Despite the difficulties due to the health emergency, the LIFE PHOENIX activity continues to determine the presence of PFAS in the water and soil matrices, in order to test both the efficiency of the adopted mitigation tools and the distribution of contaminants in the identified monitoring sites. Within this framework, a key role is played by the ARPAV Regional Laboratories Department, one of the project partner.

In particular, for the analysis of soil samples coming from the monitoring sites, the project has equipped itself with an innovative tool that allows the simultaneous preparation of multiple samples, a feature which proved to be very useful in this period of analytical activity slow-down due to the coronavirus outbreak. It is a four-station planetary mill, already installed and tested at the beginning of 2019 inside the ARPAV laboratory in Venice.

Fine and homogeneous particulate grinding and shredding (a process called micronization) is a necessary action of pre-treatment of solid samples, to be carried out before any analysis and whenever a high degree of refinement is required. The planetary mill allows the micronization of solid materials of different origin and consistency, obtaining high pulverization in particularly short times. Furthermore, with its use, laboratory operations are facilitated, relieving the technical staff of most of the manual actions. So far, around 300 soil samples have been processed for project purposes.

As regards the water samples, on the other hand, at the moment about five hundred samples have been analyzed, coming from the two pilot plants for the water purification identified in the project, from the three wetlands selected to test the efficiency of phytodepuration in the field and from the ten sites identified for environmental monitoring.