PARCO DELLE VELE – PORTO SAN ROCCO (MUGGIA)
The story of the hazardous waste landfill within the touristic dock of Porto San Rocco (Muggia) is a rather unusual one. The local authorities, for one, hide it under a playground for children.
They named it “Parco delle Vele”, but in reality it is a landfill contaminated with 18,000 m3 of soil contaminated with arsenic, lead, copper, cadmium, mercury, hydrocarbons, Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) within a touristic dock that was sold as the most luxurious of the Adriatic.
Since 15 years, this hidden landfill and the hazardous waste it contains remains undisturbed, thanks to the guilty silence of all local public administration. Nobody must dare poke their nose in this dirty business, or in any other aspect of the traffic of hazardous waste that takes place in Trieste, for the matter. On threat of immediate repression.
This landfill’s story is an example of how the local system of corruption defends its dirty business here in Trieste. But it is also a story of civil resistance and activism. Because somebody opposes to this system, and pays the price of it to show the value of a firm struggle in the name of rights and justice.
September 2003. This is when I denounced to public opinion this camouflaged landfill, and what a tread it poses for public health. It is in the middle of an inhabited area and bathing station, after all. Yet, I was sued on ground of alleged defamation by Porto San Rocco S.p.A. (the company that owns the dock). I was then committed for trial on request of public prosecutor Federico Frezza.
While I faced criminal charges for denouncing a dangerous and illegal landfill, those responsible of the initial crime – the illegal landfill – faced no consequence. They were not even committed for trial: according to the Court, the crimes arising from pollution were time-barred. No matter how much I insisted that the crime was ongoing, since the area would remain polluted until it was reclaimed.
As for the other trial, I was cleared of the charge of defamation. With documents in one hand and witnesses on my side, I was able to prove that the landfill posed indeed a hazard. But that was all. To domestic justice, the case was closed. Those who disposed of their hazardous waste illegally were not even forced to reclaim the land. The local authorities, which had to act at least for administrative reasons (it is still an illegal landfill, afte all!) conveniently forgot the whole matter.
Once it became clear that the local authorities would do nothing about the landfill, I presented a petition to the European Parliament. And the EP accepted is: petition No. 0732/2010. The European Commission opened an investigation for the illegal disposal of hazardous waste. The EU Commission upheld my denounce, and included the landfill at Parco delle Vele / Porto San Rocco in the list of 255 hazardous sites that Italy is forced to reclaim as part of infringement procedure No. 2003/2077.
And now, in August 2013, since Italy has not complied yet the EU Commission announced that it is about to seek the EU Court of Justice’s intervention. Namely, a daily fee amounting to EUR 284,800.
This is an important result in the stand for the rule of law and legal certainty, and it all comes from a citizen who withstood a wall of illegality.
Translated from blog “Environment and Legality” by Roberto Giurastante