After a halt due to the coronavirus, civil parties and multinationals return to court to continue the preliminary phase of the trial concerning Europe's largest water crisis — the contamination of one third of the Veneto region with perfluoroalkyl substances.
A new hearing has taken place in the trial against the company Miteni, accused in Vicenza of having contaminated the second largest aquifer in Europe with perfluoroalkyl substances (Pfas). After a suspension of more than five months due to the pandemic, and after previous hearings in which the charges of unnamed disaster and water poisoning were formally established and 226 civil parties were admitted, preliminary hearing judge Roberto Venditti confirmed receipt of the notifications drawn up for the three defendants: Mitsubishi, the Luxembourg-based multinational International Chemical Investors S.E. (Ici3), and the receivers of the Miteni bankruptcy. A small step forward that makes it possible to begin the trial proper.
Coming back to this courthouse helps us breathe again, helps us believe. For us, this trial represents the effort made over all these years — finding justice and beginning to trust in our health again.
Mamme NoPfas
On 8 June, Mitsubishi was the only party to register as a civil defendant in order to defend itself at the trial stage. "The Japanese company decided to use the trial to respond to the charges of unnamed offence, so as to protect its name. The other two companies (Ici3 and the Miteni bankruptcy company) are probably still looking for a strategy," commented lawyer Ceruti after the few minutes of proceedings. The lawyer, who represents MammeNoPfas as a civil party, has extensive experience in environmental trials — not least the one concerning the Marghera petrochemical plant. He had the notifications to Mitsubishi translated into more than forty pages. "It was a lengthy piece of work. We are pleased that the judge confirmed receipt and that the company opted for a full hearing. Now we have someone to put our questions to."
For Ceruti, the possibility of reaching a mediated settlement with Mitsubishi and seeking compensation for affected residents is real, but still a distant prospect.
That is a prospect supported by lawyer Angelo Merlin, who represents the two water companies Acquevenete and Viacqua. "It is possible that the Japanese want to close things quickly in order to clear their name from this tragic affair. After all, it is a multinational listed on several stock exchanges around the world — it is understandable that they would want to settle with a financial offer to avoid a potential conviction." The lawyer confirmed that the water companies, which are civil parties to the trial, need financial support because they are spending heavily on the construction of new, Pfas-free water sources. "My clients responded immediately to the political demands and the population's demand for clean water, but the costs are enormous. This trial must highlight the systemic environmental damage — a domino effect that has produced a chain of financial losses for various parties, including the water companies." The next step for the four companies will be to commission an expert assessment of the economic damage suffered over these fifty years of pollution.
One of the four water companies, Acque Veronesi, has several active worksites laying pipelines to connect the red zone to clean water sources.
In Madonna di Lonigo, in the province of Vicenza, the trench for the pipes cuts through maize fields that in June are a deep, vivid green. Yellow diggers and cranes resumed work just a few days ago after a stop of several weeks due to the pandemic. "The worksite had opened in February — they brought everything and then suddenly had to stop. The pipes, the excavations and the mountains of earth became playgrounds for our children during those months," recounts a farmer who gave up part of her polenta crop for the passage of the new water main. The woman points to her cultivated field and with the same gesture makes clear that her water has not yet been tested. "We have a well; so far we haven't used it and we hope the land drinks as much rainwater as possible. I'm close to retirement, and knowing that my land is contaminated through the water wipes the smile from my face."
Knowing that my land is contaminated through the water wipes the smile from my face.
In the hamlet of Belfiore, in the San Bonifacio area, the digger is at work among vineyards that stretch to the horizon. One pipeline has already been closed off, some blue pipes remain as a reminder of the work carried out in previous months, and residents are still waiting for haematological tests to determine the presence of Pfas in their blood. "I've lived here my whole life. My neighbour, who was born after me, has already been tested, but I still haven't heard anything," says a vine grower watching the worksite from atop his tractor.
During the pandemic, and throughout June, the serological tests to measure Pfas levels were not carried out. Since 2017, the Veneto regional health authority has had a healthcare plan to monitor residents in red zones A and B, those born between 1951 and 2002, and children born between 2003 and 2014. "I am still waiting for these tests. Part of my family has had them done and the values are clearly high. I have a serious thyroid problem, and having results on Pfas levels would help me understand better," explains one of the Mamme No Pfas present at the hearing. And a colleague of hers insists: "Ussl Berica 8 only contacts people in the red zone, but what are those living in the orange zone supposed to do? It's not possible to request blood tests for Pfas, and paying for them privately is equally impossible given the cost and the scarcity of laboratories."
Around 90,000 people living in the two zones need to undergo testing, but so far only 25,000 have been examined. "There is no clear criterion for how appointments are issued — some residents are notified months in advance, others with a day's notice. I have received dozens of reports of people not being called; they want to know how they are," says regional councillor Cristina Guarda, a farmer who from the outset has stood alongside the affected citizens.
The company International Chemical Investors S.E. (Ici3), one of the three defendants in the trial, submitted on 31 December 2019 a plan to remediate the company's site, at a total cost of 10 million euros. A proposal accepted almost out of desperation by the Veneto Region, the Municipality of Trissino — where the Miteni plant is located — and the Province of Vicenza. Ever since the investigations by the Ecological Operations Unit of the Carabinieri in Vicenza had highlighted the offence of environmental damage, the company had been called upon to bear the costs of the remediation, which would otherwise fall on the State. The Region and the Municipality of Trissino, civil parties in the trial, therefore gave Ici3 the green light at the end of February 2020 to proceed with the first phase of securing the site, giving the company 30 days to open the construction sites.
But then the global pandemic brought everything to a halt, and only in recent weeks have the first site-securing works begun to get under way. "The situation is very serious — they should have acted as early as 2013, when the water contamination was proven. Seven years have passed and we are still waiting for the remediation work to begin," Guarda denounces.
The hydraulic barrier — a filtering structure installed as far back as 2005 beneath the plant to collect part of the pollutants — has proved to be ineffective, according to a study by Arpav. "The aquifer itself needs to be remediated; it keeps getting contaminated and is spreading for kilometres towards Rovigo and beyond Verona. There are studies showing that this aquifer can be cleaned up, over decades, but no one is thinking about this and no one answers my questions in the Regional Council," the regional councillor concludes.
The next hearing is scheduled for 12 October — a date that feels a very long way off for those living among the splendid countryside of the upper Vicenza area. "People have gone back to normal by now; they think that the filters the Region installed years ago are enough to clean the water coming out of our taps. Those activated carbon filters that were so heavily promoted to us, yet which still let Pfas through because the threshold is not zero but 0.5 nanograms per litre. People forget — fear clouds the conscience, and waiting years to know how you are and what you should be drinking is wearing you down," the Mamme NoPfas confess outside the courthouse.