The companies "Montenegro petrol", "Bemax", "Cijevna komerc" and "Beton Montenegro" did not comply with the legal obligation and to date have not submitted a proposal for remedial measures to the Environmental Protection Agency for approval due to the damage done in the Morača river bed.
This is what the Agency, which is headed by Milan Gazdić, told "Vijesta" yesterday.
On the last day of July, the agency issued a decision establishing that four companies caused damage in the Morača river bed.
In relation to that, the companies were supposed to submit a proposal for rehabilitation measures within 45 days.
The Law on Liability for Environmental Damage foresees a misdemeanor fine of two to 40.000 euros for a legal entity that fails to prepare and submit a proposal for remedial measures within the time limit set by the decision.
In the meantime, all the cases related to the devastation of the Morača riverbed, in connection with which the Agency had previously submitted the documentation to the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), have been delivered to their colleagues in the Primary.
"SDT, after collecting certain data, notifications and evidence in the investigation, submitted the criminal case on September 13 of this year to the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica for further action," state prosecutor and spokesperson Vukas Radonjić states in the answer.
On August 7, "Vijesti" sent SDT an inquiry regarding the devastation of the Morača riverbed. They sent the answer to the editors two months later.
The head of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, Duško Milanović, confirmed the allegations that the cases were forwarded to them.
"Regarding your question from October 9, 2023, I inform you that in the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, based on letters from the Environmental Protection Agency, several cases have been opened on this occasion. All the mentioned cases are in the investigation phase," Milanović said.
The Agency submitted the documentation on the devastation of natural values in the Morača River bed to SDT, the protector of property and legal interests, and the inspection at the beginning of August. As they announced at the time, it was established that the companies "Montenegro petrol", "Bemax", "Cijevna komerc" and "Beton Montenegro" caused significant devastation.
The Directorate for Inspection Affairs (UIP) told "Vijesta" that during inspections in the field, this year, water inspectors on the controlled section of the Morača watercourse filed one criminal complaint against an unknown person and one supplement to the criminal complaint, one request to initiate a misdemeanor procedure, in one case of control of occupation of state water land.
"The case files have been submitted to the protector of property and legal interests of Montenegro," said, among other things, from the Water Inspection Department of the UIP, when asked about supervision.
They said that in four cases the files were submitted to the Police Directorate, in order to evaluate in cooperation with the ODT whether there are elements of a criminal offense for which it is prosecuted ex officio.
"In two cases of the execution of works on the extraction of natural resources from the land that according to the classification does not belong to the water resource, the case files were submitted to the agricultural and forestry inspection for further jurisdiction and action", they told "Vijesta" from the UIP.
At the beginning of August, the agency issued a resolution that determined that four companies had caused damage to the environment by violating the Law and professional standards, internal business rules.
"And due to the gross negligence of the operator due to the devastation of natural values in the Morača river bed in the stretch from the mouth of Sitnica to the Vukovac bridge, which caused damage that has a significant negative impact on achieving or maintaining the favorable status of protected species and natural habitats of the area in question, as well as the abundance of the Bolje water source sisters", it is written in one of the solutions related to "Montenegro petrol".
In the explanation sent by the Agency to the company and the environmental inspection, it is stated that the exploitation in the lower reaches of the Morača has led to a negative impact on the fish fauna, which manifests itself in several ways.
"Exploitation affects fish habitats, whether it destroys a suitable substrate for spawning or destroys the habitat in which other fauna develop that serve as food for fish. During exploitation, there are significant changes in the quality of the water, and very often turbidity and raising of substances in which fish species cannot exist...", the decision states.
The Agency added that during the exploitation of sand and gravel in the riverbed from the mouth of the Sitnica to the Vukovac bridge, the quality of habitat conditions was impaired due to the presence of people, machines, or their work, as well as the emission of loud noise, local air pollution due to emissions dust and exhaust gases...
Fish communities, as they stated, migrated upstream or downstream to the surrounding area due to multi-year works, while sessile benthic organisms disappeared due to the removal of their habitat.
In the Agency's decision, it is also written that after many years of exploitation of sand and gravel from the Morača riverbed, its banks, especially the right, were devastated, where new water bodies and lakes were created in some places.
The Agency added that based on the documentation, as well as a tour of the field, they concluded that during the exploitation of gravel from watercourses on water land, as well as on land that is not managed as water, in the narrow zone of sanitary protection of the source of Bolje sestre, where the works are prohibited, there was damage to the environment and a drop in the yield of the water source itself in an area of over 3,5 square kilometers.
They concluded that, as a result of uncontrolled regulation and exploitation, the stability of the river route was threatened and the banks collapsed, which leads to the expansion, that is, the displacement of the river bed.
The document also states that this area has undergone major hydromorphological changes and that the levels in the wells in Grbavci have dropped by more than three meters, and many have completely dried up between 2007 and 2021, but also that water losses from the bed in Lekići to the mouth of Cijevna.
The Agency stated that even after the cessation of gravel and sand exploitation, habitat conditions will not significantly change for the better over a long period of time, that is, there is no possibility of a quick return.
At the end of last year, the basic court in Podgorica ordered a temporary measure prohibiting "Montenegro petrol" doo from exploiting gravel and sand from the Cijevna and Morača riverbeds from state plots.
Marija Božović, the deputy protector of property and legal interests of Montenegro, previously informed the chief special prosecutor Vladimir Novović in a letter that illegal activities continued - the exploitation of gravel and sand from the Cijevna and Morača riverbeds and from state plots.
On the Morača River in February, by the decision of the inspection, the facilities, i.e. the illegal facilities of "Montenegro petrol" for the production of gravel, were demolished.
LLC "Protection of space" at the beginning of September, by order of the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism, began work on the rehabilitation of the Morača river bed.
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