ZAGREB, April 3, 2018 – The mayor of the eastern town of Slavonski Brod, Mirko Duspara, and the local water utility Vodovod d.o.o. have filed criminal complaints with the county prosecutor’s office against unidentified perpetrators over environmental pollution and endangering of life and property by dangerous public acts or means, County Prosecutor Mirela Smital said on Tuesday, noting that police had been instructed to investigate the incident that occurred on March 28.
Last Wednesday, a pipeline in the area of Slavonski Brod burst during testing and oil products started leaking out. Two days later, an analysis at the Slavonski Brod water supply plant established that the water was polluted.
The Crodux company, which was working on the pipeline, said 150-200 litres of oil products had leaked out and that this amount could not have polluted the water in the supply plant. The works were part of measures taken to supply gas to an oil refinery in Bosanski Brod across the Sava river in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to reduce the air pollution the refinery is causing in Slavonski Brod.
Crodux executive Branko Radošević reiterated on Tuesday that the incident of March 28 could not be connected with the water pollution at the well that supplies water to Slavonski Brod. Radošević made the statement at the location where work was underway to remove the soil polluted in last week’s accident.
Dissatisfied with the rehabilitation work at the site of the incident and the lack of an analysis of the polluted ground, Mayor Duspara has commissioned an independent analysis of the polluted soil and has said that he will also commission an independent analysis of the water from the water well that was the main supplier of water for Slavonski Brod.
