June 21, 2024, 11.20pm
3 min read
PALERMO – The waste alert in Sicily goes off mid-morning on a hot Friday in June, and the temperature becomes even hotter. At the entrance to the Lentini landfill, which serves around two hundred Sicilian municipalities, a sheet of paper with three lines: “Today the plant will close at 12 and until further notice”.
Waste, high tension day
It is the beginning of a very long day, spent with the specter of yet another waste emergency in a Sicily already struggling with water shortages. A day that will end with a buffer solution: an ordinance that allows waste destined for Lentini to be taken to other plants on the island. A choice which, however, will further increase the extra costs for the municipalities, which in the meantime were looking at the maneuver to approve the Ars with the hope of recovering from the expenses already incurred.
Lombardo: “Yet another shame”
The air becomes heavy when mid-morning on Friday the member of the South calls the North and the mayor of Roccalumera, Giuseppe Lombardo, gives the news: “The only waste management plant for around two hundred municipalities in Sicily closes suddenly and without warning until further notice,” says Lombardo. The Deluchian deputy then escalates his criticism against the regional government: “Yet another shame that takes place in the middle of summer, affecting half of the Sicilian municipalities.”
The letter from Sicula Trasporti
Until 2pm, only a few trucks leaving from the gates of the Coda di Volpe district plant can be seen. Vehicles that had managed to access in the morning, before the stop at the Tmb plant. The de facto closure of the Sicula Trasporti landfill, a company under judicial administration, had in the meantime been announced with a short letter from the company to the Region and, for information, to Arpa Sicilia, to the ASP of Catania and to all the contributing municipalities.
A few lines with an object that freezes the mayors of half of Sicily, primarily that of Catania Enrico Trantino: “Communication of closure of the TMB plant”. The company explains that the stop is due to the provision issued on 10 June by the Environmental Authorizations and Assessments service of the regional Department of Territory and Environment which “denies the authorization to continue the activity pending the definition of the requests for verification of subjectability away.” Translated: “The department does not give us the ok to accept and treat other waste”.
But Sicula Trasporti also refers to a provision from the investigating judge of the Catania court, and this is also why the Prosecutor’s Office also sits at the table hastily convened in the Etna capital. The company claims that it “does not share” the “perplexities” of the entities that stopped the plant’s activity but “believes it must adapt”.
Catania under special surveillance
The situation is very serious. Catania is under special surveillance in yet another waste emergency that lies ahead for Sicily. Trantino gets on the phone and in the meantime sends a message via social media to the people of Catania, inviting them to respect the collection calendar “to avoid the emergency” while waiting for a solution.
On the table of the meeting in the prefecture there is the hypothesis of a “contingent and urgent” ordinance which should be issued by the governor Renato Schifani leveraging article 191 of the Consolidated Law on the Environment. The provision would allow the conferment in derogation. In the end we opted for an ordinance that allows the waste to be transferred to other treatment centers.
Bridging solution to avert the crisis
“An extraordinary provision to allow the temporary transfer of waste, previously destined for the Lentini Tmb, to further plants on the island”, announced the Energy councilor in the evening Roberto Di Mauro. The move, however, is not easy to implement. Authorizations from the regional ARPA and the ASP of the provincial territories concerned are required: Messina, Catania, Syracuse, Ragusa and Trapani.
Di Mauro also refers to the court order: “It arrived unexpectedly, so an extraordinary act is needed immediately which we are working on and which should be defined shortly”.
Published on
June 21, 2024, 11.20pm
