Venice Canal Turns Green: Authorities Investigate.

The Italian authorities are investigating the cause of the unusual green water around the famous Rialto Bridge in Venice. The main canal in Venice has turned fluorescent green in the area near the bridge, and authorities are working to determine the cause. The fire department posted a video on Sunday showing one of its boats sailing on the phosphorescent waters. Veneto’s regional environmental protection agency, ARPAV, has received samples of the altered waters and is working to identify the substance that changed their color. The Venice prefect has called an emergency meeting of police forces to understand what happened and study possible countermeasures. This incident is similar to recent episodes in Italy where environmental groups have been coloring monuments, but no activist group has claimed responsibility for what happened in Venice. The waters in Venice turned green once before in 1968 during Venice’s international art exhibition La Biennale when Argentinian artist Nicolas Garcia Uriburu spilled non-toxic bright green fluorescent sodium in the Grand Canal as part of an artistic initiative aimed to call attention to worsening water pollution.