The ecological inspection will ban the operation of the city's boiler house in Skerlićeva Street in Pljevlja if the company Grijanje does not solve the problem of emission of polluting substances by September 15.
"According to previously submitted initiatives, the environmental inspection carried out an inspection in the boiler room and ordered measures aimed at eliminating irregularities. The Environmental Inspection issued a Decision ordering doo Grijanje to take appropriate technical measures at the boiler plant in Skerlićeva Street in order to reduce hazardous and polluting substances, and after that to perform new measurements and submit them to the Environmental Inspection for review, as well as a Decision ordering that from The Environmental Protection Agency obtains a permit on permitted emissions of polluting substances in the air for the production and delivery of thermal energy. A deadline of September 15, 9 was set for both solutions for taking measures. If the ordered measures are not followed, the environmental inspection will ban the operation of the boiler house," states the notice delivered to the tenants in Skerlićeva Street by the environmental inspector. Velibor Kljajević.
The tenants of the building in Skerlićeva Street in the center of Pljevlja handed it over to the president of the municipality of Pljevlja at the beginning of April Darius Vranes a petition requesting that the city's boiler house, located on the ground floor of their building, be moved.
In the meantime, the secretary of the Secretariat for communal and housing activities sent a reply to the tenant's letter to the mayor of the municipality Vule Macanović. The answer does not state that the boiler house will be moved from the ground floor of the building in the city center within the deadline, as requested by the tenants.
"As you surely know, there are currently current actions and procedures aimed at realizing the heating of Pljevlja in such a way that the necessary thermal energy for the city of Pljevlja will be obtained from the plant of the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant based on the firm promises of the Electric Industry of Montenegro and the relevant ministry. The start of implementation is expected during this calendar year, and certainly the Municipality of Pljevlja will significantly support and participate in the implementation itself. For these reasons, the local administration did not undertake measures in order to find an alternative solution for the thermal energy of the current thermal consumption, which is provided from the boiler house in Skerlićeva", it is stated in the response to the petition.
They also claim that since the reconstruction of the boiler house in 2008, the competent secretary and the company Grijanje have taken measures that have given significant results in improving working conditions in the boiler house and reducing the emission of harmful exhaust gases.
"Also for you as users of the service, in the previous period, the municipality met with significant financial investments in such a way that the roof, facade and carpentry were renovated on the entire building, as well as exemption from paying for the heating service in the amount of 50 percent. Certainly, and in the coming period until the realization of the heating, and thus until the shutdown of the boiler house in Skerlićeva, the Municipality of Pljevlja will make an effort and engage its own resources as well as the help of other entities with the aim of taking measures and reducing the emission of harmful and exhaust gases not only from the boilerhouse in Skerlićeva, but also from other pollutants of individual fire pits", Macanović states in the answer.
In addition to Vraneš, the tenants also sent the petition to the presidents of the state and government, the Ministry of Energy and Mining and the EU office, from which they did not receive any response.
Sixteen tenants of the building, which has been designated as one of the biggest air polluters in the city center, are asking for the boiler house to be moved to another location, by September 1 at the latest.
In their explanation, they stated that they are exposed to excessive pollution from the low chimney of the boiler house, which is attached to the building, and that the health of the tenants, especially children, is at risk.
They also point out that the boiler house is not only a threat to them, but also to the entire city center, considering that around two thousand tons of coal are exposed in it annually, during the heating season.
One of the tenants, Marko Dajević, told Vijestima that if he does not move the boiler house by the specified deadline, he will file lawsuits against those responsible in Grijanj and the municipality of Pljevlja, with which he will seek compensation for endangering the health of the tenants and working without the necessary permits.
"The permanent management of the municipality emphasizes that their citizens are their first priority. This is an excellent opportunity for them to show how much they really care about us citizens, or will they continue with the previous decades-long policy," said Dajević.
He points out that many tenants have fallen ill, and many young people have died of lung and cardiovascular diseases due to the negligence of former and current city and state authorities.
"We are asking for the boiler house to be moved no later than September 1, 2024. The municipality has several completed projects for its relocation, which will take two to three months. We hope that someone will help us and our children, who are most at risk and in the winter get suffocated by smoke and various fumes from the illegal heating plant. We also note that the boiler house has had a permanent work ban since 2019, brought by the Republic's thermal energy inspector," says Dajević.
In the company Grijanje, they claim that they are not prohibited from working because after that decision, thermal energy inspector Miloš Kovačević issued a new decision allowing the work.
"Taking into account the fact that Article 27 of the Amendments to the Law on Energy amended Article 74 of the Law on Energy in such a way that production, distribution and supply of thermal energy for district heating can be carried out without a license, the inspector concludes that the reasons for in which it was prohibited to perform the above-mentioned activities for the business company Grijanje Pljevlja", Kovačević states in the inspection report dated September 29, 2020.
Kovačević concludes that the boiler house in Skerlićeva Street meets the minimum technical conditions for operation and that it can be used in accordance with the regulations.
Previously, in April 2020, the thermal energy inspector issued a decision prohibiting the operation of the boiler house in Skerlićeva until obtaining a license from the Energy Regulatory Agency.
About 350 apartments and a large number of business premises in the city center are heated from the boiler house in Skerlićeva Street, for which, in 16 hours of work, about 11,5 tons of coal are consumed daily.
The burning of huge amounts of coal leads to enormous air pollution, and some values are 27 times higher than allowed, as stated by the Center for Ecotoxicological Research (CETI) in its earlier tests.
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