The Tuscan coast is in excellent health. For theArpatthe regional agency for environmental protection of Tuscany led by the director general Pietro Rubellini, 95% of the waters that lap our beaches are of “excellent” quality. It is the result of the Agency’s monitoring, which started in April and will continue until the end of September 2024.
The data
For 2024, there are 277 areas in Tuscany where it will be possible to swim, one more than the previous year; on these the Agency carries out measurements and samples throughout the season, analyzing two microbiological parameters: Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci, the absence or low levels of which are an indicator of hygienic-sanitary quality for the protection of the health of bathers. And based on the results of the Arpat monitoring, the Region has established the classification of these areas: before the start of each new summer season, in fact, bathing water is attributed one of the four quality classes valid throughout Europe: excellent, good, sufficient, poor. This year in Tuscany, none of the areas are in a poor class and almost all (95%) are excellent, with ten in the good class and three in the sufficient class: these are, in particular, Salivoli in Piombino, Feniglia (side Ansedonia) and the mouth of the Ansedonia canal in Orbetello.
The critical areas
Not only that: the Region has also approved, again for the 2024 bathing season, the list of 61 points where it will not be possible to swim, due to the presence of permanent bans for reasons unrelated to pollution, such as port areas and reserves naturalistic, and for health and hygiene reasons. In particular, the latter are 12 banned and around fifty, however, those in port areas: in these cases, however, no monitoring is carried out, precisely because their ban is not linked to pollution situations for which there is obligation to remediate them.
The target
The purpose of Arpat’s monitoring is to allow you to “swim in the sea” safely: hence the proposal of the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of Tuscany. «From this point of view, at least to minimize the risks to the health of bathers and the impacts on the economic activities linked to bathing, it is increasingly necessary to promote the use of temporary prohibition ordinances as a preventive measure (the so-called ordinances preventative) – he specifies – which are the most suitable tool to manage these situations of reasonable certainty of pollution with timescales that allow the risks to public health to be limited”.
Posidonia oceanica
The Agency’s work also goes in the direction of knowledge of posidonia and its important functions for the survival of Mediterranean ecosystems: it is essential, in fact, for all those who frequent our coasts and our seas, to guide correct behaviors (such as that of do not drop anchor in the middle of the prairie) and eliminate prejudices (stranded leaves are not a risk to public health), making people appreciate their beauty. According to a program agreed with the Region, 15 posidonia meadows in Tuscany were chosen, each controlled in an area of approximately three square kilometres, characterized by different environmental conditions and monitored once every three years (five meadows each year). For this reason Posidonia oceanica must be protected: Arpat’s environmental data are very useful for the Tuscany Region, called to plan the protection of the sea, tourism, the coastal strip, fishing and fish resources.
