«Barletta is finally starting to wake up! The Clean Air Committee’s report regarding the works carried out by the unhealthy company had the outcome announced by the reporting citizens, i.e. that they were carried out without the necessary building permit, in the absence of the SCIA (certified report of Start of Activity). The thing that leaves you even more perplexed is that from the long report signed by Eng. Lomoro and Eng. Pietanza it is clear that the illegal works carried out by BUZZI Unicem were carried out approximately two years after the Environmental Inspection Report carried out by ARPA Puglia, dated 08.22.2022 or after the report from the OAP Committee in relation to the spill and dispersion in the the air we breathe of toxic material candidly defined by the company as “flour”, which occurred in the month of July 2022. These illegal works, therefore, were carried out shortly before the request for renewal of the AIA (Integrated Environmental Authorisation) for another twelve years, the maximum time allowed by law.
In the 2022 inspection, ARPA highlighted that “the repetition of such incidents could be linked to maintenance problems or the age of the plant…” and today’s report shows that not only was the plant old but also the structure used as a raw materials warehouse (ex Turi) “was in a poor state of maintenance also due to the age of the structures”. Anything but the BUZZI UNICEM company from Casale Monferrato.
With today’s intervention by Palazzo di Città, BUZZI UNICEM must understand two things: the first is that citizens are no longer dormant and passive about what is happening around them and that the entire municipal administration, majority and opposition, interacts in favor of citizen well-being. That unhealthy company or that waste incinerator or waste-to-energy plant, whatever you prefer, is not the territory of a separate state but rather is city territory owned by BUZZI Unicem and as such must comply with the laws of the city that hosts it. Where the AIA is issued by the Province for another twelve years, we will be forced to have the waste incinerator bordering civilian homes and no one will be able to exclude that other accidents where we breathe “flour” may occur. We ask loudly for the relocation of the structure, to verify who could be the creator of the abundance of hexavalent chromium, highly carcinogenic, in the aquifers underlying the area. For this last circumstance there is a complaint at the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trani. We demand a life on a “human” scale to protect our children and our grandchildren. We, for our part, will always be attentive to what occurs and ready to report any abuse or non-compliance with the laws that could harm the health of the citizens of Barletta and of the entire BAT”.
