Veneto, basin against floods, judges stop the project. The Region: «We will do it again»

VENICE – The start of the procurement procedure was scheduled for July, however the environmental impact assessment will have to start all over again. With a sentence filed yesterday, the Superior Court of Public Waters accepted the appeal of the Vicenza Municipalities of Sandrigo, Breganze and Montecchio Precalcino against the Region and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, regarding the project of the reservoir on the Astico torrent from 4, 6 million cubic meters and 35.5 million euros. This is one of the 24 works envisaged by the “Plan of actions and interventions to mitigate hydraulic and geological risk”, better known as “Casarin-D’Alpaos” or “Marshall”, to quote the expression dear to governor Luca Zaia , which during the bad weather emergency of recent days has relaunched the need for another billion to make the Veneto completely safe.

CRITICALITIES
The state funds for this basin have already been allocated, according to the latest regional update, estimating the approval phase of the project at 95%, to the point that the expropriations began in April. An operation started in 2015, but always contested by the activists of the Coordination for the protection of the territory of Breganze and the Laboratorio Astico Tesina of Sandrigo: «We reiterate the numerous critical issues of this project, from the risks of pollution of the aquifer to the presence of a former MSW landfill inside the design area, from the use of the jet-grouting technique (injection of cement into the ground, ed.) with the possible use of mixtures containing Pfas, to the unfavorable cost-benefit ratio compared to other solutions”. Criticisms shared by the mayors of the three municipalities involved, starting with Giuliano Stivan, former mayor of Sandrigo and in the past local secretary of the League, who in 2021 had defined the work as “a hydraulic blasphemy” in the inspection with the regional councilor Cristina Guarda ( Green Europe), which now applauds the verdict arrived from Rome: «From the Superior Court of Public Waters a stop to the project process. Now, instead of this highly impactful work with little benefit, let’s invest in the alternative strategies already available to the Region.”

THE MOTIVATIONS
In the 20 pages of the reasons, which conclude with the Region being condemned to pay 4,000 euros in court costs, the judges illustrate the procedural problem that forced the annulment of the contested provision. In essence, “the extension of the road also entailed the renewal of the landscape authorisation”, which had expired after five years, without however “the Services Conference having been convened”. Palazzo Balbi will probably give up on appealing, preferring to restart the environmental impact assessment procedure, given that the same sentence cancels the flawed act but leaves “the further administrative activity unaffected”. Regional councilor Gianpaolo Bottacin (Lega) comments: «It is clear that the municipalities did not win on the merits, but on a procedural level, so I believe that the work will still be done, even if with a delay. We rely on the University of Padua and in the Astico basin there are urgent works capable of retaining at least 14 million cubic meters of water: 4.6 in Breganze, 2.3 in Torri di Quartesolo and 7 in Meda di Velo” . The latter is the municipality in which last week the record of 229 millimeters of precipitation in 24 hours was recorded, so much so that, according to ANBI findings, the flow rate of the Astico stream soared from 3.74 to 110 cubic metres. per second.

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