The waste water from production, containing toxic-harmful substances, was discharged into the Bottaro canal of the Sarno River without undergoing any purification treatment.
The Carabinieri of the Environmental Protection Group of Naples arrested this morning two people, owners of the company 'Eurogalvanica', based in Torre Annunziata, province of Naples, the two are seriously suspected of the crimes of environmental pollution, violation of seals and illegal discharge of industrial waste.
The measure is linked to the investigations aimed at determining the causes of the pollution of the Sarno river, explains a note from the Torre Annunziata Prosecutor's Office.
The arrests come in execution of a precautionary custody order (specifically house arrest), issued by the investigating judge of the Torre Annunziata Court at the request of the local prosecutor's office.
The precautionary measures arise from investigations conducted by the Carabinieri of the Noe of Naples and coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Torre Annunziata, regarding a hypothesis of serious environmental pollution of the Bottaro canal, a tributary of the Sarno river.
The investigative activity has allowed us to ascertain serious evidence of guilt against the defendants with regard to multiple illegal discharges, into a surface water body, of toxic-harmful substances (zinc, copper, ammonia), originating from the production cycle of the aforementioned industrial plant, operating in the metal galvanizing sector.
The Carabinieri of the Noe, with the help of the technicians of the Arpac, verified that the wastewater from the production, containing the indicated substances, was discharged into the Bottaro canal without undergoing any purification treatment and in the absence of any authorization, underlines the note of the Prosecutor's Office. Furthermore, the outcome of the analyses carried out by the technicians of the Campania Arpac confirmed that the industrial wastewater containing highly toxic substances, all exceeding the limits in the table, could cause serious damage to all living organisms. A circumstance of particular gravity, adds the Prosecutor's Office, considering the fact that the Bottaro canal, developing for several kilometres in various municipalities before flowing into the Sarno River, is still used for irrigation purposes, distributing part of its water in the agricultural areas it crosses, through a dense network of irrigation channels. In particular, values of zinc, which is a bioaccumulative metal, have been found to be 200 times higher than the regulatory limit permitted by law.
The discharge, into the aforementioned canal, of wastewater contaminated by bioaccumulative and highly toxic substances has led to significant damage and deterioration of the environmental matrices of soil, subsoil and surface water, the latter used in agriculture, with consequent danger to human health. Thus legitimizing the contestation of the crime of environmental pollution, explains the Prosecutor's Office.
The Eurogalvanica company had already been subjected to preventive seizure for the crimes of illegal discharge of industrial wastewater in the past, as it was ascertained that the owners of the company, although it was under seizure, had continued with the illicit activity. In particular, having obtained from the judge the temporary release of seizure of the company to regularize the wastewater discharge systems, they had resumed production activity and with it the illegal discharge of wastewater.
The same investigating judge, in the precautionary order, in motivating the precautionary needs, underlines the repeated and continuous violation of the seals, the continuation of the company activity in a regime of total illegitimacy, the seriousness of the facts being contested, the danger that the suspects could repeat their behavior, irreparably compromising the surrounding environment.
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