{"id":11769,"date":"2021-09-13T08:10:59","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T08:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/the-minister-of-environmental-protection-is-satisfied-with-the-progress-of-the-construction-of-illegal-facilities-in-bor\/"},"modified":"2023-05-20T10:01:46","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T10:01:46","slug":"the-minister-of-environmental-protection-is-satisfied-with-the-progress-of-the-construction-of-illegal-facilities-in-bor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/the-minister-of-environmental-protection-is-satisfied-with-the-progress-of-the-construction-of-illegal-facilities-in-bor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Minister of Environmental Protection is satisfied with the progress of the construction of illegal facilities in Bor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/rtb-Bor-Toplica-Marjanovic-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption>Photo: Bor \/ Toplica Marjanovi\u0107<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Minister of Environmental Protection\u00a0<\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ekologija.gov.rs\/saopstenja\/vesti\/vujovic-u-boru-ulaganje-zidjina-u-modernizaciju-postrojenja-vazno-za-zivotnu-sredinu\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>visited the company \u201cSerbia\u00a0Zijin\u00a0Copper doo\u201d<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0in Bor\u00a0on Friday, 3<sup>rd<\/sup><\/strong><strong>\u00a0of September\u00a0in order\u00a0<em>to be convinced of the progress and dynamics of the projects that the company is implementing for the purpose of environmental protection<\/em><\/strong><strong>.\u00a0However, the facilities she visited and in the construction of which she was convinced,\u00a0<span class=\"podvuceno\">do not have a construction\u00a0permit or\u00a0environmental impact assessment\u00a0study\u00a0approval.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The citizens of Bor have been facing air pollution for many years, and the high concentrations of sulfur dioxide caused by the operation of the smelter within the industrial complex of the company Serbia Zijin Bor Copper <strong>often exceed the concentrations dangerous to human health<\/strong>.\u00a0Therefore, only\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sepa.gov.rs\/download\/akcidenti\/vazduh\/Avgust_2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">during August 2021<\/a>, hourly exceedances of sulfur dioxide were recorded at\u00a0several measuring stations in Bor: in\u00a0Brezonik\u00a0(suburban settlement north of the city) 5, in the City Park (city center) 6 and near the Institute (southern part of the city) 9 times. Sulfur dioxide pollution in Bor continued\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.timocke.rs\/uploadimg\/Izjava-o-emisiji-dimnih-gasova-06092021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">this weekend<\/a>\u00a0as well.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During her visit to Bor, the Minister of Environmental Protection specified that <em>since\u00a0the new system for collecting and desulphurization of flue gases within the smelter complex\u00a0was put into operation\u00a0the situation is noticeably better,\u00a0<\/em>and that this project\u00a0is of\u00a0<em>utmost\u00a0importance\u00a0for her.<\/em>\u00a0The Minister was\u00a0accompanied\u00a0by the company\u2019s representatives through the complex within the sulfuric acid\u00a0industrial unit,\u00a0including\u00a0the desulphurization plant\u00a0as well, which should contribute to the reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, what represents a precedent in the behavior of the authorities performing the entrusted duties is the fact that the facilities, whose functionality the Minister praised, were constructed without the approval of the competent authorities. According to publicly available data, the company Zijin Bor Copper has obtained solely location conditions for the phase construction, extension and reconstruction of a group of facilities within the complex \u201cSerbia Zijin Bor Copper\u201d d.o.o. Bor, aiming to increase the capacity of the copper smelter from December 2020. The environmental impact assessment procedure for the project of the copper smelter capacity increase within the complex has not been completed, <em>i.e.<\/em>\u00a0according to\u00a0the\u00a0publicly available information,\u00a0the company did not obtain the\u00a0environmental impact assessment study\u00a0approval, which is a\u00a0precondition\u00a0for issuing a construction permit. In fact, an environmental impact assessment study for this project has not yet been published.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<em>The facility is just one among numerous\u00a0new facilities being constructed\u00a0in the metallurgical-chemical complex. Inside the facility, metallurgy\u00a0waste gas\u00a0is absorbed with lime milk to\u00a0produce\u00a0gypsum. It is questionable what this product contains because the smelter waste gas, in addition to sulfur dioxide, contains mercury, arsenic, cadmium, nickel\u2026 Is gypsum a product for further use or hazardous waste for which the construction of a landfill is necessary,\u00a0shall\u00a0be defined by\u00a0the\u00a0environmental impact assessment study. In these\u00a0processes,\u00a0water\u00a0resources from the Bor\u00a0lake\u00a0are\u00a0used, which are generally intended for recreation and are\u00a0an important resource for\u00a0tourism development of this region. In\u00a0this dry period, with the start of the facility\u00a0activities, a decrease in water level in the lake\u00a0is noticeable<\/em>\u201c- explains Toplica Marjanovi\u0107,\u00a0environmental protection engineer\u00a0and a former employee of RTB Bor.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to the suspicion that the company Zijin Bor Copper is performing activities on increasing the capacity and reconstruction of the copper smelter without construction permit, RERI submitted request for initiating an extraordinary inspection surveillance procedure to the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, which specified that they would conduct field inspection on Monday, 13 September.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Parallel, RERI also addressed the Ministry of Environmental Protection and requested\u00a0to determine whether the construction had\u00a0commenced\u00a0before obtaining the\u00a0EIA approval\u00a0and\u00a0<strong><span class=\"podvuceno\">to\u00a0prohibit\u00a0the project\u00a0and activities until the approval\u00a0of the competent authority is obtained<\/span><\/strong>. To date, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has not acted on the request.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RERI and the\u00a0Association\u00a0of Young Researchers\u00a0in\u00a0Bor point out that it is the\u00a0government\u00a0that enables companies to behave irresponsibly and thus endanger the health of a large number of its\u2019\u00a0citizens, because not only\u00a0that Ministry does\u00a0not sanction violations by privileged companies that are their \u201cstrategic partners\u201d but also proudly participates in their promotion.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Minister of Environmental Protection\u00a0visited the company \u201cSerbia\u00a0Zijin\u00a0Copper doo\u201d\u00a0in Bor\u00a0on Friday, 3rd\u00a0of September\u00a0in order\u00a0to be convinced of the progress and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1166,1267,1167,1545],"tags":[846,1146,873,1372,843,1269,1373,1374],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11769"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11789,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11769\/revisions\/11789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reri.org.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}