Serious breaches of environmental protection and waste management in a sales, rental and maintenance business of vehicles and machinery for construction, agriculture and industry in Sellia Marina.
They were ascertained by the Environmental Police Operational Unit of the Port Authority – Coast Guard of Crotone, with the support of the staff of the local maritime office – Coast Guard of Catanzaro Marina.
It was ascertained that the inspected commercial activity, organized across three operational structures, presented serious irregularities in two of the locations: the latter operated without the required environmental authorizations, as they lacked the authorization to discharge the industrial waste water and run-off rainwater produced, which flowed respectively into the public sewer and into a nearby ditch, without any preliminary purification treatment.
In addition, further violations were found at the company’s main operational headquarters, the only one in possession of the environmental authorization. Compared to what was foreseen by the authorization for emissions into the atmosphere, no system had been created in the structure to capture polluting emissions in correspondence with the rooms used for welding and painting, nor had the foreseen access systems to the emission points capable of allowing any sampling to be carried out by the competent authorities. It was also ascertained that the sludge produced by the commercial structure (i.e. sand and oils) was not disposed of according to the legal provisions, effectively creating an uncontrolled waste deposit. Finally, the partial and incomplete compilation of the waste loading and unloading registers was ascertained.
Following the various violations verified to the Consolidated Law on environmental matters, two operational offices and two areas dedicated to welding and painting located in the main office were placed under seizure at the disposal of the Judicial Authority of Catanzaro. The surface area of the commercial complex to which the seals were affixed amounts to approximately 3,850 square meters and those responsible for the activity have been reported to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Catanzaro for various types of crime attributable to the illicit management of the waste produced, the failure to comply with the provisions set out in the single environmental authorization and the failure to treat the industrial waste water produced and the rainwater from run-off and first rain.