Island in fear of Concordia’s toxic stew

Giglio, Italy: A toxic soup of rotting food, chemicals and other debris is expected to spew out of the Costa Concordia when the cruise ship is hauled upright on Monday.

There are fears that the operation could pollute the pristine waters of Giglio, the Italian island where the ship capsized last year. The Costa Concordia was beginning a week-long cruise in the Mediterranean when it capsized and its larders and freezers were packed to capacity with vast quantities of fresh food, dried goods, drinks and other supplies for its 4,200 passengers and crew.

Trapped inside the upturned hull are more than 24,000lbs (10,886kg) of fish, nearly 5,500lbs of cheese, 1,500 gallons of ice cream in tubs, 24,000lbs of pasta, 2,000lbs of onions, more than 2,000 pots of jam and nearly 17,000 tea bags. Rotting beneath the waterline are more than 17,000lbs of raw beef, nearly 11,000 eggs, 2,346 hot dog buns, 815lbs of rabbit meat and more than 1,000 gallons of milk. Some of the food and drink is sealed, including 18,000 bottles of wine, 22,000 cans of Coca-Cola, 1,000 bottles of extra virgin olive oil, 46,000 miniature bottles of spirits and 10 bottles of communion wine for the ship’s chapel.

In addition to the rotting food, there are oils, lubricants and other chemicals inside the vessel, including 65 gallons of paint and 10 gallons of insecticide, as well as thousands of items such as mattresses, clothing, shoes, crockery and plastic sun loungers.

An estimated 29,000 cubic metres of contaminated water is expected to gush out of the vessel as she is hauled upright. The engine oil and diesel has, at least, been removed — 2,400 tons was extracted from fuel tanks by a Dutch salvage firm. The bodies of a middle-aged Italian woman and an Indian waiter were never recovered and may also be inside the Concordia.

Remotely operated submarines will search for human remains. Elio Vincenzi, 64, a maths teacher from Sicily whose wife Maria Grazia Trecarichi died in the disaster, said: “I don’t feel hate or rancour. I just want to find my wife’s body, to bury her at home in Sicily and to know what happened in those last minutes.”

The ship is lying at an acute angle and it was considered not possible to try to extract the food stuffs and other materials, as divers, engineers and other experts worked to prepare the salvage operation. The ship, which capsized in January 2012 with the loss of 32 lives, is due to be raised with the help of a complex system of winches, cables and giant hollow compartments, in the biggest operation of its kind in maritime history.

At 114,500 tons, the Concordia is twice as big as the Titanic. Salvage experts and officials from Costa Cruises are confident the dirty water will be contained by absorbent booms on the surface of the sea and nets extending towards the seabed.

Nick Sloane, the South African engineer in charge of the salvage operation, said the first four to five hours would be crucial. “That’s when we will start to feel relieved,” he said. “There are still a lot of unknown factors.”

The nightmare scenario is that the 950ft-long, rust-streaked cruise liner breaks up and sinks. Arpat, Tuscany’s environmental protection agency, said the quality of the water would be monitored after the salvage operation starts at 6am local time.

After living with what one newspaper called “the white whale” at the entrance to Giglio’s main port for 20 months, islanders are praying the salvage operation goes according to plan.

“We know there are risks. But we can’t wait for the ship to be raised and towed away,” said Aldo Bartoletti, from the Giglio council. The ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, is on trial in the city of Grosseto, accused of multiple counts of manslaughter and abandoning ship. He has denied the charges, claiming the rocks the ship hit as it passed the island in a “salute” were not marked on his charts.