The Bakovićs will no longer pollute the Tara River

The Municipality of Kolašin and the Capital Projects Administration are starting from scratch with procedures that would lead to the implementation of the project of landscaping green areas for special purposes, namely the closure and recultivation of the temporary storage of municipal and non-hazardous construction waste in Bakovići.

They submitted a request to the competent secretariat for a statement on the need to prepare an environmental impact assessment study for that project.

In June last year, the administration canceled a tender worth 4,5 million euros for the preparation of project documentation and works on the closure and recultivation of the landfill, after the appeal of the Bemax company was accepted.

According to the new documentation submitted for the decision on the need to prepare a Study, which was prepared by the “Liming Project”, out of several options as a solution for the current state of the temporary landfill in Bakovići, “waste recomposition by forming cassettes” was chosen. This, as explained, implies the process of excavating waste (“land mining”), which would be carried out with prior degassing (dewatering, purification, conditioning, compaction, etc.).

"The waste would then be returned to the same surface, after removal in the same place, a cassette according to sanitary landfill standards is formed, lined with waterproof material and equipped with all accompanying contents. During excavation, recyclable materials and hazardous substances would also be separated, and if possible, appropriate treatment would be applied to the organic component of the waste," the documentation submitted to the Secretariat for Environmental Protection states.

The chosen method, as stated in the documentation, would free up municipal plots of land that are designated for an industrial zone according to the DUP, and whose area is approximately 26.500 square meters. It was also explained that "metals and possibly plastic would be separated from the excavated waste, and the rest would be dehydrated and then disposed of in newly formed cassettes."

The description of the current situation in Bakovići states that "waste generated in the area of ​​the Kolašin municipality is disposed of at an unhygienic landfill, which is about three kilometers from the city and located along the Kolašin-Mojkovac main road."

"The location was determined by a municipal decision and has been in use since 1984, however, the landfill also covers a significant number of plots located in the industrial zone, which are currently devastated. The location is an undulating plateau that ends with a steep slope of the natural slope towards the Plašnica river bed, in the area of ​​its confluence with the Tara and along the Tara watercourse. The area affected by waste is about 5 hectares. The Bakovići landfill represents a significant problem for the municipality of Kolašin in terms of environmental threats, and especially the Tara river," the documentation states.

It is evident from this documentation that the investors rejected the possibility of relocating the landfill to another location, arguing that it is too expensive and time-consuming. Although this is, as stated, the best approach from an environmental perspective, its disadvantage lies in “the fact that a complete procedure would have to be carried out for the new location, starting from the selection of the location, feasibility study… Also, changes to urban planning documents would be necessary, as well as a complete project procedure, which would also include the project for the transport of the extracted waste.

"The duration of the works would be at least two years, which, together with the project procedure, which also requires at least two years, does not meet the requirements for a quick and efficient solution to the problem of waste disposal in Kolašin. The biggest drawback of this option, in addition to all of the above, is the very high cost of implementation," it says in the submitted documentation, based on which a decision will be made on the need to prepare a study.

According to the tender cancelled last year, the landscaping of green areas for special purposes - the closure and recultivation of the temporary storage facility for municipal and non-hazardous construction waste in Bakovići was to be implemented according to the "design and build" principle. The preliminary design was developed last year by the company "Projekt sistem" from Podgorica. The deadline for completing the entire project, according to the cancelled tender, is 20 months, of which two are for the development of the main project, and 18 months for completion.

"Bemax" then stated in its appeal against part of the tender documentation that the bidder was "clearly and unambiguously required to use only one type of material - trisoplast (waterproofing material), from the Dutch company "Trisoplast Mineral Liner". "Bemax"'s appeal states that the tender documentation, or rather the conceptual design, even described the performance of that particular material, and the value of part of the works was estimated based on prices.