ZAGREB, March 10, 2018 – The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy issued a statement on Friday giving a chronology of the Crno Brdo landfill case.
The statement was prompted by the European Commission’s announcement on Thursday that it would refer Croatia to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to ensure an adequate level of protection of human health and the environment at the Crno Brdo site.
On 31 March 2015, the ministry’s environmental protection inspectorate ordered the MLM company to remove the waste produced by the processing of ferromanganese and silicomanganese slag, which has been improperly disposed of at the site in Biljane Donje, the ministry said in response to a query from Hina.
The environmental protection inspectorate imposed two fines in the total amount of 60,000 kuna against the person in charge at the company for failure to comply with its order, which the company has appealed. In order to ensure compliance with the order, the ministry has established the Biljane Donje task force to deal with this matter, the ministry said.
The European Commission decided on Thursday to refer Croatia to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to ensure an adequate level of protection of human health and the environment at the Crno Brdo site, and for failing to update national legislation to implement common European rules in aviation security.
The illegal industrial waste landfill Crno Brdo in Biljane Donje, near the town of Benkovac, is less than 50 meters from houses, the Commission said in a press release.
“The waste should have been managed in accordance with the EU rules on waste… by the end of 2015 at the latest. Even though Croatia committed to address this situation on several occasions, there has been no progress on the ground. For almost four years, the industrial waste deposited at ‘Crno Brdo’ illegal landfill has not been cleared and properly managed, threatening to contaminate groundwater and air,” the European Commission said.
“The location is currently used as a depository of a large amount of production residue of processing of ferromanganese and silicomanganese. As the Croatian authorities failed to classify that material as waste in line with Directive, approximately 140,000 tons of this potentially harmful stone aggregate are deposited directly on soil, threatening local inhabitants and the environment. Under EU law, Croatia should have put in place measures for the protection of groundwater and the prevention of the dispersion of the harmful particles through the air,” according to the press release.
“Since there has been no progress in ensuring proper waste management,” the Commission decided to refer Croatia to the Court of Justice of the EU.
