Waste water from the recently opened hotel in Bjelasica ends up in a nearby stream, in the narrower protection zone of the source of the Kolašin water supply. The authorities do not know whether these waters are purified and how. The owners of the hotel did not specifically answer the questions of "Vijesti" regarding how waste water is treated.
In the state enterprise Ski Resorts of Montenegro, which enabled the "water flow" through its storm sewer, they say that they acted according to the decisions of the former local government.
The first hotel in Bjelasica, "Swissotel Resort", with five stars, opened at the beginning of this year, operates within the "Accor" group, is part of the "Kolašin Valleys" mountain resort, and has 116 accommodation units. of water - should be determined by the municipal inspection and the police.
After reporting by citizens who suspect that wastewater ends up untreated in the second protection zone of the source of the city's water supply, the authorities visited the site on Thursday. They told "Vijesti" that they asked the owner of the hotel to submit "all the documentation related to the treatment of waste water" by Monday.
The applicant asked to check whether the waste water is treated according to the regulations, before it ends up in a nearby stream. Allegedly, the inspector and communal police officers on the spot could not come to conclusions that would confirm or refute the suspicions from the report.
Citizens, as well as some councilors of the local ruling majority, suspect that the discharge of waste water into the catchment area of the Paljevina River has already threatened the main water source, but there is no evidence for this.
The Administration for Inspection Affairs did not respond to the questions of "Vijesti" about how and who will control the quality of the water discharged from the luxury hotel. At that location, there are no conditions for connection to the sewage network.
Zoran Bećirović's company "Ski Resort Kolašin 1450" told "Vijesta" that, as well as its daughter company "Ski Resort Kolašin 1600", "they operate in accordance with current regulations and buildings are built in accordance with the issued urban-technical conditions and approved projects ".
In the past ten days, the "News" has not been answered how the waste water from that hotel is currently treated and how it will be done in the future from other facilities of the company "Ski Resort Kolašin 1450" and its daughter company, whether it is in accordance with the environmental standards and regulations, and what are the obligations of investors in that area.
The unsigned response consisted, for the most part, of accusations that the journalist was "insinuating" and "threatening" legal consequences.
"Given that it is evident based on extremely suggestive questions, that it is possible that you will insinuate that environmental regulations are not being followed in this case, which is absolutely not in accordance with the truth, you must be aware that any untruths published would entail legal consequences" , the company warned.
Instead of answering the questions of "Vijesti", sent ten days ago, the Ski Resort of Montenegro submitted extensive documentation, which shows that at least part of the (un)cut waste water of the newly opened hotel ends up in the atmospheric sewage system of the state-owned "Ski Center Kolašin 1600", and then into a nearby stream.
From the part of the submitted documentation, it is obvious that on November 1 last year, the investor of the luxury hotel asked the Ski Resort of Montenegro for consent "to carry out the connection of used water and atmospheric sewage according to the revised main project 'Drainage of purified water from facilities Q, Ri S (Swissotel Resort) to of the final recipient'".
The ski resorts gave permission, with the condition that the works carried out on the part of the ski track number 1 of the state ski resort be completed within a certain period.
The decision to determine the location for the construction of a local object of general interest - a system of drainage of treated waste water (atmospheric and fecal) from urban plots (UP) 3, 4 and 5, as well as the program task, was brought by the former local government towards the very end of the mandate, in November 2022. The initiative for the construction was submitted by the private company "Ski resort Kolašin 1600", the decision was signed by the then president of the municipality Marta Šćepanović, and the elements of urban and technical conditions were signed by the secretary for space planning, communal affairs and traffic Ljiljana Rakočević.
"Since not all the planned facilities of the base settlement, all the traffic infrastructure, as well as the planned sewage systems have been built on the site in question, the issue of regulation had to be solved as a priority for the facilities of hotels Q, R and S which are in the realization phase (UP3, UP4 and UP5) treatment and removal of waste water (fecal and atmospheric sewage). The technical solution proposes that the collected water, after being treated in adequate devices, oil and grease separators, faecal separators and separators for light petroleum derivatives, atmospheric, coming from traffic surfaces, be introduced into shafts, which are planned in the places of absorption wells, which according to graphic documentation arranged around the objects. From the shafts, water is collected and introduced into the natural recipient through a common pipeline," the program task reads.
According to the guidelines of the Special Purpose Spatial Plan of Bjelasica and Komovi - Detailed development of the Kolašin site, the collection of wastewater from all facilities on the site of that base settlement, separation and delivery to the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is planned. The recipient for purified wastewater should be the left tributary of Duboko potok. There have been no specific official announcements about the construction of a WWTP, although several more hotels are rapidly being completed in Bjelasica.
"The intended biological purifier of waste sanitary water is made in the form of a container. The purifiers will be located next to the facility in an underground concrete tank that will be built for that purpose. The device consists of a mechanical chamber and a biological reactor", it is written in the documentation for some of the buildings being built in Bjelasica.
Director of the Kolašinsk Waterworks and Sewerage, Miloš Peković, previously told "Vijesta" that according to the technical documentation of facilities whose construction is planned or completed in Bjelasica, it is planned that waste water will be treated in biological devices. He reminded that, considering that the facilities are located within the boundaries of the second protection zone of the water source from which the municipality of Kolašin is supplied, the output parameters must meet the valid Rulebook on quality and sanitary technical conditions for the discharge of waste water into the recipient and public sewers. Before releasing purified wastewater into the recipient, Peković explained, their additional treatment, so-called UV disinfection, is planned.
He also said that, according to his information, two studies have been conducted that deal with the possible impact of the waters of the Paljevina river on the source of the city's water supply. According to those analyses, there is no influence of the waters of the Paljevinska River on the source of the city's water supply. The first, second and third protection zones of the source of the Mušovića River, however, were given in the main water supply project for Kolašin, which was carried out in 1980, and they were determined in accordance with the then valid legal regulations.
Vlahović: Directly threatened main water source
URA GP member Miodrag Vlahović says that "the discharge of waste water into the catchment area of the Paljevinska River directly threatens the main water source of the municipality of Kolašin, from which the city is supplied with drinking water".
Vlahović demands urgent intervention by the authorities, in order to get to the facts.
He reminds that the Paljevinska and Svinjača rivers belong to the Tara river basin, and that the location of the hotels that are being built in the basin area is a water source.
Vlahović states that the treatment of waste water from numerous facilities planned in Bjelasica should be handled differently and that "the pollution of watercourses has already started", and that the connection of the built and planned hotels to the sewage system should be provided urgently. He believes that this solution should, already in the first phase, be included in the project "improvement of water supply and construction of waste water treatment plant and sewage network in the municipality of Kolašin".
"Back in the fall of 2022, the Kolašin URA warned the state and citizens that the construction of hotels and residential buildings in Bjelasica, without previously built infrastructure for waste water drainage to processing plants, represents a potential future environmental disaster for Kolašin and the Tara River. "Unfortunately, we are witnessing these days that the pollution has started and is happening from the newly opened hotel, the first in a series of hotels - residential buildings that are opening in Bjelasica", says Vlahović.
The state also provided water and electricity
The Ski Resort of Montenegro confirmed to "News" that they allowed the new hotel to be temporarily supplied with water from their pipeline. According to the sketch of that location, it is also obvious that the major part of the water supply system built for the state ski center is within the plots that the state leased for 90 years to a consortium, of which Bećirović's company is a part.
From the state company, the connection to the pipeline was conditioned by the construction of a shaft, with an entrance that can be locked.
"Entering the shaft is only possible for employees of the Ski Resort of Montenegro. In the event that the level of the reservoir, that is, the pool, with a total capacity of 80 m3, falls below half... The ski resort will close the valve, that is, disconnect the pipeline leading to your hotel", says the letter signed by the executive director of that company, Đuro Milošević.
According to the letter that "Vijesti" had access to, the ski resorts also allowed the connection of the luxury hotel to the transformer station "Troglava", also owned by the state. Bećirović's company, it says in that document, asked for 400 kW, but the state enterprise provided them with a temporary connection of up to 350 kW. The condition was that they "install a measuring point through which electricity consumption would be read and on the basis of which billing would be done, as well as to submit a certificate on the correctness of the installations that are connected to TS 'Troglava'".
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