A fire that broke out last summer at the former waste oil landfill, the so-called Gudronska jama, prompted residents of the Modriča area to once again publicly highlight the environmental problems affecting their lives and to further insist on finding a solution.

The Gudronska jama emits an unbearable odor, especially in the summer months, which reaches nearby houses. An even greater problem is the release of hydrocarbons into the air and soil, with disastrous consequences for human health and the environment.

Currently, several thousand people live in the immediate vicinity of the Gudronska jama, where approximately 25,000 tons of toxic waste from all over Yugoslavia were dumped between the early 1960s and the mid-1990s.

Although coal tar – a product of the refining of used industrial oils and lubricants – is no longer stored at this site, it still poses a threat to human health and the environment. Three open-air tanks, filled with toxic waste, cover an area of approximately two thousand square meters in the heart of a densely populated area.

“The municipality of Modriča 5 was created during the war, with the arrival of refugees from central Bosnia, then grew rapidly in the early 2000s, when it was officially established. Currently, 450 families (about 2,000 people) live there, mostly refugees and their descendants. Some houses are located just 30 meters from the landfill, and the school, attended by 120 students, is 400 meters away”, explains Pane Kostadinović, who has lived in this area with his family of five since the mid-1990s.

Kostadinović points out that the sign reading: “Extended stay can cause damage to health”, placed after the landfill was created on the site where the Modriča 5 municipality now stands, was removed with the arrival of the first refugees.

Pane, together with his fellow citizens, has launched a civic initiative to put pressure on the authorities to properly address the issue of the Gudronska jama.

They decided to act, prompted by the latest in a long series of fires that, in August last year, engulfed the waste oil landfill and the surrounding vegetation. The fire was extinguished thanks to the intervention of firefighters from several cities, and the devastated area was then secured to prevent further disasters.

During the fire, large quantities of carcinogenic dust and gases were released into the atmosphere. Measurements, taken by local authorities at three locations and at three different times – immediately after the fire was extinguished, one week later, and then two weeks later – showed that for days, highly polluted air was present within a radius of approximately twenty kilometers.

Levels of toxic gases – including benzene, toluene, acrolein, hydrochloric acid and nitrogen dioxide – up to 500 times higher than those permitted by law were detected. The center of Modriča, located approximately three kilometers from the landfill, was also affected. A state of emergency was declared in several areas of the Modriča municipality, including the Modriča 5 district, due to the pollution.

No one is responsible

“The tanks were dug in the 1960s on a deserted, gravelly site, on an area once occupied by a farm. The soil is porous. However, there is no publicly available information on the composition of the bottom of these tanks or on any interactions between waste oil and groundwater”, explains Jovica Sjeničić from the Association for Research and Protection of Biodiversity. Sjeničić points out that drinking water sources are located just two kilometers from Gudronska jama.

The association led by Sjeničić, as well as the network of environmental organizations EkoBiH, is supporting a local initiative to collect signatures in four municipalities – Modriča, Šamac, Odžak and Gradačac – calling for the cleanup of the Gudronska Jama, which threatens human health and the environment across a wider area of northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

An informal group of citizens, gathered with the aim of putting pressure on the authorities to finally solve the issue of the Gudronska jama, is currently collecting information and demanding a response from those responsible.

The Republika Srpska Inspectorate has ordered the Modriča oil refinery to take measures due to violations emerged during the outbreak and spread of the latest fire in the town of Garevac, near the Gudronska jama. There is therefore no doubt as to who “owns” this ecological bomb.

The local population, as explained by Sjeničić, is demanding that those responsible for the fires and pollution related to the landfill be identified in order to reach a definitive solution that includes the landfill’s cleanup and the protection of the health of the residents of Modriča.

“To date, nothing has been done to empty the tanks and clean up properly the landfill area, which is our ultimate goal”, says Sjeničić.

The activist adds that citizens are also engaged in researching possible links between emissions from Gudronska jama and the increase in cancer and heart disease among the local population.

The problem is that the existing monitoring system measures only basic air pollution parameters, not the gas and particle levels specific to vapors and leaks from similar landfills. Therefore, the locals have little information about the pollution to which they are exposed.

Many unknowns and a solution that is too expensive

“For us, it is not so important who solves the problem. The whole issue was pushed into the political sphere, and passing the buck started right away. The truth is that nothing has been done so far, and there is no sign of anything happening in the near future”, laments Sjeničić.

However, the residents of the Modriča 5 municipality are convinced that, sooner or later, not only the names of those responsible for this environmental disaster must come to light, but also the details of the numerous irregularities related to the Gudronska jama, which have been hidden from the public for decades.

The contract for the sale of the Modriča oil refinery to a Russian company has never been made public. The results of pollutant measurement tests, which the company is required to perform under environmental regulations, are also unknown.

What we do know is that the first environmental permit issued to the refinery’s new owner envisaged the company’s obligation to clean up the Gudronska jama area in Garevac within five years. According to Jovica Radulović, mayor of Modriča, the Russian company, despite owning the land containing three toxic tanks, refuses to accept responsibility.

“This requirement was excluded from all subsequent environmental permits”, explained Radulović, adding that all his attempts to help solve this long-standing problem, in collaboration with the relevant ministry, had been unsuccessful.

“To date, we have not received any invitation from the ministry or other state institutions to address this problem”, said Radulović in August 2023, after one of the thirty-seven fires recorded in the area of the former landfill over the past ten years broke out.

We attempted to contact Radulović, who was re-elected for a second consecutive term as mayor of Modriča, to inquire about any progress in the efforts to clean up the Gudronska jama. Unfortunately, we were unable to reach him, although he is considered a helpful interlocutor, deeply committed to finding a permanent solution to this environmental problem.

In 2015, together with Srebrenka Golić, then Minister of the Environment of Republika Srpska, Radulović initiated the process of carrying out a study for the remediation and closure of Gudronska Jama. However, the study was never completed.

The mayor of Modriča also met with Bojan Vipotnik, the current Minister of Territorial Planning, Construction, and Environment of the Republika Srpska. Some time ago, Vipotnik announced “substantial solutions with partners in Belgium and Germany”.

“After the fire, we contacted our international partners again. The first meetings will take place in early September. We are preparing a project for the disposal of hazardous waste, and it is very likely that the Gudronska jama will also be remediated as part of this initiative. However, at least ten million marks [about five million euros] are needed”, stated Vipotnik in August last year.

The fires

Efforts to prevent the potentially disastrous consequences of the release of toxic substances from the Gudronska jama, located about fifty meters from the residential area, have been limited to “fighting fires”. This is the only concrete measure taken by the authorities so far.

Last summer, after the latest fire broke out in the former landfill area – the 37th in ten years – the municipality of Modriča took action to stem the flames and prevent further fires, covering the burned ground and cutting off the flow of oxygen. However, this does not mean the fires will not recur. If a fire were to break out again, the authorities would probably just put it out.

It seems, therefore, that a broader picture of the phenomenon of Gudronska jama, which continues to poison the environment and the local population, is destined to remain invisible to those who are required, and paid with taxpayers’ money, to address similar environmental issues.

 

This publication has been produced within the Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI ), a project co-funded by the European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa and do not reflect the views of the European Union. Go to the project page