The so-called White Beaches They are a stretch of Tuscan coast about 5 km long in the north of Maremma, bathed by the Ligurian Sea, at the centre of long-standing controversies about their suitability for bathing due to their proximity to the Rosignano Solvay industrial plant.
The birth of the Solvay factory and village
The Belgian industrialist’s company Ernest Solvay acquired in 1913 an area in the province of Livorno, previously sparsely inhabited: historically of a marshy nature until the reclamation works carried out in the nineteenth century, the area was rapidly revalued also thanks to the construction of a railway line (Vada-Livorno) as well as for the proximity to the sea and the river Fine, useful for providing water for the plant cooling. Given the products handled by the company, furthermore, the possibility of sourcing some raw materials in the area played in favour of the Tuscan location, such as salt (sodium chloride) and limestone (calcium carbonate).
The factory was designed from the very first steps following the dictates of a “social” industrializationwhich also included a commitment to workers and their families to improve their conditions with services such as schools and health facilitiesThis current of thought was very widespread in Europe and met with favour in Italya country still backward in terms of education: even today we can find several virtuous examples scattered around the country, such as Leumann Village of Collegno or the Olivetti Complex from Ivrea.
The growth of the complex and the environmental impacts
The success of the plant led to the expansion of the village and the production lines, which over the decades have ranged from carbonates and bicarbonates to sodaoften covering a good portion of the demand for raw materials of the entire Italian industry.
Production waste, from the early years to the present day, has largely been released into marine waters opposite: mainly dealing with Limescale residuesthis practice is still foreseen by the 2022 update of theAIAL’Integrated Environmental Authorization which verifies the environmental compatibility in the operation of large infrastructures or production sites.
It is these residues that have contributed over the decades to giving the characteristic colour to the White Beaches it’s a deep blue at seanot exactly as clear as the Caribbean one due to the fine dust. According to the legislator’s observations, these deposits also have the benefit of counteract natural erosionavoiding the beach nourishment works (bringing sand back to shore from the seabed) carried out by the authorities in many stretches of our coasts.
Unfortunately, although it constituted a much smaller part of the spill, during its activity the company also discharged into the sea heavy metals such as arsenic, chromium, mercury and other pollutants: in a declaration for the year 2017 submitted to theEuropean Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (the European register of pollutant emissions from industrial activities), the company confirms the emission of 59 kg/year of mercurywith quantities of chromium and arsenic between 3 and 4 tons per year.
Over the last decade, Solvay has progressively abandoned the most polluting production processes, such as the mercury electrode sodium chloride electrolysis process, to reduce its emissions.
What’s in the water of Rosignano: the controversies on the suitability for bathing and the chemical parameters
As proof of its efforts, Solvay points out that the beach of Rosignano has obtained the Blue Flag several times and has been declared suitable for swimming by Arpa Toscana, with the exception of the stretches of coast near the drains, which are automatically closed by law.
In the relation Monitoring the effects of Solvay discharges on the surrounding marine ecosystem published by Arpa itself in 2008however, they were found high concentrations of heavy metals distributed in the sedimentseven if today’s emissions are below the legal limits.
THE core sampling (samplings that allow us to study the different layers deposited over the years) have highlighted how the concentration of mercury went from 0.1 mg/kg (layer at 40-45 cm) to concentrations of 4 mg/kg (12-27 cm), then decreased in the more superficial layers (5 cm) and settled at values of 0.95 mg/kg. Considering a sediment formation of approximately 0.2 or 0.3 cm/yearthis means identifying in the period 1990-2008 the most effective interventions of emission reduction and over the years 1950-1970 those of more pollution industrial.
At this point one might wonder how the same entity can certify high pollution of the coast, with evidence of emissions over the last hundred years, and confirm it at the same time the swimmability of the stretch of sea.
The apparent inconsistency is due to the parameters chosen by the authorities: in the legislative decree 116/08, implementation of the European directive 2006/7/ECthe required monitoring is in fact exclusively of a biological nature. A stretch of sea that is chemically polluted, but with levels of bacteria like theE. coli lower than prescribed limitsis therefore considered safe and is not subject to restrictions for use by citizens. As regards the beach of Rosignano Solvay, the pollution consists mainly of anomalous concentrations of mercury and hexachlorobenzene in the seabed of the coastal stretch, while the concentrations in the water are similar to those of other locations in the region.
It should be noted, however, that pollutants “buried” in the sedimentunless extreme events cause them to mix, do not constitute an immediate danger for potential swimmers: however, they impact on marine species, leading to bio-accumulation in molluscs and fish highlighted in all the coastal locations analysed by Arpa Toscana itself.
