State of the Art on Contaminated Sediments in Italy

Italy has about 7900 km of coastline, which is densely populated and has a strategic role for the national economy. The marine areas facing the coasts have often heavily polluted sediments. No official data are available about the amount dredged annually. Unfortunately, the laws pertaining to the topic are quite numerous and tangle the management of the dredged materials. At some sites, in situ sediments are classified according to the pollutant concentrations, resulting in different requirements, remediation priorities or different management options. At other sites, sediments are also checked from the ecotoxicological point of view. Treatments and/or reuse options (landfarming, phytoremediation, supercritical water extraction, electrokinetics, sandy fraction recovery, extraction of metallurgical silicon, and reuse of sediments for cementitious mixtures) are being investigated in few research projects involving Italian/foreign universities or research centers, national/international private companies and, in most cases, public authorities.