The Impact of Local Regulations on Land Use Planning for Seveso Sites: SMEs Perspective

According to the Piedmont Seveso laws, it is compulsory for the Municipalities with a Seveso plant within their territory the drafting of a Technical Document called RIR - Rischio di Incidente Rilevante (Major Risk Accident). The document requires first of all a detailed investigation concerning all the potential dangerous enterprises settled in the district: obviously the Seveso plants, but also all the typologies of production that involve high temperature/high pressure, or employment of radiations and carcinogenic substances. Furthermore, the Municipalities have a to identify another category of plants, which is not specified in the national laws: the "Subthreshold" plants, which hold an amount of hazardous substances equal to 20% of the thresholds fixed by the Decree no. 334/1999 to be identified as a Seveso plant. The process for the identification of non-Seveso plants is based on questionnaires sent to the enterprises: it can be very difficult both for the Municipalities and the companies, because they frequently aren't accustomed to the prescriptions and terms of the Seveso laws. Furthermore, after this step, the Municipalities could require another effort to the plant managers, concerning the adoption of measures for the environmental protection, as prescribed in the Provincial Guidelines. The present paper analyses the Piedmont Seveso laws from an industrial point of view, in order to highlight the difficulties that the application of the Land Use Planning local regulations could find in a complex and multifaceted world of SMEs in a period of economic depression.