Page 163 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

Tackling Environmental Crime throUgh standardized Methodologies

There remain many Regions facing emergency situations with regard to
urban waste cycle management. Once again, Sicily has requested a state of
emergency, Liguria transports its waste beyond its borders and Puglia is one
step away from having waste piled up on its streets. We are in a situation in
which a tangle of complicated regulation and, above all, the inability of short-
sighted administrators to acquire adequate structures for the treatment of
waste, has brought some regions to a continuous state of emergency.

Another significant issue regarding both environmental and economic
considerations concerns the reclamation and/or securing of contaminated
sites. With regard to some 40 sites of national interest present in our country,
data communicated by the Minister of the Environment indicate that approxi-
mately one and a half billion Euros have been spent from public funds and a
further 250 million for sites that have been declassified today. Whereas figures
in excess of 2 billion and 300 million euros are quoted for the sites where
Syndial is operating (the operator for ENI currently working on reclamation).
If we calculate the entire amount of money allocated and verify the state of the
reclamation works, compared to current regulations in force, we can confirm
that the results obtained are extremely negative. I would argue that this derives
mainly from the fact that, compared with the experiences of countries abroad
considered more environmentally advanced than Italy, greater attention is paid
to very complicated procedures, especially for contaminated sites, than to fin-
ding a solution to the problem.

Another issue regarding reclamation is how to tackle the historical conta-
mination of sites, in an attempt to definitively put an end to the past history of
these areas. Some countries even divide the historically contaminated sites from
the environmental problems that arise with serious current cases of pollution.

Money cannot continue to be spent on studies and research without ever
arriving at a solution to the problem. Moreover, judicial investigations are often
set up in relation to the system of reclamation that are at times complex, long
drawn out and difficult to conclude and which often cease to exist because of
time restraints.

Furthermore, considering the non- retroactivity for the application of law
68/2015, it would make no sense to go back in time to identify those respon-

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