Cremona, Tamoil uses photovoltaics to circumvent the obligation to reclaim the polluted area

In Cremona, Tamoil presented a project for the construction of a 5-6 megawatt photovoltaic park on the former area of ​​its refinery, converted into a warehouse about 13 years ago.The project, delivered to the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, according to some associations represents a strategy of the oil company to evade the commitment to clean up, exploiting regulatory gaps and thus leaving Cremona with a heavy unresolved environmental legacy.

For the city and its inhabitants, the new photovoltaic park could therefore be a blunder:a promise of clean energy which however fails to dispel the shadows of pollution still present.The reconversion of the Tamoil area had already been outlined in 2011, when the company stopped processing crude oil.The agreement with the institutions and the social partners, signed at the then Ministry of Economic Development, provided for both economic support measures for employees with social safety nets and the start of reclamation works in internal areas and the creation of a hydraulic barrier to protect the surrounding environment.However, the reclamation works never began:in fact, legislation allows these operations to be postponed as long as the area hosts production activities, and Tamoil has kept its own warehouse operational on the site.

For this reason, the photovoltaic park project has aroused criticism especially from environmentalist associations and citizens, since, if on the one hand it represents a step towards renewable energy, on the other risks permanently compromising a cleanup of the area, where oil pollution is still unresolved.The Tamoil industrial area has in fact caused serious environmental damage over time, leading the Municipality of Cremona to initiate legal action to obtain compensation.After a long legal battle, the Municipality reached an agreement with the company obtaining 1.4 million euros, to which was added a million paid after the criminal trial for environmental disaster.However, the figure is far from the 40 million initially requested for damage to land and aquifers.

Despite the agreement, pollution appears to persist.At the end of 2023, environmental tests conducted by Canottieri Leonida Bissolati – a historic sports club located next to the former Tamoil site – have detected the presence of contaminants, in particular supernatant hydrocarbons, i.e. substances that do not mix with water and remain on the surface.Although the hydraulic barrier installed by Tamoil is theoretically containment, the contaminants continue to affect the aquifers of the area, in some cases exceeding the permitted contamination limits.

The mayor of Cremona is more optimistic, for whom the area is not formally classified as a site to be reclaimed, but rather as a reuse area, and therefore Tamoil has no legal obligations for remediation.However, this position was strongly criticized by local environmental associations.Already in recent years Barbara Meggetto, president of Legambiente Lombardia, and Pierluigi Rizzi, president of Legambiente VedoVerde Cremona, when questioned on the matter, had recalled that a final ruling in 2018 on the environmental disaster had recognized irreparable damage to the territory.

Tamoil's project comes at a time when the energy transition and renewable energy are at the center of public debate.But the case of the former Cremona refinery raises questions about how much a photovoltaic park can actually represent a sustainable solution when what cannot be seen, the subsoil, is rich in highly poisonous substances.

[by Gloria Ferrari]