Italian court imposes clean-up deadline on cement plant
Published by MAC on 2012-10-16Source: PlanetArk
For the second time in as many weeks, owners of a polluting Italian industrial plant have been given a deadline to "clean up or close down".
At the end of September, the notorious ILVA steel smelter was shut when it failed to meet a similar deadline. See: ILVA steel "clean-up" plan booted out by Italian judge
Now, a court has given Italy's largest cement producer, Italcementi, until October 21st to control toxic emissions from its Colleferro plans.
Otherwise it will face the same fate.
Italy court seizes Italcementi plant over emissions
PlanetArk
12 October 2012
Italian authorities have taken control of a cement plant belonging to Italcementi, the world's fifth-largest cement maker, over allegations of illegal toxic emissions, the company said on Thursday.
The company has been given 10 days to finish updating its facilities to bring them in line with European Union regulations, during which time production at the plant will continue, according to a statement.
Italcementi said the process of updating the plant had already been underway for some weeks and would continue under special administrators appointed to operate the factory by the court.
Justice officials said the seizure for violation of pollution regulations was ordered by a court in the nearby town of Velletri, based on a report by the regional environmental protection agency, Arpa.
This is the second case this year of an Italian court seizure of a major factory for environmental reasons.
Europe's biggest steel plant Ilva, based in southern Italy, was ordered to shut down last month by a court due to toxic emissions.
The ruling prompted a series of protests by unions and opposition from within Mario Monti's government as the factory is a vital employer in a region of high joblessness, causing something of a political headache for the technocrat leader.
Italcementi, one of Italy's 10 largest industrial companies and the country's biggest cement producer, has plants across the country and employs roughly 200 workers at the plant in Colleferro, southeast of Rome.
The Colleferro plant produces about 2 percent of Italcementi's total annual output of 74 million tonnes of cement per year, according to the company's Web site.
(Reporting by Naomi O'Leary; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters)