Biological monitoring system, iTOXcontrol, continues in Scarlino

Biological toxicity monitoring of Seawater

The recorded death of fish in the river that flows out of the industrial zone of Scarlino has created the need of the installation of a biological alarm system. The decision was made to work with an automatic system, iTOXcontrol created by microLAN-The Netherlands represented in Italy by Ecotox Lds, which uses marine bacteria. The system compares the values of the light emission from these organisms at the entrance and exit of the canal, generating alarms in the presence of toxic substances.

iTOXcontrol monitoring installed

An innovative monitoring system has been installed in 2014 at the end of June, inside the river that flows out of the industrial zone of Scarlino (Province of Grosseto) in the zone of Casone. This area is the home of the most important industrial zone of the province, which includes production facilities of the following companies: Nuova Solmine, Tioxide Europe and Scarlino Energia. The plant uses only seawater for cooling, and this is pumped from an artificial river above the ground named delivery canal. After the industrial use, the water flows back into the sea using above ground canals, which are known as the returning canals.
Within the main stream, different drains from the numerous purification plants unite as well as the communal ones of Scarlino and Follonica.
The canal, provided by Nuova Solmine is from the ’60 and is located at the border between the two municipality of Scarlino and Follonica (GR).