The Environmental Inspection will file a request to initiate misdemeanor proceedings against those responsible at the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) for failure to comply with the measures from the Environmental Impact Assessment Study and the removal of ash from one of the cassettes at the Maljevac landfill.
This is stated in the response of environmental inspector Velibor Kljajević to the residents of Gornje Komine whose houses are located in the immediate vicinity of the Pjevalj block.
Locals have been protesting daily for several days because of the dust blown by the wind from the Meljevac landfill, where ash and slag are deposited as a by-product of the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant.
They are asking the Electric Power Company of Montenegro and the Government to enable them a normal life and the right to a healthy environment, which is guaranteed to them by the Constitution of Montenegro.
They are demanding protection from environmental disasters and an assessment of the threat to people, animals and land from state institutions, as well as the submission of documentation from the environmental inspector and a measuring station near the landfill.
"On March 11.3.2025, 3, the Environmental Inspection carried out an inspection at the legal entity Elektroprivreda AD Nikšić, Subsidiary of Thermal Power Plant "Pljevlja". The reason for the inspection was the raising of dust from the ash and slag landfill "Maljevac". The inspection concluded that dust was being raised from the above-mentioned landfill, more precisely from part of active cassette number 3. The raising of dust occurred due to strong wind blowing from part of cassette XNUMX where a "water mirror" had not been formed," Kljajević stated in his response to the residents of Gornje Komine.
The Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant, he notes, was obliged to keep the landfill surface covered with water, that is, to maintain as large a "water mirror" as possible on the landfill surface, as well as to have an established system for spraying dry parts (beaches) of the landfill.
"Based on the established facts, the environmental inspection issued a decision to the subject of supervision orally for the record, ordering that, in order to reduce dust generation at cassette 3 of the ash and slag landfill "Maljevac", it ensure technical and technological conditions, which relate to the formation of the largest possible "water mirror" on the landfill surface and maintaining the landfill wet as well as dry parts (beaches) of the landfill. Due to non-compliance with the measures from the Environmental Impact Assessment Study for the landfill "Maljevac" - disposal of coal combustion by-products from the "Pljevlja" thermal power plant, which relate to dust generation from active cassette number 3, the environmental inspection will submit a request to initiate misdemeanor proceedings," Kljajević states.
The environmental inspector instructed the locals to request data on the results of pollution measurements from the measuring station located in the immediate vicinity of the landfill from the Environmental Protection Agency or the Center for Ecotoxicological Testing.
"The Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant annually conducts 4 fourteen-day air quality emission measurements at 4 locations in the vicinity of the Maljevac ash and slag landfill, after which the authorized institutions issue it a final annual report for that period," stated environmental inspector Velibor Kljajević in his response to the residents of Gornje Komine.
Two days ago, locals announced the radicalization of the protests if their demands were not met by March 17th.
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