Integrated environmental quality monitoring around an underground methane storage station Linda Pieri a,⇑ , Marco Vignudelli a , Fabrizio Bartolucci b , Fiorenzo Salvatorelli a , Cesare Di Michele c , Nicola Tavano d , Paola Rossi a , Giovanni Dinelli a a Department of Agricultural Science, University of Bologna, Italy b University of Camerino – Aquila, Italy c PROGER S.p.A., Italy d Agronomist, Pescara, Italy highlights  The environmental quality of an area with a methane station was evaluated.  Two monitorings were applied: measures of air components and lichens biomonitoring.  The two monitorings results were in agreement.  The environment quality of the area surrounding the station did not show signs of declining.  Results suggest the validity of biomonitoring to integrate the environmental network for pollution assessing. article info Article history: Received 21 March 2014 Received in revised form 9 March 2015 Accepted 10 March 2015 Handling Editor: J. de Boer Keywords: Biomonitoring Lichens Air quality Natural gas Italy abstract The study reports an integrated environmental quality monitoring of a 100 km 2 area in central Italy mostly occupied by an underground station of methane storage, working since 1982. The nitrogen oxides, ozone and isoprene concentration detached with a network monitoring of passive filters were compared with the results of lichens biomonitoring. Data from the two monitorings were in accordance: there was an inversely correlation between lichen biodiversity index (IBL) and NOx (0.96) and ozone (0.80), and a positive correlation between IBL and isoprene (0.67). IBL indicated that the area ranged between medium naturalness and medium alteration status, values fully compatible with the medium–high level of eutrophication, caused by intensive agri- culture. Only two areas were in high alteration status, due to their proximity to glass factories and to a quarries area. Despite almost thirty years of activity, the environment quality of the area around the sta- tion did not show signs of declining. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Natural gas is an essential resource as it represents a source of clean energy for homes, public buildings and businesses. Italy is in close dependence on other countries: more than 40% of Italian natural gas consumption is imported, with growth forecast to 70% in 2020. The storage of natural gas can be considered a strategic process. In fact, while the gas supply is basically constant throughout the year, the demand has a marked seasonal variation and this is more evident in case of adverse weather that result in the absence of cover the natural gas needs. Since during the compression activity there are emissions of chemical species, these stations may be sources of pollution and therefore require a monitoring to assess their environmental impact. This environmental monitoring can be due through direct and continuous monitoring of the main pollutants, generally operated with stationary or mobile automatic stations. Among these, passive filter has been increasingly used, because of low operating cost, simplicity of sampling, independence from the http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.03.009 0045-6535/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Agricultural Science, University of Bologna, viale Fanin n.44, 40127 Bologna, Italy. Tel.: +39 051 2096693; fax: +39 051 2096241. E-mail address: linda.pieri2@unibo.it (L. Pieri). Chemosphere 131 (2015) 130–138 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Chemosphere journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere