The Hera Group manages the sewerage services of 131 municipalities and wastewater treatment in 160 municipalities. Collection is generally mixed (approx. 65% of the total). Separate collection, instead, is by means of separate grids for collection of residential/industrial wastewater and rainwater.
At the close of 2005, work started up on the Idrociclone plant in Rimini. This plant consists in an innovative wastewater separation system. Separation of solids and water is performed via artificial vortices thereby enabling totally safe discharges of rainwater into the sea. The water containing residues is transferred to wastewater treatment plants.
692 urban wastewater treatment plants are directly managed by Hera in the served area (291 are for secondary treatment and 401 are for primary treatment).
Hera manages wastewater treatment plants of the constructed wetland type. This method is used for pre-treated water. The process involves use of a system of biological ponds and of macrophytic vegetation with the function of a "filtration ecosystem", enhancing the quality of already treated water. These plants generally enable reclamation of 'borderline' zones, and, in doing so, re-create environments that are pleasing to the eye, that are extremely valid 'architectural' solutions to the demand for small nature reserves (also for land typologies) and refuges for various species of birds, amphibians and reptiles. The Italian term is "fitodepurazione" (literally, phyto-purification). The prefix, phyto-, indicates the action of plants in removing certain pollutants from wastewater, such as suspended solids, organic substances, nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals, viruses and bacteria, by the combined action of natural mechanisms, among which sedimentation, filtration, bioaccumulation, adsorption, the action of microbes in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions, and daylight.
Indicator trends reveal that performance in the Rimini area leads the field. Considerable improvements are also noted in the Forlė-Cesena area. The situation in the Imola-Faenza area has worsened, but not too seriously. The slight worsening of the situation in the Imola-Faenza area was far from constituting a breach of legal limits.
