An investment of 36 million euros is planned for the construction of a plant inside the Parona incinerator, intended to burn 137 thousand tons of sludge, or wastewater residues, every year. This project has raised concerns among the environmental committees of Parona and the surrounding areas, as it will increase the capacity of the Lomellina Energia incinerator, managed by A2A, from 380 thousand to 492 thousand tons of waste incinerated annually. The project, which has been discussed for some time, is now official and has been presented to the Lombardy Region. Citizens and local authorities can submit comments by August 18. The project dossier, consisting of numerous attachments, was drawn up by the German company Tauw, specialized in environmental engineering since 1929. According to the CEO of Lomellina Energia, Paolo Angeloni, "the potential environmental impacts, such as traffic and emissions, have been mitigated and are not significant". The plant will be built within the current perimeter of the incinerator and will include a system of tanks and technologies for drying the sludge. The goal is to thermally treat the sludge to convert it into combustible waste, an alternative to its use in agriculture, a practice that has been banned in Switzerland since 2006 and in Germany since 2017, and will come into force in 2030. The designers claim that the new plant will have no additional environmental impacts and will not increase emissions. It is now up to the Region, the Municipality of Parona, the Province and the Ticino Park to assess the environmental impact of the project. The renovation of the Parona incinerator is not limited to the new sludge plant. Construction is also underway on a third line of the incinerator, which will replace the first, inaugurated in the late 1990s. The new line will be operational in 2022 and, according to Lomellina Energia, will reduce pollutant emissions, increasing electricity production from 44 to 52 megawatts.