Italy: Prosecutors investigate ex-minister over Solvay plant licence

Milan: Italy’s former energy transition minister Roberto Cingolani is under investigation by Rome prosecutors for having renewed an environmental authorisation to the Rosignano Solvay plant on a Tuscan beach in 2022, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday.

Cingolani, who has been CEO of Italy’s state-controlled defence and aerospace group Leonardo since May, is being investigated for the alleged offence of abuse of office, the sources said.

The investigation, which does not involve Solvay, arose after a lawsuit filed in 2022 by Giuseppe Bivona, activist co-founder of Bluebell Capital Partners, and Elio Lannutti, a former senator of the 5-star movement, who complained the minister had extended the authorisations for the chemical plant for five years before they expired.

The integrated environmental authorisation (AIA) is a measure that aims to verify the environmental compatibility of any given activity.

However, a source close to the ex-minister clarified that this was not an extension of the authorisation but a new authorisation, which was required by law because a change had occurred at the Belgian chemical group’s plant.

Solvay’s practices on the Tuscan beach – a plant that’s been running for over a century – have drawn scrutiny from environmentalists, activist Bluebell and the UN special rapporteur on toxics and human rights.

Mercury from the plant has contaminated the seabed, a 2020 report by Tuscany’s environmental protection agency said, while a 2017 finding by the Institute for Coastal Marine Environment said the material discharged threatened seagrass.

Solvay currently dumps 250,000 metric tons a year into the Mediterranean, a practice that has transformed the coastline, a stretch that has been dubbed the White Beaches, or Spiagge Bianche.

In September 2022 Solvay said it was planning to cut industrial waste discharged into the sea from soda-ash production on the Tuscan coast in the wake of pressure from environmentalists.

The chemical group, which had previously pushed back on concerns the waste may be harmful, said then in a statement it was planning to invest around 15 million euros ($16.3 million) to reduce the release of limestone residue into the sea at its facility in the Tuscan coastal village of Rosignano.

That will help cut the maximum it discharges into the sea by 20% compared to what regulators currently allow the company by 2030, it had said. By 2040, that volume will drop to 40% below what the authorities have said can be released into the sea.

In an annual report for 2021, the company said preliminary investigations were pending before the Criminal Court of Livorno regarding the contamination of certain areas around Rosignano.