With Ground Full of Dumped Waste, Croatia Wants to Know: Why Has No One Been Punished Yet?
A lingering waste scandal is causing so much commotion in Croatia that the survival of the cabinet is at stake. Two opposition parties want to force a vote of confidence to bring down Prime Minister Plenkovic's cabinet over the handling of illegal waste dumping.
The village of Gospic, in central Croatia, is at the center of the controversy, where in recent years large amounts of shredded waste have disappeared underground on an industrial site. A couple was arrested in connection with the case early last year, but nothing has yet been announced about the trial, and the mess is still in the ground, much to the frustration of many.
This month, the Croatian anti-corruption agency USKOK released its findings about the pollution, bringing the case back into the spotlight.
Mixed with the soil
The conclusion is that about 37,000 tons of waste lie in Gospic: from residues of electronic equipment production to medical waste, plastic, and construction material. This pollution is so mixed with the soil that digging meters deep is the only option to get rid of it.
It is suspected that much waste has also been illegally dumped in a quarry near Benkovac and the northern town of Varazdin:
In the soil near Gospic, the heavily polluted contents of approximately 1,750 trucks were dumped. The concentration of copper there is one hundred times higher than allowed for agricultural land, and the lead content is ten times too high.
Furthermore, an elevated concentration of PFAS was found in the groundwater flowing downstream from the landfill; in the higher area nearby, researchers hardly detected these 'forever chemicals.'
Cleanup operation will take time
It is clear that the polluted soil must be removed, but the question is where to.
Croatia itself does not have a landfill for hazardous waste nor an incineration facility.
Meanwhile, contact has been made with seventy landfills in the European Union, says the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency, which is coordinating the cleanup operation. Interested parties can register from the end of this month.
In Croatia, many find this all too slow, including President Milanovic, a member of the Social Democratic opposition party SDP. After USKOK's findings, he urged the conservative government for answers. "Why has no one been punished to this day for the illegal dumping of hazardous waste, and why have the responsible government agencies turned a blind eye?"
There have been arrests, but no trials yet. After USKOK opened an investigation into the dumping early last year, the couple and business partners Josip and Monika Sincek were arrested.
Bribes paid
Investigators consider Josip the leader of the network. They suspect him of importing and illegally dumping 'expensive' waste from other EU countries, such as Italy and Slovenia, as well as from Croatia itself, at favorable rates. He is believed to have profited millions from this.
Gradually, the investigation into their network has expanded: from cooperating close family members who arranged sand and gravel to cover the waste to a corrupt environmental official who issued fake permits for the landfill. Europol, the European police agency, is now involved in the investigation.
It is also notable that the name of Andrija Mikulic appeared in the file last year. During an interrogation, Josip Sincek claimed that the then-chief inspector had promised to keep everything under wraps in exchange for half a million euros in bribes. Mikulic, a party colleague of Prime Minister Plenkovic and also appointed by him, was subsequently arrested and removed from his position.
"Leave the judgment to the court," Josip Sincek said this week, writes the Croatian news site Index.hr. "Journalists, politicians, and sensational headlines cannot judge my guilt and that of my family. Only the competent authorities can decide on responsibility." Many Croatians are watching that judgment with interest, but a date for the trial has not yet been set.