Residents in parts of Benevento have been living with foul odors for months, and opposition councilors now link that long-running complaint to pollution in the Calore River. Their argument, reported by NTR24 on 22 September 2026, is blunt: earlier alarms were ignored.
The case brings together two issues that are distinct but connected in local debate: odor nuisance attributed to the biomethane plant in Contrada San Domenico, and contamination in the Calore River marked by foam and dead fish.
What the opposition claims
According to the opposition reconstruction, citizens have coped with odors and related disruption for months.
The councilors point specifically to the period before the river episode. They say a communication from ARPAC, the Campania regional environmental agency, dated 23 July raised the possibility that wastewater with a high organic load from biomass treatment could have affected the treatment capacity of Multiservice, the local wastewater operator. Two days later, on 25 July, suspicious foam appeared on the Calore and fish died.
That sequence is presented by the opposition as evidence that warning signs were available before the river incident. It has not been independently verified in the documents reviewed that the 23 July ARPAC communication caused or predicted the 25 July event.
NTR24 also reports an opposition claim concerning about 17,000 tonnes of stored biomass. That figure is presented as an opposition allegation and is not confirmed by a technical or administrative act in the material reviewed.
ARPAC findings at Contrada San Domenico
ARPAC has documented structural and management problems at the biomethane plant in Contrada San Domenico, in northern Benevento.
According to the agency, the plant showed departures from the approved project and failure to comply with requirements intended to reduce odor emissions. The issues cited include organic material storage, covering of tanks, and the adequacy of the biofilter used to abate odors.
These are the technical points behind much of the local dispute: how organic material was stored and handled, whether tanks were properly covered, and whether the odor-abatement system worked as authorized.
Suspension and seizure
After the ARPAC dossier on departures from the authorized conditions, the Municipality of Benevento ordered suspension of the plant's activities until the prescriptions were met and the authorized conditions restored.
Press reporting also describes seizure of the plant and an order to remove badly smelling waste material. The practical focus since then has been emptying, storage conditions, tank coverage, and the biofilter.
Residents demand controls during handling operations
Residents and the San Domenico civic committee have pressed for inspections during the handling, transfer, and storage of organic materials.
They have asked for urgent checks by the local health authority, ASL, and ARPAC, and for coordination involving the Prosecutor's Office and the Prefecture. The requests reflect concern about the phases when material is moved and stored, without assigning a final technical conclusion about emissions in this article.
Two tracks in one public debate
The public discussion has two tracks:
- Odor nuisance connected with the San Domenico plant, where ARPAC found non-compliance with odor-mitigation requirements.
- Pollution of the Calore River, with foam and fish mortality reported on 25 July, and an opposition hypothesis linking high-organic-load effluents to reduced treatment capacity at Multiservice.
A causal link between the biomethane plant and the river pollution has not been established in the documents reviewed. Complete analytical results for the foam and fish mortality were not available in the material reviewed.
At a glance: the San Domenico and Calore case
- ARPAC found structural and management departures at the biomethane plant.
- Benevento suspended plant activity until authorized conditions are restored.
- The opposition asks for clarification of the relationship between effluents, wastewater treatment, and Calore pollution.
What remains unclear
Several points remain open. The full laboratory results for the river episode are not available in the reviewed sources. The claimed quantity of stored biomass has not been confirmed by an acquired technical act. And the question of administrative, management, or criminal responsibility remains unresolved.
For readers in Benevento and the Sannio area, the next verifiable steps to watch are compliance with the municipal suspension order, completion of waste removal ordered for the site, ARPAC and ASL inspection outcomes, and any findings released by judicial or prefectural authorities on the river incident.
