Modriča and Gudronska jama, for which the RS authorities have not found a solution for more than two decades. It contains about 30,000 tons of toxic waste from the Modriča Oil Refinery, and ten meters from it is a settlement with more than a thousand families. After the fire that broke out in this locality, the citizens are in a panic. Still left to fend for themselves.
The fire in Gudronska Jama is a time bomb that is still smoldering and poses a great danger to the citizens of Modriča, where a state of emergency has also been declared.
“30,000 square meters burned and are still burning. All these years, that defensive embankment around Gudronska jama gave way and went into the ground, and today we have a situation where it is burning at considerable depths. No matter how much we put out the surface layer, the fire erupts from the depths of the earth. This is what the fire brigades have been trying to put out for days” , points out Jovica Radulović, Mayor of the Municipality of Modriča (SDS).
There are about 30,000 tons of toxic waste from the Modrič Oil Refinery in Gudronska Jama. From 1967 to 1996, the “Modriča” oil refinery disposed of waste motor and industrial oils collected from the territory of the former Yugoslavia at that location. The problem of hazardous waste – acid tar has remained unsolved until today. According to cadastral data, Gudronska jama is located on parts of cadastral parcels that are registered in public cadastre records at the Modriča Oil Refinery and in RS.
“During the conversation with the management of the Refinery and the Nestro Group, which privatized the Modrič Oil Refinery, they told me that their position is that they have no obligation towards Gudronska Jama. “Because according to the privatization contract, which is secret, Gudronska jama – that cadastral plot, allegedly, did not enter the privatization mass ,” says Radulović.
The Modriča refinery previously issued a statement stating, among other things, that “refinery waste has not been disposed of in the last 25 years”. We have not received a response from the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology of the RS. Earlier, according to Mayor Modriča, they said that it is the refinery that has the obligation to rehabilitate Gudronska Jama and everything around it until 2025, when the environmental permit is valid. And while competences and responsibilities have been transferred over the years, acid tar leaves great consequences for the environment and the health of local residents. In the 1990s, refugee settlements with around 9,000 inhabitants were formed in the immediate vicinity of the pit.
“Nobody reacted from the republic level. The Municipality reacted and the locals organized themselves, and the first evening when the fire was burning, there were 300-400 people ,” says Milorad Smiljić.
“The worst is before dawn and when it gets dark, you can’t live, you have to close up. Just as if they isolated us in a furnace. The water is always dirty, I mostly make tea, even if I boil it ,” adds Radojka Blagojević.
The tar pit is a cancer of Modriča’s wound that has been smoldering for years. After the fire is completely remedied, sampling of the quality of water, land and food will follow, the city administration states, adding that if there is no appropriate reaction from the authorities, they will contact the Prosecutor’s Office and SIPA.
Source: akta.ba
