A new and important ruling from the Piedmont TAR marks a turning point in the long battle for environmental transparency in Spinetta Marengo, a hamlet of Alessandria. After years of silence, omissions and industrial secrets, citizens will finally have access to data on environmental emissions of PFAS and other dangerous substances from the Syensqo (formerly Solvay) plant.
The appeal, presented by Legambiente Ovada, was accepted by the TAR, which thus exposed the “shameful secrecy” behind which the company had tried to hide information that was fundamental for public health and the environment.
The sentence represents a victory for popular determination against institutional complicity and the logic of profit at all costs. For years, in fact, Syensqo has attempted to lock down data on its emissions, invoking “industrial secrecy” to avoid making public information relating to air, water and soil pollution.
A behavior which, according to environmentalists and citizens, has only prolonged “the agony of the territory” already heavily compromised by decades of chemical activity.
The story of the former Solvay of Spinetta Marengo
The Spinetta Marengo chemical hub, now managed by Syensqo after the split of the Solvay group, has for years been at the center of one of the most serious Italian environmental emergencies. As documented several times, analyzes conducted by public bodies and associations have revealed the presence of PFAS, hexavalent chromium and other fluorinated compounds in the aquifers and soils of the area, with concentrations well above safety limits.
Over time, worrying correlations have emerged between contamination and the increase in certain pathologies in the local population. Investigations conducted by ARPA Piemonte and subsequent analyzes confirmed the presence of PFAS and other chemical substances in water and soil, while independent studies also detected traces of these compounds in the blood of residents and workers in the Spinetta Marengo area.
Despite the gravity of the situation, much information on the emissions and substances released from the plant had remained classified, in the name of protecting “industrial secrecy”. A choice also supported by the Province of Alessandria, but which the Piedmont TAR has now overturned, requiring the publication of the documents.
The time for industrial secrets therefore seems to be over. This is what the representatives of the Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra (AVS) commented:
We welcome with satisfaction the ruling of the Piedmont TAR which requires the declassification of the documents on emissions from the Syensqo (formerly Solvay) plant in Spinetta Marengo. It is a victory for the mobilization of associations and committees who have never stopped asking for truth and justice.
And they continue:
Today justice tells us a simple thing: the time in which it was accepted that health and the environment were put into the background in the name of industrial profit is over. Polluters must answer for their actions and cannot hide behind the alibi of industrial secrecy.
When will the remediation and closure of the plant be carried out?
The local committees are now calling for a further step: the definitive closure of the plant and a complete cleanup of all contaminated areas, including aquifers and agricultural land.
Every additional day of activity is an additional day of poison poured into our lives and our ecosystem – the Stop Solvay activists denounce -. As long as the plant remains active, as long as PFAS and other dangerous substances continue to escape, no sentence will be able to restore health to those who have lost it and serenity to those who live every day next to a plant that has already marked the environmental history of this area.
Then they continue:
Today justice opens the cupboard of Syensqo-Solvay’s secrets, now we demand that the door to the poison factory be closed forever.
The fight, therefore, is by no means over, there is still a lot to do to achieve concrete environmental justice, for the protection of public health and for a future free from toxic substances. Because living in a healthy area is not a privilege, but everyone’s right.
Sources: Stop Solvay Facebook / AVS Committee
