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Crotone

Our environmental interventions involving land and groundwater of former industrial areas and landfills.

A long and complex process towards remediation

The industrial history of the Crotone site began in the 1930s with the productions by the companies Pertusola Sud (ex Pertusola area) and Ammonia Meridionale (ex Fosfotec and ex Agricoltura areas), the latter of which was subsequently transferred to Montecatini and then merged into Montedison in 1966. In the early 1990s, following the crisis of the chemical sector, the activities were transferred to Eni, then a state-owned company: the Pertusola assets as a result of the Interministerial Committee for Industrial Policy’s decision (1990), while those of Agriculture and Fosfotec following the Enimont operation.

Eni, through Enichem (today Eni Rewind), between 1991 and 1999 managed the closure of the production plants. Afterwards, Eni initiated the safety and remediation interventions within the site that was later appointed as part of the Crotone-Cassano-Cerchiara Site of National Priority. Its perimeter also includes the former Pertusola and Fosfotec seafront landfills.

In June 2023, as part of the procedure pursuant to article 244 of the Italian Consolidated Environmental Act for the areas of former Montedison origin, an ordinance of the Province of Crotone identified Edison as approximately 95% responsible for the contamination of the ex Agricoltura, Fosfotec and Sasol areas, and as 100% responsible for the ex Fosfotec landfill. Eni Rewind has been held responsible only for the marginal residual share, due to the years that passed since the establishment of Enimont in 1989 and the decommissioning of the former Montedison plants, which for the main part occurred before 1992.

Our activities in Crotone

In Crotone, Eni Rewind, despite not having carried out the industrial activities that determined the environmental state of the site, in its capacity as owner of the areas transferred to the company from Montedison and Pertusola Sud, has begun the implementation of safety measures and remediation interventions with the construction of a hydraulic barrier which ensures contamination containment within the premises’ perimeter. As part of the approved groundwater remediation project, Eni Rewind has increasingly expanded the hydraulic barrier, now equipped with 67 pumping wells, including those recently built in the former Sasol area following the Province ordinance and the specific decree. The pumped water, as required by the 2010 decree and its subsequent 2015 variant, is sent for treatment to the public plant of the Regional Consortium for the Development of Productive Activities (CORAP), currently in compulsory administrative liquidation.
For the remediation of the site’s soil, Eni Rewind continues in carrying out the interventions that can be executed in compliance with the approved projects. In particular, the topsoil removal activities, authorised with the excerpt decree of 2017, on part of the former Agricoltura and former Pertusola areas were completed, as well as the creation of breakwaters to protect the remediation site areas from any meteorological or marine events, as required by the POB Phase 1 authorised in 2019. With respect to the removal of the two seafront former landfills and the completion of the interventions on the internal areas within the site, which are object of the Operative remediation project Phase 2 approved by decree in 2020, around 1 million tonnes of non-hazardous and hazardous waste, including TENORM and TENORM with asbestos, will be excavated and disposed of. Furthermore, the Phase 2 Project foresees the application of in situ Enhanced Natural Attenuation (ENA) and Soil Mixing technologies to reduce groundwater contamination. Eni Rewind is currently implementing the monitoring activities envisaged by this project and has carried out those preparatory to the excavations, including the preliminary deposit for non-TENORM materials.

To start the excavations, expected by the cronoprogramme at the end of 2024, Eni Rewind has repeatedly communicated and officialised to the authorities the absence, in Italy and abroad, of landfills suitable for receiving the volumes and types of waste (hazardous and with TENORM) resulting from environmental interventions. According to the research carried out and presented by the company, the only landfill capable of receiving this type of waste is the Sovreco one in Crotone. However, the decree issued in March 2020 implemented the requirement of the 2019 Regional Single Authorising Provision (PAUR) which imposes a veto on the use of landfills in Calabria. The evidence of the plants deficiency carried out by Eni Rewind was further documented and confirmed by ISPRA in May 2024, during the ministerial investigation aimed at making the Phase 2 remediation project executable. The procedure ended with the approval by the ministry, in August 2024, of the project extract for the excavation and disposal of materials in the ex Pertusola and ex Agricoltura areas.

The decree regarding the Phase 2 remediation project extract instructs the Calabria Region to remove the constraint imposed by the PAUR. In view of the start of the procedure by the Calabria Region, it will be possible, by the end of the year, to begin the removal in those areas of materials not containing TENORM or TENORM with asbestos, equal to about 70% of the total volume of waste present on the site, by delivering hazardous material to the Sovreco landfill located in the Crotone area, the only one found to be suitable, and non-hazardous waste to other landfills located outside the region. The excavation of the former Fosfotec landfill – which contains TENORM and TENORM with asbestos – requires further investigations that are to be completed within the process initiated by the Prefecture of Crotone.

By October 2024 Eni Rewind will present a variant to the remediation Project Phase 2, as required by the 2020 decree, to apply in the internal areas the in situ Enhanced Natural Attenuation and Soil Mixing technologies, already tested with positive results in pilot plants. 
Following the ordinance issued by the Province of Crotone in 2023 regarding the responsibility for the contamination in the ex Agricoltura and Fosfotec areas, Edison has given to Eni Rewind mandate for implementing the interventions. Lastly, as regards to the ex Sasol area, Eni Rewind and Edison have already started the emergency safety measures with the activation of the barrier wells and have submitted the groundwater operative remediation project to the authorities.