Brescia, illicit leachate management: landfill seized

Brescia, illicit leachate management: landfill seized.

The Forestry Carabinieri of the Vobarno station are currently implementing an order issued by the GIP of the Court of Brescia with which the seizure of an entire authorized landfill located in the Municipality of Odolo (BS), which occupies an area of ​​over 15 hectares, as well as the leachate collection and treatment plant placed at its service.

The landfill, opened in 1988 for the disposal of waste produced by the various steelworks present in the Odolese area, it hosts more than two million tons of waste with which the valley has been completely filled in which the stream called Rio Vergomasco flowed, of which only a short stretch of about 300 meters long remains.

Based on what emerged from the investigations carried out by the soldiers of the Vobarno Forest Carabinieri Station, coordinated by the Deputy Public Prosecutor Dr. Donato Greco, the consortium company that has managed the disposal site since 2005 did not comply with the provisions contained in the administrative provision authorizing its operation, thus causing pollution of the waters and sediments of the Rio Vergomasco, where the presence of lead, zinc and cadmium was detected in excess of the contamination threshold set by law.

The leachate treatment plant - which the company should have sized so as to guarantee the purification of the run-off water from the entire disposal site, therefore including the portion built before its takeover - does not in fact have sufficient capacity to collect all the wastewater produced by the landfill, a part of which is therefore illegally poured into the stream via two unauthorized discharge pipes.

That's why the sole director of the company, for which administrative procedures aimed at environmental remediation and restoration have already been initiated, he is under investigation for the crimes of aggravated environmental pollution and unauthorized discharge of industrial waste water containing dangerous substances, for whom - if the accusatory hypothesis is confirmed - he risks prison from two to six years and a fine of up to 100.000 euros.