TARANTO, 14 MAY – Five people are under investigation in Taranto for having released waste water from an important fish farming plant both into the sea and directly into the soil: they would have done so to save around 360 thousand euros, but they would have polluted an entire area subjected to landscape, environmental, hydrogeological and state-owned constraints and characterized by the presence of numerous mussel and clam farming facilities. To carry out the spill and escape controls – according to Coast Guard investigations – they would have used a bypass that allowed the diversion and spilling of waste water first into the sea and then directly into the ground. The five suspects received warnings for environmental pollution, adulteration and counterfeiting of food substances, illicit waste management, impediment of control and willful failure to comply with a judge’s order. According to the accusation, by discharging the industrial processing wastewater from the plant into the sea and into the soil, it would have caused the alteration of the marine ecosystem and the consequent intoxication of the fish farmed in the body of water in front. The plant had already been seized in 2019 for illegal state occupation, with the Court granting the right to use it, on the condition that the wastewater disposal process took place only with tankers. However, during the investigations it emerged that the owner of the plant and his employees evaded controls by installing, during the night, a bypass pipe which allowed the diversion and discharge of waste water first into the sea and then into the ground. “Alarming” – according to the Coast Guard – would have been the uncontrolled release into the sea and soil of bacteria such as Escherichia-coli, feed waste and animal faeces as well as chemical substances such as hypochlorites which have generated alterations to the marine ecosystem and the environment . (HANDLE).
