Rust, dust and superyachts as America's Cup lands in Naples

By Crispian Balmer

BAGNOLI, Italy, March 21 (Reuters) - Rusted factory skeletons loom over a shoreline poisoned by decades of heavy industry on the western fringes of Naples, which will next year host sailing's glamorous America's Cup.

Dredgers are deepening the seabed in readiness for the racing yachts, excavators are tearing up an old pier and crews are preparing the ground for what is meant to be a temporary harbour for the high-tech, carbon-fibre boats.

The sailing extravaganza, awarded to Italy last year, has generated a broader battle over whether it will finally help clean up the Bagnoli littoral, or simply bury its toxic past.

Politicians say the regatta is a desperately needed catalyst for reclaiming one of Italy's most polluted waterfronts, which used to house a smoke-spewing steel mill, cement factory and asbestos plant.

"I see the America's Cup as a chance to speed up the environmental cleanup that was already planned, particularly offshore, where work wasn't supposed to start until 2031," said Enza Amato, the centre-left head of Naples City Council.

"For me, the most important thing is the chance to improve the water quality sooner and make the sea usable again."

TEMPORARY FIXES, LASTING CONSEQUENCES

For many residents, activists and small-business owners, the work looks less like redemption than a familiar pattern: a grand promise made in the name of progress, with no guarantee it will lead to long-term gain.

Instead of delivering the long-promised public beach and park for this stretch of Mediterranean coast, critics fear the America's Cup could lock in a future of luxury marinas, concrete and "temporary" infrastructure.

"The issue is not whether we host the America's Cup or not. The issue is doing it properly," former Naples Mayor Antonio Bassolino told Reuters. "Naples needs a large beach, because we don't have one and here is the only place for us to create one."

Ironically, when Naples last hosted the America's Cup in 2013, a breakwater built to shelter the svelte yachts was meant to be dismantled after the event, but has remained ever since, too costly to remove, local officials said.

Critics say the city prefers temporary fixes because under Italian law, they do not require onerous environmental impact assessments that can take months or years to complete.

"Unfortunately in Naples, temporary projects have the habit of becoming permanent," Bassolino said.

Italian hopes next year will be pinned on Luna Rossa, the team backed by Prada boss Patrizio Bertelli, which are aiming to become the challenger to America's Cup holders New Zealand.

However, the bigger issue at present is not Italy's prospects on the water, but the work happening on land -- notably a coastal landfill containing an estimated one million cubic meters (35 million cubic feet) of industrial waste, which was left when the last of the factories closed in 1992.

Initial plans envisaged removing it entirely to guarantee a safe shoreline for future generations in Bagnoli, which lies in a volcanic area jolted by hundreds of tremors every year.

Instead, officials have opted to remove only a fraction of the furnace slag and cover the rest with vast geomembrane sheets to isolate the contamination ahead of building hangars and workshops for the race teams.

"The cleanup is a sham," said Ines Clemente, a Bagnoli bar owner who has organised a petition against the works. "It's just covering everything up and sweeping it under a rug."

CONVOYS CARRY AWAY DIRT, DEPOSIT DUST

Even if they are not emptying the dump, workers are scraping away the top layer of waste and removing thousands of tons of contaminated sand and stone from the seabed to create a level basin for the anchorage.

Much of the material is being carried away by lorries that rumble through Bagnoli, once an elegant spa town before industry took over in the mid-20th century.

Clemente says her bar is now coated with dust, while road closures and heavy truck traffic have driven away clients.

"In the evening I find my bar empty," she said. "I'm constantly cleaning the shelves and tables, but people feel uncomfortable. It's as if they can taste the dust."

Earlier this month, protesters clashed with riot police as neighbourhood groups brandished banners reading: "Stop the work of shame" and "Naples is not for sale".

Speaking in Italy this week, Grant Dalton, chief executive of America's Cup Partnership, hailed the pace of work at Bagnoli, saying such a project could have taken years elsewhere. Acknowledging the protests, he said the goal was to revive the run-down area and place it at the heart of the event.

While Clemente hopes her bar will recover once the redevelopment is complete, another Bagnoli resident, Paola Minieri, worries she will end up losing her home because of it.

Under a city project to upgrade the area, pre-dating the America's Cup contract, her house is earmarked for demolition.

GREAT VIEWS, HIGH PRICE TAG

Minieri's family has lived in Borgo Coroglio, a cluster of old seafront homes adjacent to the America's Cup port, for more than a century. The city council has said the area needs to be cleared for the "public good", but has yet to present detailed plans on what will come next, apart from acknowledging that new residential units will be built.

Such desirable beachfront real estate, with views of the islands of Ischia and Procida, would come with a big price tag.

"Just because we're poor doesn't mean we should have to leave and make way for the rich," said Minieri, a clothes saleswoman. "We agree with the cleanup, we agree with the America's Cup, we are not the people who say 'no'. But this place must first and foremost be for local people."

Living in Bagnoli has come at a cost for many residents.

Minieri said 10 members of her extended family had died from asbestos-linked cancers that local doctors say could be triggered by exposure to pollutants from the old factories.

"Maybe we should have left before, but we didn't. Now that something good is finally happening, they want to send us packing," she said.

City council chief Amato said a final decision had not yet been taken. "It is a very delicate situation," she said.