Andrea Foligni, Italy
WHITER (white water) "The project continues from my first ""Apuan Carbonate"", relative to the pollution of mountain environment in Apuan Alps, Tuscany, Italy and talks about rivers. One of the most important water reserves in Tuscany but constantly under threat by polluting action from the processing of the marble quarries waste, especially marble dust. It's called ""marmettola"" and is classified as special waste; contaminated by metals, oils and fats used in the manufacturing process, the marmettola dust should be stored and treated in landfills but often is abandoned in yards or spilled into rivers. When it rains (and in this area it happens very often) Frigido and Carrione rivers and their tributaries turn white as milk. The marmettola sludge fills the gaps between rocks and makes the riverbed waterproof, speeding the water runoff, corrupts the habitat of many animal and plant species, alters the natural supply processes of the aquifer, can causes drying of the water sources. A serious deterioration of the balance of an entire ecosystem. Secondly, the cost of the water purification increases and it's paid by inhabitants of the area. Another story of environmental devastation in a land which is already tormented by pollution, a story of neglect and selfishness in the name of profit at all costs."