Gallanti (Livorno Port Authority) on dredging, "we expect some answers and clear"

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Dredging on "today, and we expect some clear answers on an emergency that affects not only the port of Livorno, but the major seaports in the nation." He said the president of the Port of Livorno, Giuliano Gallanti, opening a conference on "The competitiveness of ports and dredging issues" held yesterday at the Marine Station of the Tuscan city.

"Without a serious policy on dredging - said Gallanti - not the least we can hope to do a port of Livorno in step with the times, able to compete with the phenomenon of gigantism and ship to meet the challenges of the future."

The aim of the conference was to define, together with Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteoli, and the main stakeholders of the national port, the policy framework and content of a single rule in the field of dredging, legislation that finally make clear the nature of tanks filled (illegal landfills and containment?), which points to a real classification of sediments dredged so as to cover in a harmonious regulatory framework including the seabed of the ports that insist on areas SIN (Sites of National Interest) - are 15 - to facilitate and, ultimately, the possibility of spillage at sea of materials resulting from dredging operations, because - said Gallanti - "in Antwerp and, in general, Northern Europe, dredging every day. Only here there is a strong discrepancy between the time required to obtain authorization and those reasonable that it would take to be fully operational. "

Operating deficit has also talked about the manager of the Port of Livorno Environmental Controls, John Motta, who illustrated the problems plaguing the airport Tuscan "in Livorno - he explained - are scheduled dredging for a total of two 700 thousand million cubic meters, where we put them? The first tank filled, made long ago, is already almost full, and the second will be held between three years and may contain up to a maximum of one million 700 thousand cubic meters and the Regional Plan provides for all the land of Tuscany, the absorption non-hazardous waste up to a maximum of 300 thousand cubic meters. It is clear that it does not go forward. "

According to the vice president of Assoporti, Luciano Guerrieri, "is a framework that can actually make all the viable options for management of dredged material, from their location to beach nourishment, till their destination in the tanks filled and spilled into the sea" . He also added John Motta, "it would be useful to uphold a law the European directive that not all of the dredged material must be considered as waste, but only those parts that are clearly classified as hazardous waste."

Attending the conference also Irene Jerome, the Directorate General of Nature Conservation and the Ministry of Environment of the sea, which for the first time presented the contents of the draft decree under Article 109 of Legislative Decree 152/2006. "It is - said the director of the Ministry - a draft which has already received the go-ahead from the relevant ministries (Infrastructure, Agriculture and Economic Development), subject to some technical observations." The draft decree would promote a "standardization of procedures," a clear classification of the dredged sediments and identification of options for the management of excavation materials, in addition to well-defined procedures that allow the characterization of "know when you may or may not enter into the sea sediments resulting from dredging operations. " Subject - said Irene Jerome - that "spills at sea is the last resort, and is feasible only for good quality material. The new scheme of work tries to define what should be these quality characteristics. "

There remain, however, strong doubts about the ports that insist Areas of Sin.It does not seem clear, in fact, if the drafting of the decree implementing Article 109, which regulates the entry of sediment into the sea, should or should not also apply to ports that insist on areas of national interest.

"The issue of dredging - Matteoli said the minister closed the meeting - is of vital importance to an Italian port that wants to maintain a high level of competitiveness and intercept increasing proportion of those 19 million containers handled in 2015 is estimated to be about docks all over Italy. " "We have to find - he added - the difficult balance between environmental compliance and the right of a port to provide access to ships, even larger. It is to solve this problem we decided to make the bill to reform the law 84/94, the Council of Ministers approved and currently under consideration in the Senate. In the bill there are just those times and the different rules that players are clamoring for some time. "