PESCARA. A 20-page resolution with nine annexes: this is how the regional council officially defined the quality of the Abruzzo sea. The bathing season begins with six non-swimming sections in which the mayors of the municipalities concerned will have to sign ordinances prohibiting swimming. Six points of sampling “failed” for water quality, out of a total of 113 along the 126 kilometers of coast, are objectively few. Furthermore, for three of these there will be an appeal test that can rehabilitate them for bathing very soon. In fact, the next analyzes are scheduled for Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th May. Overall, the results of the previous samplings of Arta Abruzzo, on which the regional council’s resolution is based, outline an improving picture compared to last year with a +0.6% of kilometers of coastline and 91 classroom monitoring points “excellent”. Eleven points are classified as good, five sufficient and six poor. The Teramo section is the best: no sampling was classified as poor, only one is sufficient, two are good and all the others are excellent.
THE RESOLUTION.
It bears the signature of Emanuele Imprudentereconfirmed vice-president of the council with responsibility also for the Environment, the resolution which makes the work of the technicians of both the ARTA and the regional Infrastructure and Environment Department and the Maritime Works Service operational.
Annually, the Region identifies the suitable and bathing waters, the waters not used for bathing and permanently prohibited, and the waters temporarily not suitable for bathing for hygienic-sanitary reasons and subject to management measures, indicating at the same time the new bathing waters or the variations both of the control points and of the territorial extension of the bathing waters.
THE RED ZONES.
This year the bathing season starts with the following areas temporarily prohibited: Pescara, area in front of via Leopardi; Rocca San Giovanni, area in front of km 484.625 of state road 16 and Vasto, Cordella seafront, monument to the bather area. However, these other three points on the coast are permanently prohibited for 2024: Ortona 350 meters south of the mouth of the Foro river; Ortona 200 meters south of the mouth of the Arielli river; San Vito Chietino 100 meters north of the mouth of the Feltrino river. For the former, i.e. the temporarily closed stretches of sea, there will be a repair examination very soon.
The monitoring program, to detect the quantity of Escherichia coli and intestinal Enterococci in marine waters, the two “sentinel” parameters, must be carried out according to a regional sampling calendar, in agreement between the Abruzzo Region and the Arta . And it consists of a sampling, to be carried out monthly, from April to September. The period between one sampling and the next cannot exceed 30 days.
THE LAKES MONITORED.
From the analyzes reported in the annexes to the resolution, a high level of water quality in the Abruzzo lakes can also be seen. The data from the samples taken on Lake Scanno reconfirm the “excellent” class in all 5 monitoring points. Lake Barrea reconfirms the “good” class for the point called “in front of Gravare” and “excellent” for the point “in front of Convento”. For the point called “in front of Colle Ciglio” there is, however, a progressive improvement which promotes it to the “sufficient” class.
THE APPEAL EVIDENCE.
The council resolution establishes that, for temporarily prohibited bathing waters, the following management measures are adopted: more intensive monitoring, with a fortnightly frequency; the identification of the causes of pollution, by the municipal administrations competent for the territory, with adequate measures to prevent, reduce or eliminate such causes, also for the purposes of reopening the bathing waters themselves. And again: the indication of the measures adopted, again by the Municipalities involved, to be reported in the bathing water profile, to reduce or eliminate any causes of pollution; the adoption by the Municipalities of specific signs, with the bathing ban notice, to prevent bathers from being exposed to pollution.
Following the activation of these measures, the bathing waters classified as “poor” quality may be reopened to bathing, following the request of the territorially competent Municipality to the Maritime Works and Marine Waters Service of the Region, with the communication of the rehabilitation measures put in place. act and the favorable outcome of two consecutive routine samplings for bacterial parameters. Instead, for waters classified as “poor” quality for five years, there is a permanent ban on bathing for the entire 2024 season. In this case there are no remedial tests: we will talk about it again in 2025. Finally, in one of the attached, you can read the long list with 32 locations on the coast where the waters are not used for bathing and are permanently prohibited: the mouths of rivers and streams and the port areas.
