Environment: The city of Porto Torres is not certainly one of the most famous destination of Sardinia. It is not Porto Cervo, it does not receive the homage of VIPs or prime ministers, it is not place for great hotels. Its citizens and the few tourists who visit it occasionally does not perpetuate the well-known rituals of Costa Smeralda, such as showers of sparkling wine at sunset, and nights where ostentation is the first commandment. In the marina there are not yachts of football players, businessmen and politicians, only simple tubs and worn vessels, some modest catamaran and fishing-trip boats. Passengers and cargo traffic is intense, but unable to stand the competition with the volumes produced by the port of Olbia. Porto Torres is not chosen by the tourist who wants to spend an holiday in Sardinia as well as the media have accustomed us to think. The Romans of Julius Caesar, the founders of the city in 46 B.C, however chose it, making it the second Sardinian colony after Karales - the actual Cagliari -, and made the place not only one of the most important commercial ports of the empire, in close contact with Ostia and Rome, but also a major port of the whole Mediterranean, an obligatory stop for ships from Gaul. A great location sheltered from winds and storms, the extraordinary beauty of the coastline, the fertility of the land irrigated by Rio Mannu, the presence of important limestone quarries and the cereal attitude of lands: those were the factors that drove the most important imperial domination in history to establish Turris Libisonis. To quote the writer Enrico Costa, the city “had temples, aqueducts and a capitol, gave the palm to three Christian martyrs and offered the throne to the lords of Pisa. Malignant fever and Saracen angrily went to war and then she fell exhausted. She saw the arches disappear under the sand and died giving his life to Sassari”.

Romans were succeeded by Pisans, Pisans were succeeded by Aragoneses, then in 1842 came the town of Porto Torres. Currently, the very hegemony is the industry, main source of revenue for the city. The activity of the large thermoelectric power and petrochemical industrial agglomeration has conditioned over the years not only the economic structure of the city, but also the same urban planning. A mad enterprise policy has seen in these areas the ideal venue for the realization of one of the most important Italian chemical centers; needless to say such as pollution and the recent failure of the purposes of further industrialization have contributed to create a fracture - morphological and psychological - between the city and industry, charming and contaminated, people and system. From years citizens demand more security and more guarantees for the safety of individuals and territory, to which they are so deeply rooted .

“I feel Sardinian. Then Italian.” said Antonio, who works as seller. His words are the same spoken by Giovanni, laborer, and Gavino, a farmer. Cultural identity is a trademark here, and an abuse to earth is an abuse to men. It is for this reason that the common discontent has emerged so vehemently when the news of the incident spread in the island. They talk about it in this way here, the incident, because the term oil spill is scary. No one can explain how it could happen that from a laceration of the size of a nail - just 19 mm of hole in a pipe of 24 inches - have leaked, according to initial estimates, 20 m³ of fuel oil. The Prosecutor opened an investigation to establish any responsibility; proved, by now, it's just that the kind of substance that Tuesday January 11 has spilled into the sea during an operation of discharge at the Fiume Santo thermoelectric industry, undergoes a volume increase equal to sixteen times the initial data. The slick of 18.000 liters has flooded a vast area of the Gulf of Asinara, and now threatens to reach the coast of Corsica, driven by the currents. The fissure that at first was assumed could be the cause of the oil spill, should have interest a newly constructed pier, which was inaugurated in 2002; the indicted tube seems to have been exposed to the erosive action of sea currents that, without proper precautions in design and realization, may have led to the accident occurred. Underway investigations seek to establish whether all the security measures provided by the technical specifications from user requirements are met.

The spillage also showed some flaws in the emergency plan implemented at the time of the accident, procedure which provided the perimeter of the tanker "Esmeralda" moored at the quay with floats that should have contained the leak, limiting it to the port. In reality the emergency plan has proved ineffectual, since the loss has affected areas unprotected. The intervention of nature initially limited the damage that human negligence could have resulted in a much more disastrous: it was only thanks to the fortuitous presence of the west wind before, and Mistral then, that the Sardinian oil spill could skip the city of Porto Torres - already subject to very serious problems of coastal erosion threatening collapses and landslides along the coast – to head East, away from the famous beaches of Stintino, from the National Park of Asinara and the Protected Marine Area of Asinara and Isola Piana. The relief is only temporary, however: the oil slick reached the dune wind systems linking the eutrophic Platamona Pond with the sea. To witness the enormous environmental heritage that the Romans had wisely recognized, just think that this pond, just over 27 Km², is home to a flora diversified in as many as 174 species, two of which are unique in Sardinia and rare in the rest of Italy: Utricularia vulgaris and Erianthus Ravennae*. And then the reeds, beds of rushes, juniper bushes: the area, in other words, have a fundamental botanical interest for the protection of biodiversity flora of Sardinia, and is protected by European Union. It is not enough: the pond is home to many species of migratory birds, the first innocent victims of the ecological disaster in which in Italy you do not hear about.

Currently have passed, in fact, more than twenty days after the fuel escape: Rubygate continues to occupy pages of newspapers and news broadcasts, and only a few of Italians were informed of the incident. Even fewer have any idea of its severity: the clean-up operations could not prevent the death of fish and birds, tarred beaches, and the anger of citizens for the miles of coastline dotted with black and shiny spots, carcinogens on contact. This, at least, is what happened one week after the disaster. Now the situation is quite different: the offense hypothesized against the E.On, the German company that manages the Fiume Santo industry, is about “serious environmental damage”. Citizens, merchants and hoteliers have formed a committee in these days wishing a civil action. Activists of IRS** flew over the coast in order to assess sea conditions. The situation appeared calm, such to reassure the population that the emergency was passed, except to note that the operations of cleaning up, to date held with simple shovels and rakes, will prove more complex than expected. In fact, even though oil appears in sporadic "plates" of the size of a basketball in the first points of the coast of Sorso, close to the dune system antecedent the pond the situation is quite different.

The descent to the sea in the locality dubbed “Eden Beach” has turned into a black and gelatinous expanse. Wind and storms, in recent days, led small patches of oil also in Stintino on the famous beach La Pelosa and on adjacent beaches Saline and Ezi Mannu. The coves of Platamona and the rocky coast of Porto Torres were hit by dense and black wavess, while the well-known beach of Balai succeeded to "escape" thanks to its natural amphitheater conformation. And also damage to Capo Testa, Spargi, Santa Teresa di Gallura; the leader of the Maritime Compartment of La Maddalena declared the state of emergency. The tar balls related with the navy straw residues transported on the shoreline and with posidonia of the sea bed. On 24 January congressmen Giampiero Scanu and Francesco Sanna presented to Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo a parliamentary question which was followed by a request to the Presidency of the Council of a technical assessment on the disaster. At the Environment Committee of the chamber, the minister spoke about a spill of 46.000 liters of fuel oil, l'80% of which had already been recovered. Winter temperatures have in fact allowed the oil to mix, facilitating the removal.

The initial estimate of 18.000 liters was conducted on the basis of a mathematical model which took into account a speed of intervention that it has not occurred, since the alarm was given only a few hours after the birth of the damage, when the pollutant limited in a single spot on sea surface. Despite the damage, it was not yet declared any state of emergency. The matter seemed of great importance in the eyes of Senator Fabio Rizzi, who addressed a written question to the Minister of Environment wondering “if it requires, in agreement with the Ministry of Productive Activities, to prepare a plan for conversion of petrochemical plants in order to create new activities and expectations of work environmentally friendly with the Gulf of Asinara.”. It seems that only now, damage done, the establishment of a petrochemical industry within an arena of Regional and National Parks, beaches with crystal clear waters, marine protected areas, sanctuaries for cetaceans and coastal areas of extraordinary significance of flora and fauna, appears for what it is: an inconceivable breach of the most basic principles of environmental compatibility, whose expenses will be paid by the people of Sardinia.

*          Giau, 1986; Valsecchi, 1991

**        Indipendentzia Repubrica de Sardigna