N1BOS — broadcast
20260808 003000 UTC
496 transcript segments
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[00:00:00] were absolved of responsibility for what they had done
[00:00:03] before. He also raises the question of why the state
[00:00:06] prosecutor's office does not take official action to suppress hate
[00:00:10] speech and incite violence.
[00:00:12] Many whose
[00:00:16] duty it is to protect the constitutional order of the Republic of Croatia,
[00:00:20] unfortunately
[00:00:22] do not take the necessary actions.
[00:00:25] If you ask the Croatian government, Operation Storm was
[00:00:29] marked with dignity. Its vice-president and Minister of Croatian
[00:00:33] Veterans Tomo Medved is ready to comment only on the official
[00:00:36] part of the program, other
[00:00:39] activities or events that took place
[00:00:43] on the margins of the official program,
[00:00:46] I cannot comment. I can comment on what I saw, what we
[00:00:50] organized and what we implemented. Persistent
[00:00:53] journalists asked the vice-president of the Croatian government to comment
[00:00:57] on the notes of hatred from Knin, but he
[00:01:00] explains that he did not hear them, and the celebration
[00:01:03] is still ongoing. What I saw or what I personally heard, I can
[00:01:06] comment on. What I didn't get to see,
[00:01:09] I cannot comment on. And
[00:01:12] 31 years later, everyone sees and
[00:01:15] hears only what they want to see and
[00:01:17] hear. Nenad Nešić, N1,
[00:01:20] Belgrade.
[00:01:23] General director of Telekom Srbija Vladimir Lučić says that he has not
[00:01:26] received official information that he has been permanently banned
[00:01:30] from Kosovo and Metohija, and that he has been declared persona
[00:01:33] non-grata. If that information is correct, such a decision
[00:01:37] would be regrettable, Lučić told Euro news
[00:01:40] Serbia and expressed hope that the decision will be
[00:01:44] withdrawn. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo
[00:01:47] declared the director of Telekom Serbia an undesirable person
[00:01:50] and permanently banned his entry, transit
[00:01:54] and stay in Kosovo, citing as a reason
[00:01:57] his public statements which they claim
[00:02:01] pose a threat to the sovereignty and constitutional order
[00:02:04] of Kosovo.
[00:02:07] New fuel prices have been announced. Eurodiesel will be
[00:02:10] one dinar more expensive for the next seven days than it is
[00:02:14] now, costing 227 dinars per
[00:02:17] liter, and the price of gasoline remains 202
[00:02:21] dinars per liter. The government has extended the decision to reduce
[00:02:24] fuel excise taxes until August
[00:02:27] 16th.
[00:02:30] Due to fuel problems, the Irish low-cost airline
[00:02:34] Ryanair announces the suspension of flights from Niš
[00:02:37] Airport. Unfortunately, we will suspend operations
[00:02:40] to and from Niš from this winter due to
[00:02:44] regulatory problems related to fuel affecting Niš Airport. This
[00:02:47] is stated in Ryanair's response to
[00:02:51] N1. The airline did not clarify the details of its
[00:02:55] decision. And on Ryanair's website, the last flight this year
[00:02:59] that can be booked from Niš is on October
[00:03:02] 24th, after which there are no available
[00:03:06] flights. And by the end of the news,
[00:03:10] find out
[00:03:14] who saw Orban in
[00:03:16] Guča.
[00:03:23] Before that, we talk about a pig farm next to
[00:03:26] a protected nature reserve.
[00:03:30] Right in Banovo Polje near Bogatić, the president of Serbia said last
[00:03:34] week that
[00:03:37] else who might think of doing something like this again locals are complaining about the arrogance of local officials. The family of a local
[00:03:40] official from the Serbian Radical Party
[00:03:43] is building a pig farm on the outskirts of the Zasavica special
[00:03:47] nature reserve. The first neighbors of this farm under construction
[00:03:50] believe that they should never have received a
[00:03:53] permit for it.
[00:03:56] Miroslav Ljubinković's family has been living off agriculture for generations.
[00:04:00] on the outskirts of the special nature reserve
[00:04:02] Zasavica, the idyll is over, soon
[00:04:06] a large farm of almost 1,500 pigs will be built
[00:04:09] in front of my nose, this is where that pig farm is
[00:04:12] where my neighbor got
[00:04:16] a permit from the municipality of Bogatić, otherwise at a small
[00:04:20] distance from my house, about 57-8
[00:04:23] meters. According to the location conditions,
[00:04:26] the neighbor was not allowed to build a farm less than 200 meters from
[00:04:30] the first house, but the neighbor was not
[00:04:33] just anyone, it's the son of the former Member of Parliament
[00:04:36] of the Serbian Radical Party and today's deputy president of the municipal
[00:04:40] assembly of Bogatić Dragan Aćimović, and the project is partly
[00:04:44] financed by the European Union with just over
[00:04:46] 400,000 euros from the IPARD fund, on the other side
[00:04:50] of the future farm, one of the most valuable natural oases in
[00:04:54] Serbia, Zasavica,
[00:04:57] where special rules
[00:05:00] have always applied to locals, regulations were for us here other
[00:05:04] neighbors, meaning you can't spray your field next to the nature
[00:05:07] reserve, and this pig farm right next to the nature reserve
[00:05:11] doesn't even have an environmental impact assessment, investors received
[00:05:15] permits express. On February
[00:05:18] 13, 2024, he submitted a request for decision,
[00:05:21] just over two weeks later a decision was
[00:05:24] made that an environmental impact study was not
[00:05:27] necessary. Two days after that, the local community received
[00:05:31] notification of this project, and despite the fact that there is a 15-day
[00:05:35] period for appeal, the building permit was issued
[00:05:39] the very next day. We sought answers to questions about how all this
[00:05:42] happened at the Municipality of Bogatić. In
[00:05:46] a brief phone conversation, Aćimović told us that his
[00:05:49] family has all the necessary permits for the construction
[00:05:52] of the pig farm and added that he has nothing to hide.
[00:05:56] When we asked him to present his version of the story, he first
[00:05:59] refused to appear in front of N1's cameras, but promised to
[00:06:02] send answers in writing. However, after that,
[00:06:06] there was no trace or sound of answers. It was
[00:06:09] necessary to conduct an environmental impact assessment study
[00:06:13] when building a farm in such a sensitive location, says
[00:06:17] the professor of chemistry, it involves high water consumption,
[00:06:20] high food consumption, liquid manure production, also
[00:06:23] air emissions, animal transport, food,
[00:06:26] waste and also the use of land where
[00:06:30] manure will be spread. Now none of that in itself means that pollution
[00:06:33] will occur, but next to a protected wetland
[00:06:36] area, with high groundwater, the population that
[00:06:40] uses wells, this definitively
[00:06:43] precautionary principle must be applied and requires
[00:06:46] a higher level of expert review. During
[00:06:49] that time, works have already entered the protected natural
[00:06:53] area itself. In Zasavica, they recorded how someone in the first
[00:06:56] degree of protection cut down trees, brought
[00:06:59] rubble, and filled the land. He built
[00:07:03] a road for the farm, cut down trees, all normally
[00:07:06] took his trees home. Footage from a few weeks ago
[00:07:10] shows trucks passing through the first
[00:07:13] degree of protection, and for the management of Zasavica, that is currently
[00:07:16] the only problem. That's why we then engaged the provincial
[00:07:20] environmental protection inspector who went to the field, we compiled
[00:07:24] all the letters and reports and submitted them for
[00:07:27] further action. Have the works been stopped
[00:07:31] on that part of the plot that enters the
[00:07:35] reserve? Yes, that has stopped. Has
[00:07:38] the remediation started? As far as I know,
[00:07:41] the remediation has not started yet. And how to remediate the life of the whole
[00:07:44] family that will have the farm under their window? I have
[00:07:48] three small children who I plan to live there,
[00:07:51] but what will they live from with so much
[00:07:55] ammonia, so much of that unpleasant smell from
[00:07:58] pigs? Meaning no one can tell me that those pigs won't
[00:08:01] smell, meaning that it will smell. So our windows
[00:08:05] in the houses will have to be closed all
[00:08:09] 365 days a year. The manager of Zasavica
[00:08:12] says that their service will monitor the development of the situation and adds
[00:08:16] that due to everything that has happened, the pig farm in Banovo Polje
[00:08:20] will become their primary monitoring zone. Miodrag
[00:08:24] Sovilj, N1
[00:08:42] of another one reported by tabloids, that
[00:08:46] the former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was also seen
[00:08:49] in Guča, although the festival-goers we spoke to did not
[00:08:53] see him, nor did the tourist organization confirm his stay
[00:08:56] in the Serbian trumpet capital. The hotel where he had lunch
[00:08:59] confirms that they indeed hosted the former Prime Minister
[00:09:02] of Hungary. N1 reporter Nataša
[00:09:06] Lazarević reports
[00:09:08] from the first day of festivities in Guča.
[00:09:11] In these evening and afternoon hours since we've been here in
[00:09:14] Guča, we haven't met Viktor Orbán, the former Prime Minister of Hungary.
[00:09:18] Neither have the citizens we spoke to
[00:09:21] seen him. However, following
[00:09:25] the information that appeared today in some media that Viktor Orbán
[00:09:28] was actually in a hotel in the center of Guča, here where
[00:09:31] he had lunch with friends without any security, as it was
[00:09:35] stated, had a drink in the hotel garden, took
[00:09:39] pictures with citizens who recognized him and approached him.
[00:09:43] Uh, we didn't manage to
[00:09:47] find that out from official, let's say, sources. So, we checked
[00:09:50] first with the Dragačevo tourist organization
[00:09:54] here in Guča. They say that there were no official organizations or
[00:09:58] protocols when it came to Viktor Orbán's visit
[00:10:01] to Guča, and that they actually don't have information that he
[00:10:05] was here at all today. However, we also
[00:10:08] called the hotel, or rather the hotel reception
[00:10:11] for which it was announced that
[00:10:15] he stayed there. They told us that Viktor Orbán was indeed a guest of their
[00:10:18] hotel, that he was with friends, that he had a drink, had lunch
[00:10:22] and then left. Where he went
[00:10:25] we don't know because none of these people who pass through Guča,
[00:10:29] who have been here all day with their stands, saw
[00:10:32] him. I didn't know that, I didn't know
[00:10:36] that. You didn't see him either? No, I didn't see him and I didn't know. If
[00:10:40] I had known, I would have come. I don't know, I mean I've been here
[00:10:43] all day so I haven't been walking around to see them and I haven't
[00:12:13] Lazarević, N1,
[00:12:14] Vuče. The young imperial eagle,
[00:12:18] Felix, who was abducted in the Middle East a little over nine months
[00:12:22] ago, and then returned by a Serbian
[00:12:25] army plane, was released into nature near
[00:12:28] Subotica. After more than a month
[00:12:31] of monitoring, feeding and flight training, Felix showed
[00:12:35] that he had enough strength to fly well
[00:12:39] enough to be able to return to nature. Before his
[00:12:42] first flight, Felix was examined once more, new
[00:12:46] metal and plastic leg rings were placed on him for
[00:12:49] identification, and a telemetry device was placed
[00:12:52] on his back again. The young eagle
[00:12:55] still doesn't have the strength for long and
[00:12:59] exhausting flights, and his movement
[00:13:01] will be closely monitored.
[00:13:10] Here's the weather forecast for the weekend, our Radmila
[00:13:14] Mitrović knows. A small drop in
[00:13:18] temperature is forecast, but it will remain very warm.
[00:13:21] Daily maximums for the weekend will be up to 30.
[00:13:25] 5 degrees, an increase in humidity in the
[00:13:28] air is expected, so it will be muggy with conditions for local cloud
[00:13:32] development and occasional showers accompanied
[00:13:35] by thunder. On Saturday, in the morning and forenoon, there will be clouds
[00:13:39] only in the east of Serbia, during the day in the northern and central
[00:13:43] regions it will be mostly dry, while changeable weather and transient
[00:13:46] showers accompanied by thunder are expected in other
[00:13:49] areas. A moderate northern wind will blow. The minimum
[00:13:53] temperature tomorrow will be from 17 degrees to 23
[00:13:56] degrees, a tropical night is expected in most places, the highest
[00:14:00] daily temperature will be in the range of 31
[00:14:03] degrees to 35 degrees. On Sunday,
[00:14:07] temperatures will also be up to 35 degrees, and conditions for transient
[00:14:11] precipitation will be mainly in hilly and mountainous
[00:14:13] areas. From Monday, then mostly sunny and
[00:14:17] warmer, with a rise in maximum temperature up to
[00:14:20] 39 degrees.
[00:14:24] You watched the news... Follow our reporters' stories on
[00:14:27] our portal, our social media accounts. Watch new
[00:14:31] news and information in our 10 o'clock
[00:14:35] news. Tonight with you is Filip Lukić,
[00:14:38] watch N1.
[00:15:09] Dear viewers, greetings, I'm Maja Štrbac, you're watching
[00:15:13] the daily review. These are the news
[00:15:15] we highlight.
[00:15:19] Gospić residents fear for their health due to illegal
[00:15:22] waste disposal. Most calls on the government
[00:15:26] to declare an extraordinary ecological crisis, the association Gospić naš dom
[00:15:29] agrees, and the Croatian Institute for Public Health tells us that they are not
[00:15:33] involved in this case.
[00:15:38] Milorad Pupovac criticized Dorh for not reacting to hate
[00:15:42] speech in Knin, emphasizing that it is a dangerous attack on democracy.
[00:15:57] The only
[00:15:57] thing
[00:16:01] that can be the letter
[00:16:02] of the law,
[00:16:06] is that initial letter? Croatian
[00:16:07] Constitution.
[00:16:11] More than 200,000 Croatian veterans will receive higher pensions
[00:16:15] starting next year. The average increase will be around 80
[00:16:19] euros.
[00:16:22] The constitutive session of the Council of the Croatian Olympic
[00:16:25] Committee was held. Siniša Krajač was relieved of his duties. Varvodić says
[00:16:29] he said enough about his distrust of Krajač in the
[00:16:31] campaign.
[00:16:50] Could one of the biggest ecological scandals in Croatia have had
[00:16:54] fewer consequences if institutions had reacted
[00:16:57] earlier? After USKOK published the results of the expert
[00:17:01] assessment confirming serious pollution in the area
[00:17:03] of the illegal waste dump in Gospić, citizens are demanding
[00:17:07] remediation and warn that time is working against them.
[00:17:11] The opposition, meanwhile, is asking the government to declare an extraordinary
[00:17:14] ecological crisis for Lika and Northern Primorje, while the authorities
[00:17:18] claim that there is no quick solution for such a complex case.
[00:17:21] What do the expert findings show? Why are citizens
[00:17:24] calling out institutions and what are the possibilities for remediation?
[00:17:28] In Ivan Hrstić's report.
[00:17:31] Alarming and dangerous pollution has been discussed
[00:17:33] for months, but the results of the expert assessment, which USKOK
[00:17:37] is publishing due to justified public interest, are shocking
[00:17:41] Gospić, Lika and all of Croatia. Citizens
[00:17:45] demand immediate action. In the expert's report, the Gospić Naš
[00:17:48] association points out, it is written that toxic particles are dispersed
[00:17:51] 200 m from the waste. Within a radius of up to 200 m,
[00:17:55] there are already houses from the waste. How is it possible that institutes for
[00:17:59] public health, the Ministry of Health, whoever, have not
[00:18:02] given health guidelines to the citizens of Gospić
[00:18:05] on how to behave in a given
[00:18:08] situation? Today we have uh, a very hot
[00:18:12] weather situation, it's been going on for, I don't know, a week, it will last another week, every day
[00:18:15] the Institute for Public Health issues instructions on how to behave, when
[00:18:19] we go out, whether to wear hats, whether to put on sunscreen, whether to expose ourselves
[00:18:22] to the sun, whether to swim, and so on. To our repeated request for a
[00:18:26] spokesperson from the Croatian Institute for Public Health,
[00:18:29] today we first received a very short answer. The Croatian Institute for
[00:18:33] Public Health was not involved in this case, so we could not
[00:18:37] comment on the finding. Please request a comment from the institution that
[00:18:41] conducted the analysis and published the finding. It seems that the
[00:18:45] HZJZ also feels left out of the whole story because no one
[00:18:49] asked them anything, but again, that raises the same question. Is it
[00:18:52] really possible? The very fact that dangerous waste is buried in the
[00:18:56] ground, in our opinion, required an extraordinary situation from the beginning.
[00:19:00] To our repeated inquiry, a first recommendation
[00:19:03] arrives. Citizens are advised not to enter the landfill area,
[00:19:06] not to touch or move waste and contaminated
[00:19:10] soil, and to prevent children and pets from accessing
[00:19:13] that location. It is also advisable to avoid activities
[00:19:17] that could raise dust at the location itself. Of course, daily politics
[00:19:21] is involved in everything, and we will get straight to the point,
[00:19:24] so it's a national treason, so we are talking about
[00:19:27] a serious national treason
[00:19:30] and, therefore, a threat to the national security of our
[00:19:34] people. Why do we say it is a national investigation? Because
[00:19:38] we also tested the water a year ago. The Lika-Senj County Prefect
[00:19:42] demands criminal responsibility for those who are responsible for it happening. As
[00:19:45] in the last year and a half, I insist that criminal charges
[00:19:49] be brought against all responsible persons, from the lowest link to the highest link, who
[00:19:53] dumped waste here, imported it into the city of Gospić, and that they
[00:19:56] be held criminally responsible for the crime committed
[00:20:00] against the citizens of Gospić. The Minister of Environmental Protection
[00:20:03] emphasizes that before the publication of these findings, they were looking for a contractor
[00:20:07] who would be able to handle hazardous ecotoxic
[00:20:11] waste. I would not say that the extent
[00:20:14] of the ecological catastrophe is only now being
[00:20:17] revealed. Namely, since the first statement from USKOK,
[00:20:20] we have been practically talking about an environmental crime,
[00:20:24] a criminal offense against the environment, about pollution
[00:20:27] and about the consequences for soil, air and water.
[00:20:31] Likewise, all initiated procurement procedures of the Ministry
[00:20:34] of Environmental Protection and Green Transition have, therefore,
[00:20:38] stated that it is hazardous waste. However,
[00:20:41] she says, an urgent negotiated procedure does not guarantee faster
[00:20:45] disposal of hazardous waste, which is unfortunately long-term.
[00:20:48] We are sticking to the remediation, we want it to be
[00:20:52] as fast as possible. We openly
[00:20:54] asked, we openly asked whether in reality
[00:20:58] there really is an urgent, urgent
[00:21:00] procedure for the remediation of such heterogeneous waste. There
[00:21:04] isn't. It can bring 15 or 30 days, but what does it bring
[00:21:08] in the process of disposing of hazardous
[00:21:11] heterogeneous waste which usually takes much
[00:21:15] much longer? We have not received an answer to that
[00:21:18] question. More possibilities are available. The first ones are on site and
[00:21:22] it seems they have been dismissed in advance. Citizens are full of
[00:21:25] distrust towards that and we are not
[00:21:29] inclined to discuss that option in detail,
[00:21:31] although, there are experts who consider
[00:21:34] it necessary to consider. Apparently, the possibility
[00:21:38] of sending it to landfills abroad, to former
[00:21:41] salt mines, and then the most expensive one, sending it to
[00:21:45] incinerators also outside Croatia. Before choosing, the
[00:21:48] minister says, she will listen to the citizens' demands and will
[00:21:52] present all options at a joint
[00:21:56] meeting. Ivan Hrstić, Zagreb.
[00:21:59] So, the question is no longer whether there is a problem, but how much longer
[00:22:03] it will last and how that problem will be solved. We will
[00:22:07] discuss remediation models and deadlines with
[00:22:11] the deputy director of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, Mirko
[00:22:14] Budiša. Here we are live, welcome to the program.
[00:22:17] My first question is, "can I get a clear answer
[00:22:21] from you today about which remediation model will be implemented, when it will start
[00:22:25] and until when the hazardous waste will be, when it will be
[00:22:28] removed from Gospić?
[00:22:31] First of all, good day and thank you for the invitation. I will answer your question
[00:22:35] as concretely as possible. Uh,
[00:22:38] according to our estimates, there are currently about 45,000
[00:22:41] tons of various waste, from hazardous to
[00:22:45] non-hazardous, at the site. It was deposited in different parts
[00:22:48] of the site, and that is why we divided the remediation itself into three
[00:22:52] phases. The first phase refers to
[00:22:55] the remediation of part of the plastic waste in the amount
[00:22:59] of 4,500 tons, which is located at the central location around
[00:23:02] the silos. An open public procurement procedure
[00:23:05] is underway, the opening of bids is on
[00:23:07] August 25th,
[00:23:10] so very soon. The value of this procurement is 4.7 million euros
[00:23:13] without VAT, and we hope that we will get an interested
[00:23:17] economic entity that will remove
[00:23:20] this waste. I would like to remind you that another
[00:23:23] open public procurement procedure for part
[00:23:27] of phase two is also underway, these are the big bag
[00:23:30] bags that we are currently watching, it is about
[00:23:33] 650 tons of non-hazardous waste. The value
[00:23:37] of the procurement is 400,000 euros without VAT, and the opening
[00:23:39] of bids is also on August 25th. What is
[00:23:42] really complex and what will be
[00:23:46] a challenge is the waste inside these closed halls.
[00:23:50] So, for which we are currently working on a remediation
[00:23:53] plan, we estimate that there are approximately 6,000
[00:23:56] tons of non-hazardous, but we cannot rule out that
[00:24:00] there is hazardous waste inside. Phase three is this part
[00:24:03] buried in the amount of 37,000
[00:24:06] tons. Here we are analyzing several technical-technological
[00:24:10] options, so without prioritizing which one
[00:24:14] it will be. It's about encapsulating the waste at the site,
[00:24:18] so sealing it with a waterproof impermeable
[00:24:22] layer to prevent rainwater from seeping into such
[00:24:25] waste, and then also prevent contamination of groundwater
[00:24:28] and aquifers. The second option is to excavate that
[00:24:31] waste and transport it to a hazardous waste landfill. Unfortunately,
[00:24:35] we do not have such a landfill in Croatia,
[00:24:39] but we have already sent inquiries to a dozen
[00:24:42] addresses throughout the European Union to see
[00:24:46] what the possibilities are for disposing of that waste outside
[00:24:49] Croatia. The third option is related to
[00:24:52] incinerating that waste, and the fourth, and last, option we
[00:24:56] are considering is so-called stabilization, which means converting
[00:24:59] non-hazardous waste into non-hazardous waste through physical, chemical,
[00:25:03] and technological processes, and then disposing
[00:25:06] of it as such. We will consider all variants,
[00:25:09] we will have a multi-criteria analysis, and
[00:25:13] we will choose the variant that we believe is
[00:25:16] technically, economically, and of course ecologically the most
[00:25:20] suitable. We will present this at the end of September to
[00:25:23] representatives of the interested public from the area of the city of Gospić. Mhm, I hear
[00:25:27] a lot of big numbers here, 4,500
[00:25:30] tons, 6,000 tons, 37,000 tons,
[00:25:33] you yourselves say that actually only on August 25th
[00:25:37] these public tenders go into implementation, it will certainly be waited
[00:25:40] until the end of September. Have you cooperated on this whole topic
[00:25:44] with the Croatian Institute for Public Health, and when we had
[00:25:47] the situation with the waste in Zagreb, recommendations were immediately issued,
[00:25:51] here the situation is quite serious.
[00:25:53] serious in Gospić, the Croatian Institute for Public
[00:25:56] Health says that when a request for assessment and recommendations
[00:26:00] arrives at their address, the day passes. They told us that
[00:26:04] they are not familiar with the case, it can somehow
[00:26:07] be inferred that they did not actually receive that request,
[00:26:11] how do you comment on that?
[00:26:13] Well, you should know that the fund only in the seventh
[00:26:17] month of last year, by changing the national waste management plan,
[00:26:20] got the legal prerequisite to be
[00:26:23] the bearer of remediation, to co-finance this remediation,
[00:26:27] so the fund is not an institution that should,
[00:26:31] in this case, ask the Croatian Institute for Public Health
[00:26:34] what to do. The fund is in charge of carrying out the remediation, and we,
[00:26:38] of course, asked the relevant institutions to provide us with data that are important to us for the remediation
[00:26:42] procedures, such as analyzes from
[00:26:46] the Andrija Štampar Institute or data we received from
[00:26:50] Dorch as part of their investigation,
[00:26:53] mhm, well, then we will refer to the civic initiative
[00:26:56] Gospić is our home. They claim that already in
[00:26:59] 2023. they proposed temporary protection
[00:27:03] of the location to prevent, as you yourself mentioned,
[00:27:06] further penetration into the soil. Today's findings show that the
[00:27:09] contamination has spread in the meantime,
[00:27:13] in just a few months, if I'm not mistaken, from the first analysis
[00:27:17] this year, there was only a few months difference. Is there any
[00:27:21] mistake regarding the timely
[00:27:23] reaction? Should you have reacted more decisively
[00:27:27] a few months ago? There is a mistake
[00:27:30] on the part of the association Gospo... is ours, because they proposed
[00:27:34] covering the waste next to the silo, that is, this plastic
[00:27:38] ground hazardous waste, which is almost
[00:27:40] technically impossible, so, but I would
[00:27:44] say that it is perhaps not technologically justified either. We proposed
[00:27:47] covering the buried waste, temporarily buried waste, to prevent
[00:27:51] the seepage of rainwater and to thus prevent
[00:27:55] the influx of contamination into groundwater. What
[00:27:58] I can say is that of course the fund is not in a position to...
[00:28:02] repeat results, especially regarding the impact on the environment, the impact on
[00:28:06] human health, but this report from
[00:28:09] Orha, which is now complete with this
[00:28:13] addition from July, clearly indicates that
[00:28:16] it is a local contamination, that is, contamination that
[00:28:20] has not crossed, has not crossed
[00:28:24] the boundaries of the location. Citizens are rightly concerned,
[00:28:27] actually we are all concerned, because over time,
[00:28:31] the risk of spread can increase, and that's why we in
[00:28:34] the fund proposed that temporary solution which has now
[00:28:37] obviously been discarded because we are going,
[00:28:40] somewhere in the ninth or tenth month, into public procurement directly
[00:28:44] for the removal of this waste from the location. mhm, well, you just said
[00:28:47] very similar words that we heard today from
[00:28:50] the minister on the program. Citizens are rightly concerned because
[00:28:54] it is a serious criminal offense against the environment with long-term
[00:28:57] consequences. These are her literal
[00:29:00] words, so who will be responsible for a possible
[00:29:04] disaster in this case?
[00:29:07] Well, I don't want to prejudge the course of the criminal
[00:29:11] proceedings. There is clear evidence that there has been an
[00:29:15] impact on the environment, environmental contamination, so it can be
[00:29:18] qualified as a crime against the environment, and then especially
[00:29:22] that crime which then manifests itself,
[00:29:25] can potentially manifest itself in people's health. I hope
[00:29:29] that all institutions will do their job and that
[00:29:33] those who should be punished will be punished
[00:29:36] with an appropriate sentence so that everyone
[00:29:39] will at least consider whether it makes sense and whether it is all
[00:29:43] appropriate. Of course, the safety
[00:29:46] of citizens is always number one. Can the citizens of Gospić
[00:29:50] be guaranteed that the pollution will stop before it
[00:29:53] endangers drinking water sources, or can no one really
[00:29:57] responsibly claim that at this moment?
[00:30:00] Well, at this moment it's very difficult to say because these are complex hydrogeological
[00:30:04] relations at the location itself. A favorable fact is that beneath this
[00:30:08] landfill there is a geological barrier in the form of clay that
[00:30:12] significantly slows down the inflow of surface water into
[00:30:15] the underground, and because of this, the current situation is such that
[00:30:19] we only have local contamination. What
[00:30:22] can also be seen, but cannot be claimed with certainty, is that this
[00:30:26] aquifer is not contaminated in the sense that there would be
[00:30:29] contamination of drinking water for human consumption
[00:30:33] in the area of the city of Gospić, or generally the Lika-Senj County.
[00:30:36] mhm, so currently, we don't know how much this three-month
[00:30:40] period will affect
[00:30:42] the situation in Gospić, but of course also around
[00:30:45] Gospić. It is very important to know that this is about
[00:30:48] one analysis, that is, an analysis that showed, if we are talking about PFOA compounds,
[00:30:52] specifically and heavy metals, which showed
[00:30:56] an increase, that is, an exceedance of the maximum permissible concentration.