Sole Commissioner Fabio Fatuzzo: “The East Naples purification plant is finally in the running”

With publication of 24 July 2024, the Sole Commissioner for purification, Fabio Fatuzzo, has announced the tender for the works to adapt the “Napoli Est” plant with the deadline for the submission of offers set for 19 September.

The intervention, worth over 150 million euros, is essential to allow the recovery of the quality of bathing waters throughout the entire Gulf of Naplesand it has been long awaited by the city and the surrounding coastal municipalities.

The plant, built starting in 1984 and entered into operation in 1998, has a simplified process scheme and still today presents an insufficient functioning to comply with the regulatory limits which has led to its registration among those in infringement procedure n. 2004/2034 for failure to implement the Community directive 91/271/CE concerning the treatment of urban waste water.

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The Naples East plant receives wastewater from a rather large area, from a part of the city of Naples and from the municipalities of Afragola, Casalnuovo di Napoli, Casoria, Cercola, Ercolano, Massa di Somma, Pollena Trocchia, Portici, San Giorgio a Cremano, San Sebastiano al Vesuvio, Sant'Anastasia, Somma Vesuviana and Volla.

The delay in carrying out the adaptation works, financed by CIPE resolution 60/2012, meant that the Presidency of the Council of Ministers already in 2015 provided for the appointment of an Extraordinary Commissioner for "the planning, assignment and implementation of the works relating to the functional adaptation of the purification plant of Naples East".

Subsequently, the competence for the adaptation of the plant was transferred to the National Extraordinary Commissioner for the implementation of the collection, sewerage and purification interventions of urban waste water (Condemnation sentences of the Court of Justice of the European Union C-565/10 and C-85/13), a role held today by Professor Fabio Fatuzzo (since August 2023) who managed to complete the complex procedures that allowed the publication of the tender.

“We have finally managed to put the Naples East plant out to tender,” says Commissioner Fatuzzo, satisfied. “The design of the intervention has passed the rigorous authorization procedures, relating to environmental aspects, during which the original project was integrated with an important and costly landscape improvement intervention.”

The contracted intervention involved the redevelopment of the existing units and the enhancement with the integration of biological processes for an average treated black flow rate of over 7,2 cubic meters/second and a treatment potential of up to 862.865 equivalent inhabitants in accordance with regional planning acts.

The main objectives of the design were:

· full compliance with the stringent emission limits set by Community legislation;

· minimising the impact on the landscape and environmental impacts;

· minimizing the flow of sludge to be disposed of

· the containment of management costs and management using automatic and remote control systems.

The chosen solution achieves the following objectives:

· ensures a high return on the investment costs/benefits parameter;

· ensures low management costs;

· ensures the right hydraulic and process flexibility of the treatment phases;

· allows the complete recovery of biogas for energy purposes with the integration of different recovery techniques;

· guarantees maximum reliability of the plant equipment, reducing and simplifying maintenance interventions;

· ensures maximum safety for the personnel responsible for operation and maintenance.