DARK WATERS

"Dirty Waters" is the third chapter of my long-term project on pollution in Italy. Following the first chapter on toxic waste in the so-called "Land of Fires" in Campania and the second chapter on petrochemical pollution in Sicily, this latest chapter focuses on the environmental disaster caused by the release of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) into the drinking water in Veneto.

In Veneto, one of the wealthiest regions of northern Italy, Miteni Spa, an Italian company affiliated to American chemical manufacturer DuPont, managed for decades to discard the carcinogenic industrial chemicals known as PFAS or “Forever Chemicals” into the local water system. In 2018 Miteni went bankrupt after a severe dispersion of polluting substances (PFAS) affecting the aquifer of a large portion of Veneto was discovered.
After years of study and research on Po basin and other Italian rivers, in 2016 the Italian National Institute of Health officialized that hypercholesterolemia, pregnancy hypertension, infertility, thyroid related pathologies, kidney cancer and testicular cancer are Pfas contamination related pathologies.
Movements against PFAS are spreading all over Europe. In Italy, still too few people are aware of their effect in our water system. This is why it is so important to report on a local grassroots movement—led by moms—who have organized and managed to send Miteni to court. Last May the Court summoned Robert Bilott, 58, the American lawyer, who has been fighting for over 25 years to alert us to the ravages of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).