Bussi sul Tirino

During the twentieth century Elettrochimica Volta, Montecatini, Montedison, Ausimont and Montefluos operated at Bussi. They produced carbon tetrachloride (from 1905-10 to 1945), phosgene (1914-1945), acetylene and trichloroethylene (until 1963), dichloroethane, lead alkyls (1935-1996), chloromethanes (1963-2007) and chlor-alkali with mercury cells (1930-2007, later converted to membrane cells). In 2002 the plants passed to Solvay and in 2016 to Società Chimica Bussi. At Piano d'Orta, in the municipality of Bolognano, another works, latterly Montecatini, made sulphuric acid, fertilisers and fungicides from 1900 to about 1965.

The SIN was established in 2008 after the discovery of areas with very large amounts of buried or scattered industrial waste: the «Tre Monti» dump, near the confluence of the Tirino and Pescara and the railway station, and the land around the two works. The perimeter includes the Pescara valley floor to beyond the Colle Sant'Angelo well field and the sedimentation zones upstream of the hydroelectric weirs.

Soils hold mainly mercury and lead, with hydrocarbons, BTEX, PAHs, dioxins and chlorinated aliphatics; groundwater holds mercury, lead, arsenic, chromium VI, boron, chlorinated and halogenated compounds, carbon tetrachloride, dichloromethane and hexachloroethane.

The criminal trial for water poisoning and disaster, opened in 2006 against Montedison managers, ended in the Court of Cassation in 2018 with acquittals and time-barred charges.