International network helps Serbian environment inspectors Breath mint for an industrial dinosaur Text: Marija Ristic Photographs: Ecoforum - Belgrade On a Sunday afternoon, Sabac looks just like any other mid-size town in the Balkans, with empty streets and crowded cafes. The international swim meet on the Sava River and the summer festival have long passed, and conversation has returned to local politics. And the importance of Zorka for Sabac. It is even acknowledged on the city council’s web page: “Without Zorka, Sabac would definitely not be what it is.” Indeed, to many in Sabac, Zorka is their bread and butter. And for everyone, it is the source of the area’s characteristic odour. The stench of fluorine comes from the Zorka Sabac industrial complex — just a few hundred metres from the city centre. Ever since the first factory opened its doors in 1938, the complex has been a pearl in the crown of former Yugoslavia’s chemical and metal processing industry. Today, Zorka is one of two mineral fertiliser producers in Serbia, with ammonia and fluorine its main products. But Zorka comprises a host of humming facilities: a chemical plant, a smelter, a dye maker and a drug producer count among the enterprises at the riverside industrial site. Despite economic difficulties and the breakup of the former giant into separate smaller companies during the past decade, Zorka is still a major source of jobs for Sabac. But many others in Sabac blame Zorka for their health problems and the town’s polluted environment. Members of three generations of the Stanojevic family are convinced that their health has been impaired due to Sabac’s bad air. Milka, 65, said a persistent stomachache is due to air pollution from Zorka. “From the gases emitted from its facilities, I feel burning itchiness in my eyes and worn-out lungs,” the woman complained. Chronic bronchitis Local people look to local authorities for solutions to their health problems. Marija, 42, thought that her constant headaches were caused by bad air. Her husband Danilo, 54, shared some of his childhood memories: “When Zorka Sabac factories operated at full capacity, every other friend from school suffered from chronic bronchitis. No one ever investigated the true cause of this provable statistical fact or has ever done research on the subject,” Danilo said bitterly. The truth is, measurements are being made and the authorities know the problem. According to official results, air pollution levels are not as constant as inhabitants believe. Pollution is emitted only when the zinc and sulphuric acid plant operates, said Ljiljana Stanojevic, the chief of Serbia’s environmental inspectorate. A lifelong resident of Sabac, Stanojevic has worked 14 years as an ecological inspector. She confirmed that, although dangerous chemical fumes “can be seen and sensed,” they rarely exceed legal limits. There have been instances of episodic contamination, including ones when Stanojevic was compelled to order a work stoppage of the fertiliser plant. But there have been instances when she couldn’t resort to such measures. “Sometimes stopping and restarting the production process in metallurgy can cause even greater pollution, so that is not necessarily the best thing to do,” she explained. Two years ago, the authorities of the Serbian Ministry of Nature and Environment Protection were divided between the Ministry of Science and Environment Protection and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Hydro Economy. Today, each ministry has its own inspectors, Stanojevic explained. Over 250 environmental inspectors in the country operate on republican, municipal and autonomous levels. Limited lab support Unlike the EU, where inspectors have access to independent laboratories, Serbian inspectors can only report on a possible problem and request an inspection. After that, the factory has to engage a private laboratory or, in exceptional cases, the local health protection authorities. “We have excellent inspectors, but the difference is the conditions in which these inspections are carried out,” Stanojevic said. Assistance for environmental inspectors has come from abroad. Ninety-one inspectors from the republican ecological inspectorate have been trained within the Environmental Compliance and Enforce-ment Network for Accession (ECENA). The organisation is the successor of the Balkan Environmental Regulatory Compliance and Enforcement Network established in 2001 within the framework of the Regional Environmental Recon-struction Programme for South Eastern Europe (REReP). Visible progress Similar to other countries taking part in the Stabilization and Association Process, Serbia and Montenegro joined the network to improve the country’s capacity in environmental enforcement and compliance with EU law. “If we compare the capacity of the Serbian inspectorate in 2001 and now, there is visible progress,” said Mihail Dimovski, the network’s project manager at REC. However, he said it is difficult to compare the Serbian inspectorate with those of the other ECENA member countries because “not all the countries are at the same level regarding the transposition and implementation of EU legislation.” ECENA members Bulgaria and Romania, which are already in the process of EU accession, have transposed and implemented EU law while others are at different stages of the process. Since December 2004, Serbia has had a law on integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) which has transformed the philosophy of environmental permitting for big industries. In line with the EU’s IPPC directive, the new law replaces the system of separate permits for each aspect of the environment (air, water, soil) with a single integrated permit. By law, industries will have to use best available techniques and meet specific environmental requirements depending on the local conditions. Existing facilities in Serbia and Montenegro will have to comply with the new law by 2015. Currently, some 161 plants are estimated to fall under the new regulation and a complete inventory is under progress. The recently adopted basic environmental laws follow the polluter-pays principle, but special laws that will give life to this principle still need to be adopted, said Stanojevic. Since there are no toxic waste dumps in Serbia, industrial and dangerous waste - including non-resolvable phosphor gypsum - is stored in Zorka, according to Stanojevic. Milan Djurdjevic, development director at the mineral fertiliser factory at Zorka, said that 1 million tonnes of phosphor gypsum is stored near the plant. As much as 40,000 tonnes of this substance is discharged each year. Economic giants from the past require serious investments for environmental remediation. According to the factory’s development director Milan Djurdjevic, during the last two years, around EUR 400,000 have been invested in filters for air purification. But even he could not estimate the total investment needed for remediation.

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