The landfill in the Puro Vecchio district on Trani-Andria did not cause an environmental disaster, and those famous fumes that came out like geysers were nothing other than a phenomenon caused by the pumping of the leachate, without any risk of the landfill exploding. This is what we read in the reasons given by the Criminal Court of Trani, in collegial composition, in the sentence filed in recent days following the trial on the Puro Vecchio landfill (closed since 2014). On February 1st the Court acquitted all the defendants including administrators, managers and municipal and regional officials, and the former mayors Giuseppe Tarantini and Luigi Riserbato. All the accusatory hypotheses of the public prosecutor have been dismantled, with which sentences of one to three years had been requested for environmental disaster, omission in official acts, unauthorized emissions into the atmosphere, participation in disturbed freedom of auctions, aggravated corruption and continued management of waste in the absence of the Integrated Environmental Authorisation. According to the judges, the facts do not exist or have not been committed. As for the alleged air pollution, we read in the reasons, “the data offered by the technical consultant of the Prosecutor’s Office regarding the quantity of emissions is overestimated”. For the disputed pollution of soil, subsoil and aquifer “the possibility of an environmental disaster must be excluded”, we read. The leakage of leachate would have been due to a failure due to natural causes of a portion of the wall at a depth of 17 metres. The latter phenomenon, later remedied with Amiu’s safety intervention, would not have led to pollution and even less to an environmental disaster “due to its spatial and temporal limitation, as well as the total absence of evidence”. Finally, the alleged risk of explosion of the landfill due to the failure to build a biogas collection plant, an accusation that arose following the famous fumes that escaped from underground. To clarify the matter, the judges observed, there is the report by the consultant Tricarico: “How does the gas bubbling in the liquid come out? It simply vents.” For the college “the geyser was therefore caused by the pumping of the leachate and not by the very high pressure of the biogas”. Therefore no risk of landfill explosion.
