The code name, "Area 5", is as disturbing as the very secret and elusive "Area 51", the American military base located in the distant Nevada desert. In this case, however, the area prohibited by gates and fences worn out by time stands out close to the eastern shore of the civil and industrial body of water of Portovesme, deep in Sulcis. To find it you have to follow the black road of coal and its dust, those produced by the Enel power plant in Portoscuso, dedicated to Grazia Deledda with impunity.
Poisons in the wind
Here, however, there are no "Reeds in the Wind", but dust of all kinds that still permeates the air beaten by the "regular" mistral. That strip of land is the historical-geological stratigraphy of the industrialization of Sulcis. They began in 1961 to fill it with coal waste, dust and all kinds of environmental "curses". The Sardinian Carboniferous Mining Company had intended it «for the disposal of waste from its thermoelectric power plant. An area with a varied morphology, with natural depressions, which even then seemed like the "natural" place to cram all the "black and gray" of that electricity factory.
State current
With the nationalization of the "current" Enel continued its filling work. They wanted to transform it into flat land, using slag and various waste. Until 1989 the dumping never stopped. Since 1990, with the advent of the declaration of an "area at high risk of environmental crisis", Enel began the external export of that waste. In theory, according to official reports, the Electricity Authority would have removed as many as 600 thousand tons of stored material from that area. In March 2003 the perimeter of the "high risk" area arrived. The "Grazia Deledda" power station and "Area 5" ended up in it with full rights. In 2012, again with very serious delays, with the environment and with history, further sampling was started in that area "predestined" for pollution.
Infinite waste
The results were irrefutable: " these insights allowed the volume present underground to be estimated at 245,000 cubic metres ". Varied waste thicknesses, between 1.7 and 5 meters from the ground level, including 35,000 cubic meters detected below the aquifer level. For the Ministry of the Environment there was no room for discussion: it is "an active source of contamination" . In the "environmental" buildings of Rome there were no doubts: Enel " should have presented" an overall project for the permanent safety of the entire area, the implementation of which could be implemented in functional lots, privileging those territorial areas which, on the based on the information already acquired, present the greatest environmental criticality" » . With a series of "stunts" the electricity company would therefore have wanted to treat that "waste" as mere " landfill ".
“Four sous”
In short, he wanted to get rid of the problem with "a few pennies" and without the precautions that the law imposed. He tried in every way to "escape" the burden of reclamation, as often happens in this no man's land. It even went so far as to argue that « the ash and landfill material present in Area 5 would constitute one with the soil, making selective removal technically impossible, therefore having to apply the “soil” discipline ».
Geological find
In short, according to Enel, that "waste" has been there for so long (because it has never removed it before) that it would have transformed as if by a "miracle" into a geological "find", which cannot be separated. from the ground. Obviously no one believed that very imaginative thesis. The Sardinian Region first, with the competent Service of the Department of the Environment: « The materials present in Area 5 are made up of a heterogeneous mixture of coal ash and mine tailings, which composes a specific stratigraphic horizon with respect to the geological characteristics and natural stratigraphic characteristics of the soil on the site ".
Waste, I don't carry over
In practice, never, ever, could that "waste" pass as " landfill ". The Ministry of the Environment, however, at the end of the day, decides on 2 October 2020: Area 5 is to be entirely subject to the waste regime and the intervention must be included within the safety provisions envisaged for landfills . Enel's controversial and in many ways confusing project was rejected. It is here that the electricity company, privatized for the "holy" cause of state finance, chooses the strategy of "buying time".
The street of the Courts
He prefers to try the Courts route rather than begin the reclamation of that infinite expanse of 14 hectares of waste confined to the seashore, attached to the Portovesme power plant. In the end, however, it went badly for him, albeit 21 years after the inclusion of that Area 5 in the "headquarters" of Sulcis pollution. After having "damnedly" lost at the Sardinia TAR, on 20 July 2023, with a strong and clear condemnation, yesterday it was the Council of State, the last level of administrative justice, which ruled: these are waste, there is no escape for any reason reason for the regulations on the reclamation of industrial sites. It wasn't enough for him to change lawyers during the course of the work and they even go so far as to evoke Europe and the Court of Justice.
Unfounded appeal
The magistrates of the last appeal, Vincenzo Neri, President, Francesco Gambato Spisani, Giuseppe Rotondo, Michele Conforti, Councilors and Luigi Furno, Extending Councilor, use the severity necessary to censure Enel's motivations which are most often defined as totally unfounded: « From the reported regulatory framework it emerges that, in the event that the polluting sources consist of stored waste, the safety measures must be placed within the framework of the broader authorization regime referred to in Title IV envisaged for waste landfills ". In the dispositif of the sentence, sacrosanct principles emerge that are decisive for all cases of industrial pollution: " the rules must be interpreted in the sense of excluding the possibility of permanent safety measures in the event that the polluting sources consist of stored waste " .
Escape from reclamation
Relevant passages, considering the multiple attempts to pass off the thesis that the "remediation" is carried out by covering the polluted areas "with solar panels", as Enel itself had proposed at the Portovesme site. A strategy that is irresponsibly taking place in Macchiareddu, Ottana and Porto Torres, just to mention the most striking cases. Enel's attempt to invoke European Justice was also rejected by the sender. The Judges write: " projects for which a significant environmental impact is expected, due to their nature, size or location, must be subjected to an impact assessment before authorization is granted ".
Pay bills and expenses
Enel's request to submit the Sulcis case to the Court of Justice is "ridiculed" by the Council of State: « the interpretation of Union law invoked by the appellant is imposed in the case in question with such obviousness that it does not leave leave no reasonable doubt ." In other words, forget about it, it's not worth it for you to invoke Europe. Appeal rejected soundly. The Council of State, in a more unique than rare case, also condemns them to pay the legal costs. The Region's lawyers, the Attorney General Mattia Pani and his colleague Giovanni Parisi, received the success. A decisive sentence to combat the "crafty" people of land reclamation projects that were never carried out everywhere.