Porto Torres industrial areas

The farmland west of Porto Torres was turned over to industry from the 1960s. From 1964 SIR (Sarda Industrie Resine) started phenol-acetone, cumene and styrene units and then the first steam cracker for ethylene; the Sardoil refinery started in 1967; PVC, polystyrene and polyethylene followed at the end of the decade. In the early 1980s the complex passed to ENI, which closed many units (the refinery shut in 1981). The Fiume Santo power station grew up alongside.

Contamination is attributed mainly to the former petrochemical plant and to the Minciaredda area, where production residues were dumped. In groundwater it is widespread: metals, BTEX, chlorinated solvents, PAHs, hydrocarbons and chlorobenzenes, with thick layers of floating product (LNAPL) and sometimes sinking product (DNAPL). In soil: metals, BTEX, hydrocarbons, PAHs, carcinogenic chlorinated and halogenated aliphatics and chlorobenzenes. SENTIERI reports mercury, arsenic and heavy hydrocarbons in sediments, and metals in fish.

The SIN perimeter was set in 2003; the former Calancoi landfill (Sassari) was added in 2005 and the sea area in 2016. Environmental works began in 1998; groundwater remediation was authorised in 2011 and soil remediation for the first areas in 2014.