The Environmental Protection Agency refused to issue an integrated work permit (IPPC) to Toščelik, and the aluminum plant did not receive that permit either - so those two plants will be closed unless the authorities again change the Law on Integrated Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution.
Ten days ago, the government recommended the Agency to issue a conditional IPPC permit to the Thermal Power Plant, but it is evident that the legal deadline for issuing permits for the other two disputed companies cannot be met until January 1, 2018.
Without an integrated license, it is not possible to operate companies that are major polluters of the environment.
According to the 2005 law, operators of facilities and activities for which an integrated permit is issued are required to obtain it no later than January 1, 2015.
The Ministry of Sustainable Development proposed changes to the law, when it was seen that KAP, TE and Toščelik could not get the permit and asked for an extension of the deadline.
Initially, it was proposed that the deadline be extended until January 1, 2020, but due to the opposition of some representatives and non-governmental organizations, the company was given time until 2018.
The granting of IPPC permits is one of the conditions in the negotiations for joining the European Union, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration has previously asked the European Commission to postpone the application of the IPPC directive.
The IPPC is one of the EU's key directives in the field of environmental protection and it stipulates that operators of industrial plants must demonstrate that they systematically apply best available techniques (BAT) to prevent and control pollution.
It has been in force in EU countries since 1999.
In the explanation of the decision on the rejection of Toščelik's request for the issuance of an integrated permit for the operation of the Čeličana, Kovačnica and Energana plants, it is written that it was determined that "Toščelik Nikšić Steel did not submit documentation in accordance with the Rulebook on the content, form and manner of filling out the application for the issuance of an integrated permit as well as Articles 7 and 8 of the Law", which provide a detailed description of the company's work.
The recommendation on the approval of the permit for the Thermal Power Plant was made by the Government based on the decisions of the Council of Ministers of the Energy Community in relation to the implementation of the Law.
"In October of last year, the Council of Ministers of the Energy Community approved for the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant a request for an operating regime that includes the operation of the Thermal Power Plant with existing air emissions, on the condition that the plant operates with a limit on the number of working hours from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2023 , i.e. to spend 20.000 hours in that period", it was explained in the information of the Government.
In the same text, it is stated that the rules of the Energy Community allow existing plants of large combustion plants, which started operating before July 1, 1992, to be exempted from the emission value limitation, if the operator of the plant submits to the Secretariat of the Energy Community a Declaration on the mode of operation.
After the expiration of those working hours, the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant can continue to operate, if it reaches the limit values of emissions.
In the Information, which was considered by the Government, it is said that on October 24, 2013, the Council of Ministers adopted a decision on the implementation of the Directive on limiting the emission of certain pollutants in the air from large combustion plants.
It is planned that the Directive will be implemented by December 31.
As for KAP, in the Government's Information on facilities that are obliged to obtain an integrated permit by January 1, 2018, it is written that the company's technology is outdated and that large investments are needed to comply with BAT, i.e. investments from 50 to 300 million euros, depending on whether a new electrolysis will be carried out.
"KAP will not be able to apply BAT in its production processes for a period of less than ten years".
In the Information, it is explained that in February 2014, KAP in bankruptcy submitted to the Agency a request for the issuance of an integrated license and that, considering the open bankruptcy and other procedures, it was not able to submit with the request a program of measures to adapt the operation of the existing plant or activity to the prescribed conditions .
Although the Thermal Power Plant will probably get a permit, the Government previously announced that the key problems in its functioning are high investments for a relatively short remaining working life (100-150 million euros) and the non-competitiveness of the production price.
In addition to air pollution, as stated in the Government document, the disposal of waste from the Thermal Power Plant at the Maljevac landfill is one of the biggest problems.
The static uncertainty of the dam is apostrophized as special problems, as well as the quality of wastewater, which is outside the limits prescribed by the current regulation, which is a major source of pollution of the surface flows of Paleški potok, Vežišnica and Ćehotina, the surrounding land and groundwater, as well as the air in the immediate vicinity.
"It is necessary to emphasize that the landfill is at the end of its working life and it is necessary to make the new location ready for work as soon as possible, as well as to carry out the rehabilitation of the existing one", writes the Information.
There is no will of the authorities to put pressure on the polluters
The director of the Ozone Environmental Movement, Aleksandar Perović, said that what they had been pointing to since the end of 2014 - when it was certain that the biggest industrial polluters would not obtain integrated permits - was being realized.
"Even then, we assumed that there would be amendments to the Law in order to extend the deadlines, which happened in 2015, but it was also clear to us that there was no strong will of the decision-makers to put pressure on, above all, KAP , that is, the operator Uniprom, Thermal Power Plant Pljevlja and Toščelik".
He said that they doubt that there is a serious long-term strategy in KAP and Toščelik, which would support investments in the best available technologies in the field of environmental protection and occupational safety:
"And that, as in the past, investors will be allowed to work without the necessary consents and permits, or the laws will be changed and the deadlines will be extended as long as they request it. In the case of Toščelik, it should be remembered that they did not even obtain the mandatory environmental approval for the newer equipment that was installed and put into operation in the previous few years, which is a scandal of scandals and the best proof of the credibility of the investor who reduced production to the third shift, reduced the number of employees as much as possible , not to mention the accidents and breakdowns that occurred during production," said Perović.
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