Fires and illegal landfills ignored in Ardea, the case on the table of three ministers

At dawn on April 8, 2024 a dense cloud of black smoke invaded the skies of Ardea and Castelli Romani due to a large fire that broke out in an unauthorized landfill for tires and waste material in the Montagnano area of ​​Ardea. Now the case has ended up on the table of the Ministers of the Environment, the Interior and Health, with a interrogation formed by deputy Filiberto Zaratti.

“The illegal landfill stood on uncultivated land of approximately 5 thousand square metres, an area which in the past would have been owned by the owner of EcoX of Pomeziawhose hazardous and non-hazardous special waste management plant was the subject of a similar fire in 2017″, reads the question.

The enormous cloud of smoke would have generated the dispersion of a dense black cloud “causing the spread of dust and acrid odor in a vast area south of the capital, affecting the municipalities of Ardea, Pomezia, Albano Laziale, Castel Gandolfo and Marino”.

The illegal tire dump would have been the subject of complaints from citizens and local committees, who for some time through complaints had urged the authorities to intervene by also arranging for the reclamation of the area.

The Ciampino precedent

“On 29 July 2023, a large fire that broke out in the non-hazardous waste storage and transfer plant of Società Ecologica 2000, located in the municipality of Ciampino, had given rise to a similar dispersion of polluting substances, with dioxin values ​​recorded in the first 24 hours in the immediate surroundings of the site, 130 times higher than the safety thresholds”, recalls Zaratti.

“The recurring phenomenon of fires in authorized management plants and illegal waste deposits suggests the need to increase the levels of coordination and collaboration between the various authorities responsible for the prevention, monitoring, control and environmental remediation of the territories protected public health and safety”.

The requests

Zaratti asks the ministers of the environment, health and the interior “if the Ministers questioned are aware of the seriousness of the fire that broke out in an unauthorized landfill of tires and waste material in Montagnano in the municipality of Ardea, what are the immediate actions taken by the competent authorities to protect the acute effects on the population exposed to the possible emission of dioxin in the vicinity of the site of the fire, if the concentration values ​​of the various pollutants connected to the fire were detected immediately and in the following days, if and when the latest checks by the competent authorities on the presence of the landfill date back”.

Finally, he asks “if they do not consider it urgent to promote, in conjunction with the various competent authorities, an integrated strategy to implement all appropriate prevention, monitoring, control and combating the phenomenon of waste fires to protect health and safety public.”