Water pollution in the Apuan Alps.

by Federico Giannini, Ilaria Baratta , published on 03/11/2012
Categories: News Focus / Disclaimer

We resume our series on the environmental problems of the Apuan Alps related toCarrara marble extraction by talking today about how mining affects the health of the water in the Apuan Alps. Ours is an area rich in water: rivers, streams, brooks, many of which are also underground, distinguish an area subject to high rainfall, as the Apuan Alps themselves form a barrier to both the moisture that comes from the sea and the humid southern currents, causing this moisture to spill over much of the Apuan territory, making it one of the wettest in Italy1, second only to the territory of the Carnic Alps.

This high rainfall also makes the basins of the rivers and streams that flow through the territory particularly rich: the main ones are the Frigido, which bathes the city of Massa; the Versilia, which instead flows through the historical region of the same name, a famous vacation destination and place of entertainment and worldliness; the Carrione, which bathes the city of Carrara; and the Serchio di Gramolazzo, the branch of the Serchio River that flows between the Apuan Alps. The rivers and streams of the Apuan Alps are exposed to a constant risk of pollution, so much so that there have been several studies over the years to analyze the risk of vulnerability of the area’s waterways and aquifers.

Tuscany’s Regional Environmental Action Plan 2007-20102 divides the Apuan territory into two zones subject to environmental criticality: the first zone (number 1 in the Plan), called the Apuan Alps, includes all the mountainous territory of the Alps, Garfagnana and part of Versilia, while the second (number 2 in the Plan) is called Massa Carrara and corresponds to the municipal territories of the cities of Massa and Carrara. In turn, the zones are divided into four types “according to the nature of the environmental pressures at the origin of the criticisms”: zone 1 thus falls into the category Impacts of production processes, while zone 2 falls into the category Sites to be reclaimed. Among the various objectives envisaged for the two zones we find the “protection of the aquifers of the Apuan Alps” (although in this case, a blank space appears under the “actions undertaken” box) and the “remediation of polluted areas” in the “Massa Carrara” zone, with the “remediation of the aquifer” also in the pipeline, which has already been partly initiated.

The main threat to the ecological stability of Apuan waters is, once again, marble-related activities (quarrying and processing), although compared to the past the situation has greatly improved, and we will soon see why, even if the problems have not been completely solved. Until not so many years ago, the numerous sawmills in the Apuan territory had the habit of discharging marble dust, resulting from the extraction, processing, and sawing of the material (the dust is also known as marmettola), into waterways. Despite not constituting a serious danger to public health, marmettola carries a strong polluting action as it is responsible for a serious biological impact on Apuan waterways: marmettola is deposited on the bottom of rivers and streams, destroying their microenvironments and making it impossible for organisms to settle3. Significant environmental damage also occurs because, despite the fact that systematic dumping of marmettola into Apuan streams has ceased for at least two decades (although not entirely), the biological impact of marmettola lasts over time, although recovery of affected streams is not impossible.

When the practice of dumping marmettola into rivers still constituted common practice, one could see by eye how the rivers and streams subjected to this practice (mainly the Carrione and Frigido, but also the Versilia) took on a creamy white color: it looked as if rivers of milk were flowing. It was said earlier that the situation has improved in recent years. This is because alternative systems of disposal have been found: for example, marmettola can be used to neutralize fumes from thermoelectric power plants (an example of this type of use is the ENEL power plant in La Spezia, which since 2002 has activated a fume abatement plant that uses marble dust, a project that moreover won the “Environmentally Friendly Innovations 2003” award promoted by Legambiente⁾⁴.

However, despite the efforts of recent years, the rivers of the Apuan Alps are still threatened by mining activities and even today it is not uncommon to see them as white as they once were. Recently, in January 2012, an article in the Tirreno5 highlighted howARPAT (Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of Tuscany) verified the presence of marmettola even in the caves of Antrodel Corchia. The Antro del Corchia, located within the Apuan Park, is the most extensive karst system in Italy and one of the largest in the world, with 70 km of tunnels and shafts6. And the responsibility for this cumbersome presence of marmettola in one of the most beautiful natural places in our country should be attributed precisely to the mining activity present in the area.

But that’s not all: marmettola discharges into the territory are a common problem throughout the Apuan territory (in addition to the one in Antro del Corchia, there are cases in Seravezza7, where the problem is still quite serious, and again in Massa8, Carrara9 and even in the Equi Caves10): this is due in part to activities that sometimes still discharge the residues into the watercourses, and in part to the action of rain that drags the marmettola from the ravaneti11 into the rivers and streams12 .

Let us conclude with some photographs that testify to what has been said so far and that were taken by Andrea Ribolini in the localities of Foce di Pianza, a pass that is located between Mount Sagro and Mount Borla and where there are some marble quarries (we are in Carrara, at an altitude of 1,250 meters), and Passo del Vestito, which is located in Massa and is also affected by mining activity. To learn more, you can link to the album dedicated to the environmental disaster in the Apuan Alps shared on Facebook by Andrea Ribolini: in addition to these photos, you will find several others documenting the state of our mountains.

By clicking on the images, you can enlarge them and read their description.

Other articles on this topic:

• Carrara and the environmental threats of the Apuan Alps: introduction
Carr

ara

and
• the hydrogeological risk
• Carrara and marble: the economic fallout

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Notes

1. See Paolo Lunini, The climate of Massa and its Province, from the Meteo Apuane website ↑

2. The Plan can be downloaded from the Tuscany Region website by going to this link. ↑

3. See Rosalba Banchetti, Nicola Ceccopieri, G. Bombardieri, Water quality assessment of the Frigido River (Tuscany) using the I.B.E. (Extended Biotic Index), in Proceedings of the Tuscan Society of Natural Sciences, Memoirs, Series B, vol. 111, pp. 55-64, 2004. Article also available on the web at this address ↑

4. See Enel: Wins 2003 Environmentally Friendly Innovations Award, from ADN Kronos, October 20, 2003 ↑

5. Valentina Landucci, Marmettola, a quarry under indictment, from Il Tirreno, January 10, 2012. ↑

6. See the website of the Corchia cavern cultural tourism system. ↑

7. Cf. Marmite emergency erupts. Sawmills risk closure, from The Tyrrhenian, April 9, 2011; Alarm at the Garden over marble. More controls demanded from The Ty rrhenian, June 11, 2011; Marmite, Henraux move in from The Tyrrhenian, Oct. 8, 2011. ↑

8. See River of Marmettola crosses Casette, from The Tirreno, June 18, 2010; Marmettola in the Frigido River. Una vergogna che deve cessare, from La Nazione, April 6, 2012; Alarm marmettola, violated the mayor’s ordinance, from La Nazione, May 7, 2012; Brunella Menchini, Il torrente Frigido è di colore bianco marmo: a rischio le falde acquifere apuane, from Lo schermo, September 3, 2012. ↑

9. Cf. Clean quarries to remove dust from Carrara, from Legambiente, January 11, 2006. ↑

10. Cf. Marmite alert in the Lucido, from Il Tirreno, August 20, 2010. ↑

11. For the meaning of the term “ravaneti” see our article Carrara and the Environmental Threats of the Apuan Alps: introduction, available here. ↑

12. See the article Torrente Carrione and Frigido River on the website of the Province of Massa and Carrara. ↑

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