Prime Minister visits Gospić in light of hazardous waste affair

The remediation of illegal waste in Gospić is finally starting. The Environmental Protection Fund has made the first decisions on the removal of waste and covering of the landfill, and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced after a meeting in Gospić that all waste will be removed within the planned deadlines. The government, he said, understands the concerns of citizens, but believes that the announced Saturday protest in Zagreb is not necessary.

“It is not without reason that the meeting in Gospić was held today,! said Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, because the Environmental Protection Fund has made the first decisions on remediation. The goal is to remove all waste from Gospić within the appropriate time frame, for which there is a clear political will,” he said.

“The government completely understands the concern of the citizens of Gospić and the entire Lika-Senj County. We understand that the problem is very serious and that is why all responsible bodies have been fully engaged so that, as soon as possible, that waste is taken out of Gospić,” he added. 

A decision is still pending on scattered waste, but as for the decisions adopted, when it comes to removing bags, the legal deadline is six months, but this work can be done even earlier, explained the Prime Minister after the meeting. On the other hand the waste site in Gospić should be covered by mid-October.

“The companies that do this work know that they must take hazardous waste from Croatia to incinerators that exist in other countries in Europe. Anyone who applies has a clearly planned traceability. First it must be removed and then triage, this doesn't mean that all 33 thousand tons are hazardous waste,” noted the Prime Minister.

The Croatian branch of the Slovenian company Kostak, which is under investigation in Slovenia for similar remediation, has been selected to cover the buried waste. 

“If a company is contracted, for every procedure it must provide certain guarantees and it will be monitored in implementing its plan for remediation with the deadlines it provided. If this is not the case, any other procedure will trigger a reaction,” said the Director of the Environmental Protection Fund, Luka Balent.

As for non-hazardous waste, the Fund has already selected a small family company from Zaprešić, Tabak Group. It will remove and dispose of around 650 tons of non-hazardous waste from large bags at the site of the former PPK Velebit factory in Gospić, for which it will receive 357,500 euros. Pripuz's company was rejected by the Environmental Protection Fund, but they still have the right to appeal. 

“We will deal with the waste in Gospić by recycling in different manners because there are several types of plastic there. This will not be classic waste disposal with incineration or using a landfill, it will go to Zaprešić where we will conduct recycling mixing and then go to familiar buyers, four or five of them, depending on the structure or type of waste,” said the Director of the Tabak Group, Ivan Tabak. 

The Prime Minister has repeated several times that the water in Gospić is safe to drink, and this was also repeated by Minister of Health, Irena Hrstić, who said that the water is continuously monitored. 

“About 70 wells have been registered and are being tested. We will provide this unified information to the public” said Minister Hrstić when commenting on wells.

The Initiative "Gospić is our home", which is organizing Saturday's protest did not attend the meeting, but it was attended by representatives of the group of citizens for the salvation of Lika - Ante Franić and Mile Ilić. They support the protest on September 5, and gave their impressions of today's meeting. 

“For the first time we received information that was not made public until now,” said Franić. 

“It is difficult to say what will be done and what not, but in general we don't want to stop at this, that they promised and we wait. We will pressure them to see at what tempo and dynamics they will do what they promised,” said Mile ilić. 

Source: HRT