Ilva at Taranto

Besides Sunday's primary for the Partito democtratico, one of the top news stories in Italy at the moment involves a steel mill at Taranto, in Puglia, closed by court order because of toxic emissions.  Italian newspapers have been carrying the story for several months but the situation has recently become more acute.  On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that workers had stormed the locked gates at the Ilva mill site in Taranto and that 1,000 workers at a sister facility in Genoa had taken to the streets.  Meanwhile, the Monti government is looking for a way to keep the plant open and at the same time make sure it's no longer a health threat.
 
Back at the end of July, local prosecutors had ordered the plant closed for health reasons; additionally 150 "injured parties" had health-related claims pending against the company.  The prosecutors charged that the Ilva plant, the largest steel mill in Europe, was emitting dust particles containing dioxin and PCBs, which had been settling on the city and surrounding countryside.  Although the company claimed to be complying with environmental rules, investigators had shown that it only did so during the daytime.  Italian newspapers at the time also recalled that several years earlier some 2,200 cows and goats on nearby farms had to be killed after they and their milk products were found to contain dangerous levels of toxic materials.
 
In August, a report to the Minister of Health found serious health problems in Taranto.  Rates of lung cancer were 30 percent above those for Italy generally; for respiratory illnesses rates were 50 percent higher for men and 40 percent higher for women.  It that point, almost three months ago, it was expected the national government would take the lead in finding a way to keep the plant operating while it was cleaned up.  There was talk of a total cost of 336 million euros, of which 98 percent would come from public funds.  Somehow, though, nothing happened.  And the Monti government is still trying to find a way out of the mess.


One might wonder how a steel mill came to be located in an area without much, if anything, in the way of necessary raw materials.  According to historian Paul Ginsborg (A History of Contemporary Italy), the original investment at Taranto followed designation by the Cassa del Mezzogiorno, a development agency for southern Italy, as a poli di sviluppo (development center).  Pressure from local Christian Democrat politicians helped the agency to commit to providing generous public assistance: straight-out grants of up to 20 percent of the  initial investment costs, plus loans of up to 70 percent at 4 percent interest for 15 years.  Given this early history, it's not surprising that the government would be heavily involved now to keep the plant operating and the workers employed.