Atlas of Contaminated Sites

Site of National Interest (SIN), Fidenza (Parma), Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Fidenza (former CIP and Carbochimica plants)

Two adjoining chemical works a few hundred metres from the centre of Fidenza: a coal-tar distillery (1888–2004) and a tetraethyl lead plant (1952–1970). Soil and groundwater hold organic lead, PAHs, benzene and naphthalene; much of the hydrocarbon-bearing soil has been treated in biopiles.

MycoremediationMicrobial bioremediation

Status
Remediation under way
Area
16 ha on land1
Activity
1888–2004
People affected
46,431 (2019)2
Media
soil, groundwater
Kind of site
chemical works, coal tar, landfill
  1. Area. 16 ha according to ISPRA (June 2024). The Municipality of Fidenza gives 139,021 m² for the five sub-areas (2024). Perimeter set by ministerial decree of 16 Oct 2002, redrawn by decree of 3 June 2024 (Official Gazette 144, 21 June 2024).
  2. People affected. Residents of the two site municipalities (Fidenza, Salsomaggiore Terme), 2019 census, from the SENTIERI Sixth Report.

Contaminants

Metals

Metalloids

Organic compounds

Status

Remediation under way

Of 16 ha: soil characterised on 94%, clean-up project approved on 81%, procedure closed on 13%; the same shares for groundwater (ISPRA, June 2024). In January 2024 the Municipality reported the former CIP area as nearly finished, the former Carbochimica as under way, and the Vallicella and Fornio landfills as completed.

Story

The tar distillery opened in 1888; it became Cledca in 1929 and Carbochimica in 1972. It distilled crude middle oil from coke-oven tar and sold benzene, toluene, xylenes, phenols, naphthalene, creosote oil for railway sleepers and anthracene oil. Classed as a war industry, it was bombed in December 1944 and January 1945, which drove process liquids deep into the ground. On the neighbouring plot phosphates and sulphuric acid had been made since 1908; from 1952 to 1970 the Compagnia Italiana Petroli (CIP) produced tetraethyl lead and mercaptans there.

Investigations of the CIP area began in 1985 and continued from 1988 with the local health unit, the Municipality and ENEA; from 1991 they also covered Carbochimica, which in 1995 installed 86 bioslurping/bioventing wells to recover oil from the water table. The Municipality bought the former CIP site in 2001; Carbochimica went bankrupt in 2004 and the Municipality took over its land in 2005, becoming owner and implementing body for the whole site.

In the former CIP area, soil with organic and inorganic lead, arsenic, copper and zinc was excavated and disposed of; soil along the Carbochimica boundary, contaminated with naphthalene and BTEX, was treated on site in 11 biopiles (about 11,400 m³, from 2012). A hydraulic barrier of 13 wells about 26 m deep was built in 2005–2007. At the former Carbochimica the above-ground plant was dismantled by 2014; 88 buried tanks and basins remain.

In 2021 two problems still prevented closure: benzene and naphthalene at the unsaturated/saturated interface on the boundary between the two areas, and scattered tetraethyl lead, for which the soil limit is 0.068 mg/kg. The six-lot project approved in 2021 for the former Carbochimica costs 15.8 million euro, of which 10.9 million were still to be found in January 2024.

Timeline

  1. 1888The tar distillery opens; later Cledca (1929) and Carbochimica (1972).
  2. 1952Compagnia Italiana Petroli starts making tetraethyl lead, which continues until 1970.
  3. 1985First pollution surveys of the CIP area.
  4. 1995Carbochimica installs 86 bioslurping/bioventing wells on the water table.
  5. 2001The Municipality buys the former CIP site; decree 468/2001 lists Fidenza as a Site of National Interest.
  6. 2005After the 2004 bankruptcy the Municipality takes over the Carbochimica area; work on the hydraulic barrier begins (2005–2007).
  7. 2012First biopiles for soil with naphthalene and BTEX.
  8. 2016The LIFE BIOREST project (2016–2019) starts on the former Carbochimica area.
  9. 2021The revised clean-up project for the former Carbochimica, in six lots, is approved.
  10. 2024The decree of 3 June 2024 redraws the site perimeter.

Health

SENTIERI Sixth Report (2023; mortality 2013–2017, hospital admissions 2014–2018; municipalities of Fidenza and Salsomaggiore Terme): excess of digestive diseases and deficit of respiratory diseases in both sexes; liver cancer above expected in both mortality and admissions, with imprecise estimates, as in earlier reports. In men, pleural mesothelioma: 7 deaths, SMR 170 (uncertain estimate); malignant pleural tumours: 11 admitted, SHR 167 (90% CI 102–273). Non-Hodgkin lymphoma at ages 0–19: 4 cases, SHR 252 (90% CI 113–561). Congenital anomalies 2009–2018 in line with the regional figure, apart from an excess of ventricular septal defects. The report singles out liver cancer as the finding to investigate further.

Remediation

  1. 1995bioslurping / bioventing86 wells in the Carbochimica area to extract oil at the saturated/unsaturated interface; water treated on aerobic rotating biological contactors.
  2. 2005pump and treatHydraulic barrier of 13 wells about 26 m deep on the northern boundary (2005–2007); water de-oiled and filtered on sand and carbon.
  3. 2008excavationFormer CIP: excavation and landfilling of soil with organic and inorganic lead, arsenic, copper and zinc.
  4. 2012biopile11 aerated biopiles of 800–1,100 m³ with rice husk and nutrients (N, P): about 11,400 m³ of soil with naphthalene and BTEX.
  5. 2014decommissioningFormer Carbochimica: buildings, plant and above-ground tanks dismantled.
  6. 2019waste removalEmergency measures at the former Carbochimica (2019–2020): 10,304 t of waste disposed of, including liquids from 17 buried tanks.
  7. 2020containmentBentonite cut-off wall between the former CIP and Carbochimica areas, with four barrier wells (2020–2021).

Plants and fungi at this site

Microbial bioremediationField scale, 2012–2021

Biopiles used in the official clean-up. Soil dug along the boundary between the former CIP and Carbochimica areas was mixed in an enclosed space with rice husk, nitrogen and phosphorus, covered with a membrane and aerated by forced suction, the extracted air being treated on carbon. Eleven biopiles of 800–1,100 m³ were built, about 11,400 m³ of soil in all.

Outcome Treatment lasted from about 2 months to more than a year. ARPAE reports full recovery of the soil with biological removal of most organic pollutants, but poor performance in silty-clay soil, which compacts and blocks air flow; no removal percentages are given.

Microbial bioremediationField pilot, 2016–2019

LIFE BIOREST project (LIFE15 ENV/IT/000396; Consorzio Italbiotec, University of Turin, Università Cattolica, CSIC, Actygea, ARPAE). Indigenous bacterial and fungal strains, selected in vitro and in pots, were multiplied and inoculated into a dedicated biopile in the former Carbochimica area, a demonstration volume of about 400 m³; the treated soil was then to be revegetated. The sources consulted do not name the species of the consortium used in the field.

Outcome According to the European Commission's LIFE project record: 38% higher hydrocarbon removal than control plots, 300 mg/kg of hydrocarbons removed in 60 days, final toxicity halved compared with controls, average cost 150 euro/t. ARPAE reports very good results in vitro and in pots, and difficulty in soils whose pores are filled with water.

MycoremediationLaboratory, with soil from the site, 2016–2020

Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium solani, Trichoderma lixii, Aspergillus spp., Pseudomonas putida, Achromobacter xylosoxidans, Ochrobactrum anthropi

Soil from the site, sampled at three depths (0–1, 1–2, 2–3 m), was enriched in the laboratory on benzene, paraffin, pyrene, naphthalene, phenanthrene and crude oil, tracking the bacterial and fungal communities by sequencing. Among the fungi isolated Fusarium dominated, followed by Trichoderma and Aspergillus; among the bacteria, Pseudomonas. Strain Trichoderma lixii MUT3171, isolated from the same soil and kept in the Mycotheca Universitatis Taurinensis, was later genome-sequenced.

Outcome 95 bacterial and 94 fungal strains able to grow on the pollutants were isolated. T. lixii MUT3171 grows on phenanthrene as its sole carbon source. The studies do not measure removal in soil.

Microbial bioremediationField scale, 1995–

In 1995 Carbochimica, still operating, had 86 bioslurping/bioventing wells built at the saturated/unsaturated interface: the oil extracted was recycled in the plant, the water de-oiled and treated on aerobic rotating biological contactors. The network, abandoned after the bankruptcy, was restored by the Municipality and is still run in sections A and B.

MycoremediationField pilot, 2016–2019

LIFE15 ENV/IT/000396, coordinated by Consorzio Italbiotec, with fungal strains kept in the University of Turin's Mycotheca and bacterial strains at the Università Cattolica. From over 500 strains isolated from the site's soil a native consortium of fungi and bacteria was selected, tested in microcosms and mesocosms and then in a biopile (about 400 m³ according to the LIFE record; over 530 t according to the partners). Vegetation was then re-established on the treated soil.

Outcome The LIFE record reports 300 mg/kg of hydrocarbons removed in 60 days, a final removal 38% higher than in the control plots and toxicity halved against the control, at an average cost of €150/t. These are figures stated by the project; no paper with the full series of measurements was found.

From the literature

Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.

Plants

Fungi

The rest are on the contaminant pages.

Nearby

Former SIN, Sassuolo (Modena) e Scandiano (Reggio Emilia), Emilia-Romagna

Sassuolo-Scandiano ceramic district

66 km

  • Lead

SIN, Mantova, Lombardia

Mantua Lakes and chemical complex

67 km

  • Mercury
  • Arsenic
  • Cadmium
  • Chromium

SIN, Broni (Pavia), Lombardia

Broni (former Fibronit plant)

68 km

  • Asbestos

SIN, Lombardia

Brescia-Caffaro

75 km

  • Polychlorinated biphenyls
  • Dioxins and furans
  • Mercury
  • Arsenic

PhytoremediationMicrobial bioremediation

Sources

  1. Siti contaminati di interesse nazionale (indicatore, dati a giugno 2024), ISPRA, 2024
  2. Riferimenti normativi per i SIN (aggiornamento 31 dicembre 2025), ISPRA, 2025
  3. Storia e prospettive della bonifica del SIN di Fidenza (E. Mozzanica), Ecoscienza 4/2021, ARPAE Emilia-Romagna, 2021
  4. Sito di Interesse Nazionale di Fidenza - Videoconferenza 15 gennaio 2024, Comune di Fidenza, 2024
  5. La riqualificazione del sito di Fidenza, Ecoscienza 3/2010, Regione Emilia-Romagna / ARPA, 2010
  6. Siti di Interesse Nazionale (SIN), Regione Emilia-Romagna, 2024
  7. LIFE BIOREST (LIFE15 ENV/IT/000396), European Commission, LIFE Public Database, 2019
  8. SENTIERI. Sesto Rapporto, Epidemiologia & Prevenzione 47(1-2) Suppl 1 (scheda Fidenza, pp. 138-139; SENTIERI6_Siti_informazioni), Istituto Superiore di Sanità / Epidemiologia & Prevenzione, 2023
  9. Spini G. et al., Frontiers in Microbiology 9:2543, Frontiers, 2018
  10. Venice F. et al., Microorganisms 8(9):1258 (coordinate del punto di campionamento), MDPI, 2020

Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.