After years of discussions, the final word was given on April 26 for a project aimed at taking water from Lake Bianco in the Gavia Pass.
- In 2010, the project began taking water from Lake Bianco in the Gavia Pass and using it to power artificial snow cannons.
- Local citizens opposed it and formed the Save White Lake Committee.
- On April 26, 2024, the council of Valfurva finally gave up the work.
After fourteen long years of work, protests and legal battles April 26, 2024 the word was definitely stated end on project focused on water collection White Laketo Gavia Passand use it to power artificial snow cannons. David defeats Goliath, comments the citizens meeting in the committee Let’s save Lake Bianco.
The reason for drilling at Lake Bianco
Lake Bianco is a natural basin located in the Stelvio National Park in the Brescia Alps. It rises to an altitude of 2,652 meters and is part of Tresero-Dosso del Vallon State Nature Reserve, established in 2005 to compensate for the damage the area suffered as a result of the Alpine Skiing World Championships.
However, these protections were not sufficient to prevent the birth of the project he was targeting collect water from the lake. Target? Use it for cannons that shoot artificial snow in Santa Caterina Valfurva and surrounding areas, saving the ski season despite the mild temperatures caused by climate change. In 2016, the company Santa Caterina Impianti (SCI Spa.) obtained authorization to expand pumping into Lake Bianco, in 2020 the green also arrived for completion pipe layingand in August 2023 bulldozers and drills they started digging again.
The village of Valfurva gives up the project
The citizens of the neighborhood did not stand and watch. At first it looked like a losing battle, but they formed a committee anyway Let’s save Lake Bianco and submitted a petition to the European Parliament, also thanks to a collection to cover court costs. The press and television drew attention to the case. Their team of technical and legal advisors developed a document of 42 pages, in response to the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra), which, through a recent opinion, claimed that there were no elements that would presuppose damage to the environment or endangerment of the habitat.
In the end, they prevailed. By resolution number 35 issued on April 26, in fact village of Valfurva, in the province of Sondrio, modified the contract with SCI spa, with “the exclusion of the extraction works on Lake Bianco at an altitude of 2,607 meters above sea level”. A step from the end, after many expenses and many invasive interventions in the territory, the project stops.
“However, the problem does not end there,” says the Save the White Lake committee. “The investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the European Commission is still in full swing and will soon reach a decision.” The Observatory of the Stelvio National Park Associations (which includes Cai, Federation pro natura, Italia nostra, Legambiente, Lipu, Mountain wilderness, Italian Touring Club, WWf Italia) requests immediately to define “interventions reclamation, restoration, restoration and renaturalization necessarily.”