The activities carried out by the Group generate water discharges, whose management is regulated by the Integrated Environmental Authorisations, the Single Environmental Authorisations and existing legislation:
- industrial discharges (including water used for the cooling of plants);
- integrated water service (process water from wastewater treatment and potable systems that do not contain particular pollutants);
- waste management and treatment;
- washing vehicles and industrial areas;
- discharge of domestic water at non-industrial sites.
Most water discharges are composed of water used in the cooling process at thermoelectric plants, which is discharged to surface water (rivers).
Discharges, like withdrawals, are also 7% lower than in 2020.
| Water discharges (m3/000)1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Destinations | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
|
Surface water |
494,744 |
536,634 |
558,470 |
|
Groundwater |
231 |
151 |
188 |
|
Seawater |
13,810 |
9,768 |
10,889 |
|
Sewerage |
6,500 |
6,481 |
6,838 |
|
Total |
515,285 |
553,034 |
576,385 |
1 All discharges (except seawater) are composed of freshwater (≤1,000 mg/L of total dissolved solids). For wastewater treatment plants, only process water is considered and not treated wastewater serving communities (see page 151).
The water withdrawn is almost totally returned to the environment: about 0.3% of withdrawals, equal to 1.5 million m3, is consumed in industrial processes. Predominantly water evaporated during production processes (WTE and thermoelectric plants) and used for the district heating networks.