Supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
Steel sky over the town (Zenica case) presented by Dr.sc. Samir Lemeš president of NGO "Eko forum" Zenica Presentation of the Alternative Report on the Implementation of the Aarhus Convention in BiH Sarajevo, 16.9.2015
Steel sky over the town
Case of six chimneys in ArcelorMittal Zenica: an example on how hard is to obtain valid information about air pollution in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Federal regulation for air pollution tax, adopted in late 2011, demands polluters to submit the report on pollution emissions by June 30 for previous year to Federal ministry for environment and Federal environment fund. We came to an information that report from ArcelorMittal for 2013 was submitted on 31.3.2014. The report contained data from 6 industrial chimneys.
Steel sky over the town
We have heard that something is wrong with this report, and we asked the Federal ministry and the Federal fund to give us information about it (8.12.2014) On 17.12.2014 the Fund informed us that Federal hydrometeorological Institute preformed data validation, which revealed that reported emissions are much lower than for 2012, despite the fact that there were no environmental projects on these plants, especially Coke plant and Thermal power plant, the production was even bigger than in previous year, and the air quality in Zenica has worsened.
Steel sky over the town
The Institute disputed the report, demanding from ArcelorMittal to correct the faulty data and to give further explanations for lower reported emissions. On 27.11.2014, the Fund sent the report with their recommendations to the Ministry and the Federal inspection. They also demanded additional control measurements by independent body, on locations where continuous monitoring equipment is placed. As we did not receive any information about the results of these controls, we asked to access the information from the Fund (13.7.2015).
Steel sky over the town
The Fund responded on 24.7.2015, stating that they are not authorized to perform additional measurements. The assigned authority is the Inspection in cooperation with Hydrometeorological Institute, and the Fund has no information whether they performed any actions. On 21.4.2015 we demanded from the Hydrometeorological Institute to inform us about the results of additional measurements on 6 chimneys in AMZ The Institute responded on 9.6.2015 with information that authorized body (company TQM Lukavac) performed the measurements.
Steel sky over the town
On 25.6.2015 we asked TQM Lukavac to give us information about measurements performed in ArcelorMittal Zenica, but they denied us access to information, referring to their obligation towards their customer (AMZ) to keep the data confidential (business secret). They forwarded us to relevant authorities. On 13.7.2015 we repeated our demand to acces the information from the Ministry and the Institute. The Institute responded on 7.8.2015 that data is collected by the Ministry, and the control is performed by the Inspection.
Steel sky over the town
Finaly, on 14.8.2015 we asked to access the information from the Inspection. They answered on 31.8.2015:
Automatic monitoring system in Power plant, BOF, Blast furnace and Sintering plant are functional. Measurement of pollution in Sinter plant is functional, and flow meter is out of service. Automatic measurement in Coke plant is out of order, due to technical failure from 20.8.2015 We perform the legal measures in order to correct these defects.
No information was provided about the suspicious results of continuous measurements from 2013.
Steel sky over the town
The answer from the Ministry (to our questions from 14.7.2015) never arrived. In the meantime, we discovered that the Ministry issued temporary invoice for tax pollution, but ArcelorMittal sued the Ministry, disputing this temporary document. Thus, millions of KM now wait for the court decision, and environmental projects which should be funded by this tax are now postponed. We can conclude that we almost always receive the answers to our letters, but the content of these answers has nothing to do with questions we asked.
Miscommunication or corruption?
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