CENTRALE EUGENIO

MONTALE

In the port of Spezia a well-known lobby means to triple the number of the containers in few years. To this end it has planned to widen the harbour.

The broadening of the harbour and its traffic should performed as follows:

• the dredging of the navigable channel through which the container ships actually enter port. Dredging means to excavate the seabed to allow the entrance of huge ships (300 metres long and 60 metres high) carrying 7000/8000 containers each. Dredging the port of Spezia also means to dig up its seabed where are lying the toxic waste coming from the ill-famed dump of Pitelli.
• Besides, in order to increase the warehousing surface a further filling and overbuilding of 140.000 mq. of the gulf would be needed, which, with the existing 300.000 mq, would end up in almost complete overbuilding of the Gulf of Poets.

On the devastating effects of both operations a document is alleged to explain as clear as possible the reality of such a complex problem.

We want to explain the ill-informed population of Spezia that our territory is being sold off to the lower bidder, and that a huge environmental damage, irrelevant economic advantages and a negligible increase of the occupation will follow. In the meanwhile the dredging has already been approved by the local harbour authority and enormous economic advantages are expected for the promoters.

Our action will be successful only if the "Gulf of Poets" affair becomes an international environmental emergency known beyond the limits of our province and region.

Dredging means lowering the seabed of the channel which crosses the gulf, with the end of having in the harbour huge ships which can carry up to 8000 containers.

The main risk is that due to the dredging all the toxic waste which for years have been piling up on the seabed of the Gulf (the Pitelli dump, hydrocarbons etc.) would remain in suspension causing the biological death of the Gulf (for instance the mussel growing and fishing would receive a mortal blow, and any other form of life would be endangered.)

No positive repercussion for the population is expected. On the contrary who is running the container terminal will certainly do good business. At the same time the increase of population will be of no importance.

1. Vehicles for containers will grow in number and traffic will increase. In other words, when an 8000-container ship is being unloaded 2000 T.I.R. will be needed in few hours. So just one ship a day means 2000 T.I.R. crossing our town. If today people have to face problems of liveability because of the present traffic, mainly in the districts of Canaletto and Fossamastra (on the way to Lerici and to the coast), it’s sure that the further increase of traffic will produce in town an enormous atmospheric and acoustic pollution.
2. Owing to the logic of the quantitative adjustment, the harbour container area will have to be enlarged with respect to the traffic prevision; which means that in addition to the planned increase of 140.000 mq, other filling will be needed, up to 300.000mq according to the latest declarations. All this will result in a huge overbuilding of the Gulf.
3. Taking away space from the harbour to advantage of the container terminal will result in the lack of sea areas for sailing and shipbuilding, small ports and tourist activities. For instance, the Cantiere Ferretti, which is now taking over the Gulf, is going to employ 300 people over an area of just 6.000 mq, with an employee/surface ratio which will be very high. So in absence of the necessary space it is probable that the businessmen of the nautical sector would abstain from investing in the area, and the several and factual source of occupation would come to nothing (see Sole 24, 23.01.03, page 17).
4. The environmental impact: in the small harbour of Spezia, whose environmental balance is rather fragile, because of the heavy tonnage of the container ships, the landscape would be so horribly disfigured to become the "Gulf of Containers". Since the Gulf is part of the "Sanctuary of Cetaceans" area (agreement of Ramoge, ratified by the Italian Government – see G.U. n.253, 30.10.2001); since in the agreement the ratifying states commit themselves to adopt the necessary measures "….to ensure the favourable conditions for sea mammals and to protect them and their habitat from the negative consequences, both direct and indirect, deriving from human activities"; considering that since 1997 Portovenere, the Cinque Terre and the isles of Palmaria Tino and Tinetto belong to the UNESCO sites which are patrimony of humanity; since all this, the choice to bet on a development making a significant impact on the environment is apparently iniquitous.
5. Owing to the clearing of the polluting waste (exhausted oils, heavy metals, etc.) presently lying on the seabed and to the dredging, and the consequent re-suspension of the toxic waste, bathing in the Gulf, including Lerici, Tellaro, Portovenere and the Cinque Terre, would be at risk. In a large number of beaches swimming would be forbidden because of the toxic waste.

No negative economic consequence is expected if the port operators will be able to know their trade. It’s probable that some of them are going to push things by setting out serious unemployment. Actually the port will flourish on in spite of its present size, if the operators give prominence to quality instead of quantity (official data by A.P. - see also the site – in 2002 + 14.9% million tons of goods transported respect to 2001).

DISCARICA DI PITELLI (LA SPEZIA): RINVIATI A GIUDIZIO I 13 IMPUTATI
ACCUSATI DI DISASTRO AMBIENTALE, CORRUZIONE E FALSO IDEOLOGICO

LEGAMBIENTE: "LA CONFERMA DELLE NOSTRE ACCUSE, ORA SI PUÒ ANDARE AVANTI"

LA NOSTRA TORRE

EIFFEL

Chi dobbiamo ringraziare per aver costruito la centrale ENEL alla Spezia non lo so.

Negli anni passati bruciava carbone a go-go, non da una ciminiera come oggi, ma da quattro.

Sicuramente oggi l'inquinamento si è ridotto parecchio, ma resta pur sempre una mostruosità il fatto che in una città "accucciata in fondo ad un magnifico golfo"(Gian Carlo Fusco, Duri a Marsiglia), circondata dalle colline e quindi con poco ricambio d'aria, possa esistere una enorme centrale elettrica a carbone.

A maggior ragione dopo che la maggioranza degli spezzini si era espressa per la chiusura, mediante referendum consultivo, del quale è stato fatto carta straccia.

Ma ci pensate che vista, che panorama si gode da lassù, dalla ciminiera?

Se un giorno tornerà un barlume di logica, e si decidesse per la chiusura della centrale "Eugenio Montale"(hanno avuto il coraggio di chiamarla con questo nome!!!), spero si possa adattare la ciminiera a fini turistici, il panorama lo merita: il Golfo dei Poeti con Lerici, Tellaro, Palmaria, Portovenere, le Alpi Apuane con le cave di marmo, la Versilia, la Val di Magra, l'arcipelago Toscano, persino la Corsica nelle giornate più nitide, ma anche castelli e santuari, di cui la zona è piena.

Economicamente parlando, una soluzione del genere porterebbe più o meno ricchezza di come viene sfruttata attualmente la centrale?

Finalmente avrebbe forse un senso la denominazione "EUGENIO MONTALE"