05 June 2024, 05:02
4 min read
CATANIA – Rivers of money, irregular authorizations and ‘connivance’ between entrepreneurs and bureaucrats of the Region. The indictment of the Catania Prosecutor’s Office passes, in the maxi investigation into waste a few days ago, from the landfill located between Motta Sant’Anastasia and Misterbianco. At stake are “phantom” permits and waste of all kinds, abandoned “without checks”.
Refusals, the investigation and the indictment
A powerful investigation spanning almost 15 years of authorizations, complex procedures that pass from the highest levels of the Region and who would have kept alive what appears, from the notices delivered to 34 investigated by Prosecutor Fabio Regololike a substantially illegal landfill.
The Prosecutor’s Office found discrepancies in almost all bureaucratic steps, claiming the existence of omissions by regional managers which would have endorsed the shortcomings of the large Misterbianco landfill, managed by the Proto family. But the notices served concern the initial phase of a proceedingthe suspects will have the opportunity to make their reasons known and it is too early to reach hasty conclusions.
The “connivance” hypothesis
The large Etna landfill would have been managed by the Proto family with the “connivance” of Gianfranco Cannova, official of the regional Department of Territory and Environment and Rup of Aia proceedings and Vincenzo Sansonemanager of the 2 Vas/Via service and of the regional Environment department
The plant in the Tiritì district would have been “without a valid authorization provision for the operation of a landfill”, with a long list of alleged violations of laws and authorizations. Sansone and Cannova would have allowed Proto to enter the waste landfill non-compatible, i.e. “liquids, aqueous sludges, mixtures of oils and greases, tires and end-of-life vehicles”.
All types of waste would have been deposited in the landfill, excluding only the “dangerous” ones, without this being the case the testing procedure was concluded, without an opinion of conformity of the project. The waste dumping activity apparently took place irregularly from the first moment, without the necessary authorizations and would have continued, even after the Hague deadline in 2011, allowing, for example, to collect more than 15 million euros with the 200 thousand tons of rubbish deposited in less than a year between 2012 and 2013.
Omissions of public officials
The officials did not detect numerous “planning and management” deficiencies, there are pages and pages of alleged violations contested by magistrates, from the sizing of the drainage network to the individual functional and construction characteristics.
The managers would not have monitored the production of leachate, violating the laws and not intervening during malfunctions.
The investigators’ complaints also concern the phase following the closure of the Tiritì landfill, when “post-operational” management has begun. Antonino Rotellamanager of service 8 and responsible for Aia e Issue Francesco Lombardoofficial of the plant authorization and waste management service, “in moral competition” with Salvatore Cocinamanager of the regional Water and Waste department until 2020, would have authorized the project to close the landfill “in violation of the law, omitting the necessary checks on the stability of the landfill, the disposal of rainwater, and the assessment of the water table”.
The “disappeared” aquifer
Under the landfill, 20 meters deep, there would be an aquifer, as confirmed by the prosecutor’s consultant, but reading the heads of investigation it seems like a phantom layer. The magistrates dispute that she disappeared from the plans, “artfully placing 10 piezometers at an insufficient depth”.
The complaints about the pre-treatment plant
The waste pre-treatment plant would not comply with the law, the waste would have been “treated illegally with the connivance” of public officials Cannova, Sansone, Sergio Gelardiformer director of Territory and Environment and Christmas Zuccarellomanager of service 1 of the Land and Environment department.
A mandatory plant, the waste pre-treatment plant, but the project would have lacked a geological, hydrogeological map, indication of the sources, flood zones and Cannova would have allowed Proto to dispose of rubbish even with the plant not in operation.
The list of complaints against regional managers is very long.
Similar protests also occurred in the management of the Avalanche d’Inverno landfill, where “agrochemical waste, sludge containing adhesives and sealants, boiler cleaning sludge, tyres, combustible waste, waste produced by the tempering of vitrified waste and waste intended for recycling” would have been deposited.
The case of the particle
The judiciary gives voice, in the protests, to one of the historic battles of the No-landfill committee of Motta Sant’Anastasia, the one against the occupation, by the landfill managers, of “particle 131, subject to hydrogeological restrictions”. A phantom particle, of which there is no trace in the descriptive report attached to the Hague. The waste would have been abandoned without an executive project and without approval of the financial plan.
The violation of distances from inhabited centers
Despite the contrary opinions of the mayor of Motta Sant’Anastasia, the landfill continued to accumulate waste, although “it could not have received any authorization”, being located less than 3 kilometers from the town centre. For this reason the magistrates have created a specific dispute, which involves regional officials and entrepreneurs, from Cocina to Proto.
Rotella and Lombardo would have declared the conformity of the system “to the current urban planning instrument of the Municipality of Motta Sant’Anastasia”, would have allowed the entry of waste not previously treated, as required by law. The regional officials also allegedly failed to check the integrity of the waterproofing, the sizing of the pumps and the storage system.
Also in this case, pages and pages of objections raised by the magistrates, so much so that the suspects would also have “misled” theformer president of the Rosario Crocetta Regionwhich would have ordered the transfer to the “illegal” landfill, derogating the farmyard and authorizing the entry of more than a thousand tons of waste per day.
Waste, the investigation and the names of all those under investigation
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Published on
05 June 2024, 05:02
