clay layer above " ". In practice, the Arpas had dismantled the thesis of the Riverso according to which nothing would happen underground because of that water valley.
Above a sea of water
And the geological report had been prescient: "The landfill - writes the Arpas geological department - is set in correspondence with a valley depression defined by two natural valleys passing through the north-east and south-east vertices of the landfill, and converging in an area of an impluvium, downstream of which, at an altitude of 140 meters, the presence of a small dam was mapped. The construction of the landfill has completely changed the original morphology of the territory ». In other words, the landfill was built over a sea of water. Now the Noe blitz opens a shocking gash on that hill of poisons, its management and monitoring. The rainy season is coming, the water tables, those that feed agriculture and beyond, travel underground, in direct contact with the "undercover" of the Serra Scirieddus landfill. In the valley of Monte Onixeddu, the environmental disaster is just around the corner.
