“Capping” is a plug, which is used – or rather was used, since it is not used anymore on a global level – to put a pin on the worst polluting situations on the planet, leaving the task to actually resolve the problems for future generations, after significantly complicating the solution.

If capping on land is a shame, capping in water is the mother of all environmental iniquities as the necessary maintenance of critical sites becomes harder and more costly over time.

In the body of water of the ex Arsenale on La Maddalena, as in every marine site, it is apparent how, at the moment of laying the capping, biologically live elements are compressed together with the pollutants. These are then capable of producing methanes and other substances that can compromise the capping from the inside.

In said body of water “Ro-Pax” ships will be passing through; these huge boats, that carry passengers, cars, and trucks, which as we know are not moved by wind but by propellers, have the power to break steel without touching it, with the phenomenon of cavitation.

Moreover we are in La Maddalena and no one has ever had such a terrible idea like making a sea capping in a place with such high nature value. The drafters of the project don’t mention the big ships transiting through, but only the small “boats”, presumably those of rich tourists, which as we know are stupid enough to park their boat exactly over the filling of one of the most polluted sites in Sardegna.

What amazes in this matter is that we want to spend almost 7 million euro for such a foolishness and what amazes even more if we think that finally w3e have ecological dredging technologies (which will be presented in a specific workshop at Ecomondo on the 10th on November, and of which we have talked about in other Ecquologia articles) that are capable of, witho9ut higher costs, to completely remediate the site.

Senator Gianni Girotto responded to the alarm sounded on these pages last august by Prof Gabbani of the Earth science Department of the University of Florence presenting an urgent inquiry and reconstructing the complex series of events starting with the Bertolaso operations tied to the 2009 G8 which should initially have been held on La Maddalena.

From the inquiry we learn how the technicians that were operating until 2012 were, in the face of the blatant failure of the dredgings made at the ex Arsenale before 2009, trying to combine the two old dredging techniques – grab and cutter suction – to try and resolve the problem, which is understandable seen as at the time there were no alternative solutions.

Instead it becomes embarrassing for the operators of the 2016 project, from the moment ecological dredging based on a closed circuit suction system, invented explicitly to deal with such problems, had to that date already been used and tested in water, closely followed and validated by various organizations coordinated by the Ministry of Environment.

I reiterate firmly that whoever, in face of such an authoritative intervention, would proceed to use the capping technique in La Maddalena would commit a serious environmental crime, maybe not on the paper of a judiciary, but certainly in the conscience of the people.

Fabio Roggiolani

Vice president Giga-FREE – Cofounder Ecofuturo Festival