Porto Marghera (Venice)

The Porto Marghera industrial zone began in 1917 as an extension of the port of Venice for oil and coal. Chemicals, petrochemicals, refineries, metallurgy and electrometallurgy, and power generation followed. Many plants have since closed, but Porto Marghera is still one of Italy's main chemical districts.

The pollution has three origins, according to the parliamentary commission of inquiry on the waste cycle: the shoreline was pushed forward using waste from the first industrial zone as fill; chlorinated compounds such as vinyl chloride monomer and PCBs were released unchecked into soil and groundwater; and what was emitted to the air fell back to the ground. The soil holds arsenic, chromium, mercury, nickel and PAHs; the groundwater the same metals, PAHs and organochlorines.

The site has been a SIN since 1998. The 2004 Master Plan divides it into 15 "macro-islands" to be enclosed by containment walls along the banks, which keep contaminated groundwater from leaving for the lagoon; the water drained behind the walls goes to the Fusina Integrated Project, the plant that also treats industrial effluent and rainwater from the polluted sites. The programme agreement of 16 April 2012 simplified procedures and set operating protocols, including one for experimental remediation, which needs no prior authorisation.

In 2019 some stretches still had no containment (for instance Alcoa and Enel, under regional responsibility) and some areas were not yet piped to Fusina; changes of ownership and the difficulty of identifying those responsible have slowed the procedures.