"Roads" doesn't even have a written trace of grit

For the grit that was previously deposited in the area of ​​the asphalt base of the Podgorica company in the settlement of Cijevna in Zeta, and then moved from that location, "Roads" do not have a contract for either taking it over or moving it.

This is stated in the solution to the request for free access to information (SPI), which "Vijesti", through the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS), sent to "Putevi" at the end of September.

"Vijesti" reporters visited the "Puteva" asphalt base for the first time on August 22, when they found questionable waste at the site. They visited the base again at the beginning of September, after unofficial information that the grit had been moved. Several times, the editors have sent questions to that company, whose executive director is Radoš Zečević. "Roads" never answered the amount of deposited grit, the origin of the waste, and they did not even answer the question about the allegations of the company "Valgo Montenegro" that "Roads" bought grit as a construction material from the company "MM System" from Nikšić.

The only response, delivered at the beginning of September, contained one sentence: "Grit from the asphalt base 'Putevi' doo has been removed, it is no longer at that location."

In the meantime, "Vijesti" sent a request for free access to information, with which "Roads" was asked to submit all the documentation from 2024 on the collection, transfer and use of waste material "grit".

The year 2024 was mentioned in the request, because all the events related to the disputed grit waste material took place during this year.

According to the decision delivered to MANS, that is, to "Vijesti" on October 11, "Roads" rejected that request "due to lack of information".

"Considering the request in question, the Company determined that it does not have the requested information, bearing in mind that 'Putevi' doo Podgorica did not conclude any contract on the collection of grit waste material, nor any contract on its relocation. We further point out that the waste material grit was not used for the needs of the Company", it says, among other things, in the explanation of the decision.

When "Vijesti" first visited the "Putevi" asphalt base, in the Cijevna settlement, in Zeta, the employees unofficially announced that the waste material "grit" had arrived a month and a half before that, and that allegedly, no one else wanted to accept it and that it was not even properly postponed. Other sources said that it was "200 cubic meters of grit".

At the time, the Center for Ecotoxicological Testing (CETI) said that they had no request for an analysis of the waste deposited at Cijevna, but the Environmental Protection Agency told the newsroom that they had determined that "Roads" had documentation and an analysis, which showed that it was "non-hazardous waste", and that CETI did that analysis before depositing it.

CETI, as they previously told "Vijesta", previously conducted sampling and classification of the material deposited at the location of Straševina, in the municipality of Nikšić, and classified that material as non-hazardous waste.

The authorities did not comment on the origin of the grit at the "Roads" location in Cijevna. Rajko Uskoković, who was the executive director of the company "Valgo Montenegro", told the newsroom earlier that it was waste whose origin was the same as that from the Nikšić area. A few years ago, that company was hired to implement the environmental remediation project of the former Adriatic shipyard Bijela. Uskoković confirmed at the beginning of September that the company "Valgo Montenegro" handed over a total of 4.900 tons of grit from the former Tivat Arsenal to the company "MM System" from Nikšić in mid-July, free of charge.

In the spring of 2019, the company Adriatic Marinas - Porto Montenegro made a special business arrangement with "Valgo Montenegro", according to which in Bijelo, where the French company had started an extensive job of removing tens of thousands of cubic meters of grit from ship sandblasting and other waste from decades of ship repair activities, also brought 3.500 cubic meters of old grit from Porto Montenegro, and over 2.500 cubic meters of soil mixed with grit.

At that time, it was announced that the grit left over from the former Tivat military shipyard Arsenal, on the site of which the Porto Montenegro marina is being built, would be exported via "Valga" by ships from Bijela abroad to the same places where that French company was supposed to send the grit from the former Adriatic shipyard.

Part of the grit from Porto Montenegro appeared in Nikšić at the end of the summer, scattered on part of private and property owned by the Municipality, that is, the Railway Infrastructure of Montenegro.

For the disputed material, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), at the request of the Nikšić company "MM System" on September 16, issued a decision on the fulfillment of the conditions for ending the status of waste.

The decision, which is available on the EPA website, states that the waste has undergone a processing procedure, and that, among other things, its use will not cause negative impacts on the environment or human health.

It was also stated that this type of material will be used as a covering layer on the body of the Livada landfill in Podgorica.

On October 12, the organization "Kod" published the results of soil analysis from two locations in Nikšić (Straševina and Gračanica) and the consequences of grit disposal, stating that the values ​​of heavy metals in the soil in those places many times exceed the permitted values.

"MM System" announced that, due to those allegations by "Koda", two days later, on October 14, they filed a criminal complaint and that this NGO wants to discredit their business and previous work. As the executive director of the company, Milan Erbez, said, criminal charges were also filed against the employees of the Institute for Public Health (IJZ), where the samples were analyzed.