Illegal dumping into the sea, in Italy offenders get off with 150 euros

In Italy, those who pollute the sea with inadequately treated waste can get away with simply paying a small fine of 150 euros.This was established by a recent ruling with which the Supreme Court expressed its opinion on the illicit release of wastewater into the Adriatic.In Termoli, Molise, several investigations by the judiciary have long recorded the release near the coast of untreated waste with "a contaminating load consisting of ahigh amount of Escherichia coli, a bacterial microorganism originating from civil sewerage systems that is dangerous to human health".The plant, as certified by the Supreme Court, was in fact made operational only when the Molise environmental monitoring agency carried out sampling.For the remaining time the wastewater was instead released directly into the sea without purification.Despite the seriousness of the facts, those responsible will remain unpunished:previously they had been accused of the crime of environmental pollution - which involves imprisonment from 2 to 6 years and a fine of 10 thousand to 100 thousand euros -, but it was reduced to a fine for "dangerous throwing of things" which, on the basis of art.674, is punished with a fine of up to 206 euros.And here is the ridiculous sentence of 150 euros in fine.Which, among other things, she won't even get paid:the crime, in fact, is time-barred due to the passage of time.

The conduct alleged against the two people who ended up under the scrutiny of the judiciary, the technical manager of the purifier and the manager of public works of the Municipality of Termoli, specifically occurred between 2015 and 2018, when the water purifier of the Municipality of Termoli had important operating problems, so untreated and smelly sewage waste was discharged directly into the sea several times.For example, reports the judgment, “on 12 September 2015, the presence of a dark brown patch emerging from the seabed was found, near the cliff and in the rear part of the breakwater wall of the port;this eventuality was due to the breakage of the purifier pipe, as the purified wastewater had to be released at a distance of about two kilometers from the coast, while in this case a smelly fungiform stain was detected also a short distance from the shoreline frequented by swimmers”.Initially the prosecutors had accused them of the crime of environmental pollution, but the investigating judge had excluded it, as a "significant and measurable deterioration" of the sea had not been proven with certainty.However, the two were sent to trial for having respectively caused and not prevented the "spilling of sewage waste and malodorous sewage into the sea capable of offending and harassing people”.In 2021, they were convicted by the Collegiate Court of Larino.Until arriving, after the appeal, at the recent decision of the Supreme Court.

Despite the small amount of punishment imposed on those in prison, the Court of Cassation has exploited the opportunity to reiterate an important principle, namely that of pollution only those who directly provoked it are not liable – in the specific case, the company that managed the purification plant – but also the municipal official which had the obligation to "ensure the correct functioning and necessary maintenance of the purification plant, as well as to carry out the works and works necessary to allow the correct purification treatment of all the wastewater conveyed there before being released into the Sea Adriatic".A concept that takes on full validity "whenever the concrete danger to public safety also derives from the intentional or negligent omission of the person who had the legal obligation to avoid it".

[by Stefano Baudino]