Bologna, the legal battle against the Corno alle Scale ski lifts continues

In the Metropolitan City of Bologna the committee's battle is going on "Another Apennines is possible” aimed at stop the construction of a new chairlift in the Corno alle Scale ski area.So far, thanks to a popular subscription campaign, over 12 thousand euros have already been raised to cover the expenses necessary to present the appeal to the Council of State against the Emilia-Romagna Region.A new legal attempt, therefore, after the Administrative Court of Bologna had rejected an initial appeal presented by the associations.The project you want to block has a value of 6.7 million euros and involves the construction of "a new four-seater chairlift" in place of a previous facility and the "Cupolino" ski lift which had already been unused for some time.«What we contest is the fact that we are faced with a large infrastructure that will be built in a very delicate area from an environmental point of view – they explained the activists of the committee – this project was officially presented as a modernization of the already existing plant, but it's not like that:this is why we ask first of all that it be subjected to an Environmental Impact Assessment."

The system that we would like to build, in fact, is approximately 200 meters longer and covers a greater difference in altitude than the one to be replaced.Among other things, the project also involves the construction of 15 supports ranging from four to sixteen meters high, as well as a new intermediate station in addition to the departure and arrival ones.The existing ones, however, would be displaced.The arrival station, in particular, would be moved to a higher altitude, a short distance from the Duca degli Abruzzi refuge and Lake Scaffaiolo, a fragile ecosystem included in a Site of Community Interest protected by the Natura2000 Network.A natural environment which, overall, risks being devastated.Suffice it to say that demolishing the current infrastructure and building the new one would require the removal, by excavation, of 6,680 cubic meters of earth over a surface area of ​​3,664 square metres.Of these, about half would fall within the boundaries of the habitat of community interest.It goes without saying that the intervention of local associations is crucial to ensuring that the worst is averted.

The committee's battle, if won, could then also save other habitats threatened by similar projects.«The appeal to the Council of State, which we presented in September, is not only the last tool at our disposal to stop this project, but it is also a way to avoid that what was established by the TAR ruling last May do jurisprudence.The administrative judges accepted the Region's defense line, according to which this is a 'modification or extension of an already existing system'.There is the risk that in other regions too, attempts will be made to pass off the construction of new plants as 'modernization'."Not to mention that the infrastructure, if looked at in the current context of global warming, seems completely useless.Yet another waste of resources as part of yet another attempt at therapeutic fury aimed at keeping alive a sector with a more or less sealed fate.The last one relationship "Nevediversa" of Legambiente has for example highlighted how in the area in question the temperature increased by 1.8 degrees centigrade between 1961 and 2018.At the altitude at which it is located, between 1,487 and 1,792 meters above sea level, snowfall is therefore increasingly sparse, which is why the use of artificial snow with the related consumption of energy and water resources is inevitable.

[by Simone Valeri]