The overall situation at the flotation site of the former Brskovo mine in Mojkovac is worse than could have been assumed.
This is what officials of the Environmental Protection Agency told "Vijesta".
They explain that these are the first impressions after, on official duty, they collected preliminary information and facts in the field, as part of the implementation of the procedure for determining responsibility for potential damage to the environment.
The wastewater flowing from the plateau and from the former flotation facilities in the past month and a half, as previously announced by the Citizens' Initiative Zdravi Mojkovac, flowed on several occasions through the streets of Mojkovac, and from the storm sewers, through the river Rudnica, into Tar.
Through physical and chemical analysis, the Center for Ecotoxicological Testing (CETI) determined in December that in the waste water sample "the content of total "suspended substances" - aluminum, arsenic, copper, zinc, cadmium, iron, sulfate, total nitrogen and nitrate was increased compared to to prescribed values".
"Toxic" water created thick deposits of foam on the streets, and it poured out of a pool of 200 square meters, which, according to the minutes of the water inspector, was formed along the access road in Vojislava Šćepanovića Street, which stretches in the direction of the former Brskovo mine. According to the inspector's observation, at the time of the inspection, the water flowed across the road, down the earth fault towards the asphalt road, and then down the road, towards the shaft that drains the water towards the river Rudnica.
Milan Vlahovic from the "Vijesta" Agency said that after the preliminary collection of information and determination of facts on the ground, the procedure will continue. During that procedure, the degree of potential damage to the environment should be determined, as well as the person responsible for it.
"Cooperation with all relevant factors is forthcoming, that is, with the Municipality, the Municipal Police, the cadastre... The continuation of the proceedings, as well as all the activities of the Agency when it comes to this case, will be transparent, and the public will be promptly and fully informed. We were on the field today together with the chief of the Mojkovac Communal Police," he said.
Sampling of the water flowing from the flotation plateau was carried out at the beginning of December last year, after a Mojkov resident posted on social media Mico Sosic posted photos from that location. The reaction of the Municipal Police of Mojkovac was prompt, so they immediately sent a letter to CETI and asked for the immediate release of the officers of that institution to the scene of the incident. The water inspector also arrived in Mojkovac on that occasion. The results of the wastewater analysis reached the general public after the Civic Initiative Zeleni Mojkovac requested them with a request for free access to information.
According to the Law on Liability for Environmental Damage, "if it is determined that damage has occurred in the environment or that there is an immediate risk of damage, the administrative body shall issue a decision on the initiation of a procedure to determine the significance of the damage done to the environment or the degree of immediate danger of damage ". Also, measures to eliminate or prevent damage.
As he said earlier Miodrag Fustic from the Citizens' Initiative Zdravi Mojkovac, it is not an isolated incident, because something similar has happened "countless times over the past three decades".
“Maybe not to this extent, but it was happening. So, this is something that is continuously happening and absolutely nothing has been done about it before. It is a pool located on the site of a former flotation facility. It is important to know that it is a populated place and that the residents of Ambarin, Bjelojević and Pržište, as well as all users of rail transport services, gravitate towards the road, which flows toxic water and particles. Just 30 meters away, across the pool, there are residential units and a sports field," he warns.
As Fuštić says, suspended particles and toxic water, full of cadmium, arsenic and other metals dangerous to the living world, flow down the road passed by pedestrians who blow them up. Such water, he explains, goes to the Tear of Europe.
"Of course Tara is endangered, there is no doubt about that. It is known that, from the mouth of Rudnica, the water of Tara is of lower quality. The mine constantly brings with it toxic substances from the area of the former mine and carries them into the river under double UNESCO protection. Because of this impact, among other things, UNESCO requested a review of the decision to open a new mine. The new mine would have catastrophic consequences for Tara as well as for the entire environment, health and life of the population," Fuštić points out.
In the opinion on the draft of the Detailed Spatial Plan (DPP) for the territory of the concession area for the exploitation of mineral raw materials - Brskovo, which the Institute for Public Health submitted to the Ministry of Health last year, the unenviable condition of the water in the area of the Mojkovac oština is stated. While the Lepesnica river, as well as Tara upstream from Rudnica and Bjelojevićka river, Tvrdi and Lojanički potok have a good chemical status, this is not the case with other waters.
"Surface waters measured at other measuring points do not have a good status due to elevated concentrations of lead, mercury, cadmium and nickel, depending on the measuring point, due to the leakage of groundwater from old mining tunnels and through uncontrolled disposal of solid waste. According to the results of the analyses, the measured parameters at all locations do not correspond to the conditions of the Rulebook on permitted amounts of hazardous and harmful substances in the soil and methods for its testing due to the increased content compared to the prescribed values, of some of the listed elements such as lead, mercury, arsenic, fluorine , copper and zinc in relation to the prescribed values", it is stated in the Opinion of the Institute for Public Health.
Also, samples taken from agricultural land in the wider area of Brskov do not meet the requirements of the Rulebook for increased content of cadmium, lead, mercury, arsenic, fluorine and zinc.
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