Grotticelle landfill, the Tar slows down: 30 days to decide on the project between Naro and Canicattì

The Regional Administrative Court for Sicily has issued a new ordinance regarding the complex legal matter involving the company Soambiente and its project for the construction of a non-hazardous special waste landfill in contrada Grotticelle.

The dispute arises from the denial issued by regional authorities for the construction of the facility between the territories of Naro, Castrofilippo, Camastra, and Canicattì. The company has challenged several administrative acts, including the negative environmental compatibility judgment expressed by the Regional Department of Territory and Environment in February 2023 and the subsequent denial of the Regional Single Authorization Provision. The company has faced a series of opposing opinions not only from regional and technical offices but also from the municipalities. Among the reasons for the denial are negative assessments from the Superintendency for Cultural Heritage of Agrigento and the non-compliance of the filling materials with regional technical standards.

The matter has gone through several levels of judgment until the Council of Administrative Justice recently annulled the first-instance decision, returning the case to the first-instance judge for a new examination. On December 10, 2025, Soambiente formally resumed the proceedings before the TAR.

Although the case was taken for decision in the hearing on March 19 of this year, the Third Section Collegiate deemed it necessary to submit a specific legal question to the parties before proceeding. The judges intend to delve into the exact identification of the exhaustive hypotheses provided by Article 105 of the Administrative Process Code for the referral of the case to the first judge, in order to avoid a possible excess of jurisdiction.

Specifically, the Court is considering the possibility of a preliminary ruling to the nomofilachia bodies. This procedural tool allows a judge to consult a higher court — in this case, the Plenary Assembly of the Council of State — to obtain a uniform interpretation of a complex norm that could pertain to many other similar cases. The nomofilachia is indeed the function of ensuring the exact observance and uniform interpretation of the law.

The immediate consequence of this ordinance is the suspension of the decision on the merits of the landfill project. The Court has indeed granted the parties a 30-day deadline from the notification of the provision to submit written briefs dedicated exclusively to this delicate interpretative issue. Only after this step will the judges decide whether to independently resolve the doubt or whether to officially refer the matter to the higher authority.