The Toxic White Beaches of Rosignano Solvay...
Signboards pointing to the “Spiagge bianche” (“White beaches”) in Rosignano Solvay, a small town in southern Tuscany, have been luring many thousands of tourists to this stretch of Tyrrhenian shoreline for years. However, few of the kitesurfers and sunbathers that flock to the “Spiagge Bianche” every summer seem to be aware that this stunningly white sand is not the usual combination of coral remains, broken shells, tropical Foraminifera that is typical of Caribbean beaches. The imposing presence of the nearby Solvay chemical plant, with its smokestacks spewing out steam into the warm summer air, is an unequivocal sign that chemistry has something to do with the blinding color of the beaches.
In fact, one of the main products manufactured at the Solvay plant in Rosignano is Sodium carbonate, or soda ash, a sodium salt of carbonic acid which is an essential raw material used in many applications such as the manufacture of glass, detergents and soaps. Sodium carbonate is widely produced via the Solvay process, named after Ernest Solvay, the founder of the Belgian chemical giant, which established one of its largest production sites in Rosignano back in 1912.
The main by-product of the Solvay process, calcium chloride, has been discharged into the sea for decades and, together with limestone, has turned the shoreline of Rosignano into a white, although artificial, tropical heaven.
In a report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1999, Rosignano was listed among the “Priority pollution hot spots and sensitive areas in the Mediterranean”. In recent years, local environmental activists have repeatedly called for actions aimed at assessing potential hazards posed by the discharge of chemicals into the sea.
In July 2013, at the end of a 4-year inquiry held by the District Attorney of the City of Livorno, the Company admitted to charges that wastewaters from the Rosignano-based plant were purposely diluted in order stay within environmental regulation limits. High-rank managers of the factory plea-bargained to pay fines from 10,000 to 30,000 Euro and, most importantly, Solvay committed to investing millions in remediation measures aimed at reducing the risk of inadequately-treated wastewater discharges into the sea.
The Company’s commitment may – hopefully – avert the possibility that the Rosignano shoreline would turn into the environmental nightmare that is Onondaga Lake – next to the city of Syracuse, New York State – into which Solvay dumped industrial waste for decades, until it became “the most polluted lake in America”.
