A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria: Punta Izzo (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Punta Izzo, the project for the reclamation of the shooting range has 
been approved ---- But the limits of pollutants are those (much higher) 
of the industrial areas ---- The mobilization of citizens and 
associations moves the institutions and produces results. After almost a 
decade of complaints and 27 years after the last live fire exercises, 
the reclamation project for the Punta Izzo military range has finally 
been approved. But that's only minimally good news; because, as 
expected, the reclamation will concern limited portions of the closed 
polygon (for a surface area of 560 m2 out of a total of 1800 m2). 
However, no environmental investigation has been planned externally, 
i.e. in the remaining coastal and marine area of Punta Sant'Elia where 
for at least twenty years there has been shooting "in the open" and 
without any containment barrier.

Furthermore, and this is the most worrying fact, those areas of the 
range whose contamination levels are within the legal limits prescribed 
for industrial areas will be excluded from the cleanup. However, these 
limits are far higher than those that apply to green areas. To give an 
example, in green areas the threshold for lead is 100 mg/kg, compared to 
a threshold of 1000 mg/kg for industrial areas, ten times higher. While 
for the sum of polycyclic aromatic compounds, the threshold allowed in 
industrial areas is even 100 times higher than that in green areas (1 
mg/kg versus 100 mg/kg).

Punta Izzo, in short, is treated as if it were the land of a factory, 
where the quantity of dangerous substances tolerated is by law 
incompatible with the public use of a natural park. If the thresholds 
prescribed for green areas had been taken as a reference, the 
environmental analyzes carried out in 2017 by the soldiers of the Joint 
Technical Logistics Center of Civitavecchia would have highlighted, in 
addition to the large presence of lead and copper, cobalt contamination, 
selenium, vanadium, zinc and diphenylamine. The latter in particular, 
used as an additive in ammunition, was found to be excessive in 10 of 
the 14 sampling points carried out, and in quantities up to 10 times 
higher than the limit (1.04 mg/kg compared to a threshold of 0.1 mg/kg).

As is known, it was the "Protected Environment" decree (never a less apt 
name) in 2014 that equated industrial areas and military zones for the 
purposes of reclamation. But Punta Izzo, whose conversion to civil uses 
has been requested for years , it remains a military zone only on paper. 
In fact, for at least 30 years, no military exercises have been carried 
out in the coastal area. And while the civic request for 
demilitarization is officially firmly denied, Marisicilia allows guided 
tours and excursions promoted by associations and enthusiasts of war deeds.

For these reasons, and with a view to returning Punta Izzo to free use 
as an eco-cultural park, the reclamation should be carried out according 
to the contamination thresholds envisaged for green areas, extending 
environmental investigations to all spaces, terrestrial and marine, used 
for more than half a century for live fire exercises. Otherwise, the 
damage would be followed by insult: the burden of reclaiming the future 
park would fall on the Region or the Municipality of Augusta, following 
the hoped-for demilitarization.

Unfortunately none of these objections were raised by the municipal 
administration in the service conferences. Indeed, the Municipality of 
Augusta was among those absent at the last decisive conference on 19 
July 2023 which gave the green light to the reclamation project 
presented by Marisicilia. The environmental associations Natura Sicula 
and Punta Izzo Possibile were excluded from this conference, although 
they had expressly requested participation.

In the coming weeks, as done for past governments since 2017, we will 
send a request to the Minister of Defense Crosetto aimed at finding out 
the executive's plans regarding the future use of Punta Izzo. Given the 
times, we have no illusions. Once the reclamation and environmental 
monitoring have been completed, the risk is that the project for the new 
shooting range will become relevant again. Together with our opposition.

Punta Izzo Coordination Possible

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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