Environment: Green Schooner, a point polluted every 54 kilometers of coastline. Map and data – The Republic

Rome – Every 54 km of Italian coastline is a polluted point. It says Green Schooner 2016 , the historic summer campaign Legambiente , realized with the support of the Consortium of waste oils obligatory (Coou) and technical partners Nau and Novamont, whose results were presented today in Rome. Of the 265 locations monitored by the mobile laboratory, one every 28 kilometers of coastline, 52% were polluted or heavily polluted . The 88% of these critical issues is at the mouths of rivers, ditches, waterways or drains, which are the main vehicles by fecal bacteria pollution in the sea, where there is a “greater risk of contamination.” More than half are in close proximity to beaches and factories and then frequented by bathers. The parameters investigated are microbiological (intestinal enterococci, Escherichia coli), and are considered “polluted” the results that exceed the limits prescribed by the regulations on existing bathing waters in Italy (Decree No. 116/2008 and Decree of the Ministry of Health of 30 March 2010) and “heavily polluted” those that exceed more than double these values.

it positively distinguish the Sardinia and Apulia , with few issues found only at the mouths of rivers or channels. While in the northern Adriatic the best situation is recorded in Veneto . The most critical situations are found, instead, in the Brands and Abruzzo , regions also penalized by the high number of waterways, canals and ditches that flow into the sea, and Calabria .

There purifiers . According to Legambiente, 25% of the population is not served by a sewage treatment plant. “Despite the passage of 11 years by the deadlines set by the European Directive on sewage – he said Giorgio Zampetti , scientific director of Legambiente – Italy is still very strong late. About 25% of the population is not covered by adequate sewage treatment facilities, and a third of the urban areas nationwide is involved by measures of the European Commission. on our country already weigh two convictions and a third infringement procedure. Besides the environmental costs, there are also cheap to load the community: from 2016, our country will have to pay 480 million euro a year, until the completion of the upgrading operations. “

L ‘ chronic pollution . If the edition 2016 of monitoring more than half of the points was polluted, 1 of 5 suffer from “chronic pollution”, because from 2010 to today is a result outside the limits of the law for at least 5 times. Of these, 94% correspond to the mouths of rivers, streams, drains and canals. All coastal regions have at least one point “chronically ill”, but in some the situation is particularly relevant, with at least 5 points championships that are now polluted by years (Marche, Liguria, Lazio, Campania and Calabria).

the obligation to display signs . Between the mouths of rivers, ditches and channels monitored by Legambiente this summer, 1 out of 3 is not sampled by the competent authority because they are places not at the bathing water according to the cost profiles drawn up early in the season by regions and municipalities. Often, however, they are frequented by bathers because there are no signs of bathing ban, which should provide the municipalities: absent in 74% of visited points by Green Schooner technicians. Even worse the data on the presence of the information boards at the beach, which are designed to disclose to the public the quality of the sea class (based on the average of the levies in the last four years), the data of the latest analysis and any beach criticality same. According to regulations, the coastal municipalities are obliged to include the advice now for two years. But the engineers at Green Schooner have seen them only in 5% of cases.

Landfills in the sea . Legambiente also highlights the pollution from waste coming from rivers, the sea and by land and common to all the 265 places surveyed by Green Schooner. Only in 14% of these it was not found garbage, that very often, instead, accumulates into real dumps in the sand. To become the main protagonist is plastic but there are wastes arising from inefficient purification; the mouths of rivers and channels bring with them not only bacteria but also solid waste thrown into the toilet and that for non-treatment or illegal discharges arrive on the beaches.

Floating waste . Cotton buds, sanitary napkins, blister, even from toilet fresheners were found in the vicinity of the sampling points in 18% of cases. It is no coincidence that 83% of these places bacterial loads were detected beyond the norm, arising from the same bad treatment.

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