Environment

In Italy reclamation procedures for over 36,000 sites. For 53% of cases procedure concluded

This is what emerges from the report on the state of contaminated site remediation in Italy produced by Ispra on regional data

by Davide Madeddu

10 April 2025

3' min read

Key points

Over 36 thousand proceedings
A heterogeneous distribution
Three steps for a site
Between notification, model and reclamation
Lombardy and Tuscany top
Sites of National Interest

3' min read

From small events, such as fuel spilled from a tanker on the road or in the countryside, to the dump of an old disused industry. The panorama is varied and is that of the areas included in the third report on the state of contaminated site remediation in Italy, produced by Ispra on regional data.

Over 36 thousand proceedings

The work is a sort of census of the areas where events occurred on which it was necessary to carry out an 'in-depth study' in order to then understand, as Federico Araneo, Ispra researcher and editor of the report, 'the environmental conditions of the places'.

In the national picture, there are 36,814 sites subject to remediation proceedings, of which 17,340 with proceedings in progress (or 47% of the total) and 19,474 with proceedings concluded (or 53% of the total).

A heterogeneous distribution

"Remediation proceedings are heterogeneously distributed in the different regions," the report states, "those in progress are most concentrated in Campania (18% of national proceedings in progress) and Lombardy (17%), followed by Tuscany and Veneto (12% and 10% respectively); completed proceedings are concentrated in Lombardy, with 44%, and secondarily in Tuscany (14%).

Three steps for a site

There are three phases concerning the sites of interest: "If there is an event that may have entailed a risk of contamination, the person in charge makes a notification and, at the end, it is determined whether further action is needed or not," argues Federico Araneo. "Then, depending on the case, we proceed with closure or, if there is a need to move forward, we move on to characterisation and risk analysis to understand the state of contamination. Once this phase is over and the framework is defined, we move on to the next one, which involves reclamation. "On average, 1,150 reclamation procedures are activated per year," he argues, "and of these more than half end with notification, only 1/3 of them will result contaminated and with the need for reclamation.

Between notification, model and reclamation

Then the data: 3 out of 5 ongoing proceedings (10,326 proceedings, or 60%) are at the notification stage, of which 2,773 (or 27%) are attributable to the 17 former Sin (sites of national interest) and 536 (or 5%) have been initiated and have been 'frozen' at an early stage for at least 15 years.

There are 3,356 ongoing proceedings that are at the 'conceptual model' stage and 3,066 at the 'intervention' stage, representing 19% and 18% of ongoing proceedings respectively.

"The analysis of the way in which proceedings were concluded confirms what emerged in the second report," it reads, "namely that: almost half (49%) of the proceedings concluded were self-certified following preliminary investigations alone. In 67% of the proceedings concluded (two cases out of three) no remediation or safety measures were required following the preliminary investigations, characterisation. Only one out of three proceedings (33%) required a remediation-safety intervention.

Lombardy and Tuscany at the top

The timeframes for activating and closing procedures are also variable. They range from the 'notification' that should 'be activated in and then concluded in 15 days', to the reclamation plan that, 12 years after its start, 'has still not been completed'.

A reading of the report's data shows that Lombardy ranks first in terms of the number of active and concluded proceedings, as does Tuscany. 'The fact that there are numerous notification procedures,' argues the expert, 'is not a negative fact, but points to an environmental sensitivity, at the same time, the ability to intervene in situations that merit investigation.

Sites of National Interest

In the national panorama, but not included in the report, there are also the Sin, sites of national interest. The regions with the most are Lombardy with 5 Sin plus part of Sin Pieve Vergonte, followed by Piedmont with 3 Sin plus part of Sin Pieve Vergonte and Cengio e Saliceto, followed by Tuscany, Puglia and Sicily with 4 Sin. In terms of overall extension, land and sea, the regions with the largest perimeter areas within Sites of National Interest are Piedmont with about 85,700 hectares, Sardinia with about 56,800 hectares, Sicily with about 24,400 hectares and Puglia with about 23,800 hectares.

The total land area of the SINs is just under 149,000 hectares and represents 0.49% of Italy's land area. The total extension of the areas at sea is just over 77,000 hectares.