President of Dubrovnik SDP Anita Bonačić Obradović accused Mayor Mato Franković of withholding data on severe groundwater pollution beneath the Grabovica landfill, linked to the Ombla drinking water source.
Anita Bonačić Obradović, president of the Dubrovnik SDP, leveled serious accusations against Mayor Mato Franković on Wednesday, August 19, claiming that the public was kept in the dark for nearly three years about groundwater pollution beneath the Grabovica landfill. At a press conference, she presented two official findings from late 2023, which she said she received anonymously via email.
The findings are the result of an analysis commissioned by the city-owned company Čistoća from the accredited laboratory Eurofins Croatiakontrola. According to Bonačić Obradović, two samples from a monitoring well showed nearly identical contamination, with the laboratory describing water from a depth of 193 meters as "turbid liquid, dark brown in color, with a noticeable odor."
Bonačić Obradović emphasized that the measured values show arsenic concentrations in groundwater four times higher than permitted. Nickel, which by law should not be present in water at all, was measured at seven times the applicable limit. Organic pollution of groundwater, she noted, is 400 times above the allowed level.
"What is in the groundwater beneath Grabovica? These are not my data, but analytical reports from an accredited laboratory, i.e., public documents," said the president of the Dubrovnik SDP, adding that the mayor had previously disputed her figures, claiming they were compared against the wrong limits. "I must say I was too lenient because I said organic pollution was 18 times worse, but in fact it is 400 times worse," she stated.
The connection between Grabovica and the Ombla spring, which supplies Dubrovnik with drinking water, has been proven through dye tracing, with the dye reaching Ombla within five days. Bonačić Obradović reminded that this was confirmed back in 2017 at the City Council by then-deputy mayor Orlanda Tokić.
She also checked the public records for Grabovica, where only one permit from 2016 is visible, unlike other landfills whose permits are regularly updated. "The column indicating whether the water is safe or not is empty, as is the column with permitted parameters," she said.
Bonačić Obradović asked why these columns are empty and whether an analysis for PFAS, the "forever chemicals" mentioned in Gospić that travel through water to springs and cannot be destroyed by standard treatment without activated carbon filtration, has been requested. "If an answer exists, let them publish it; if not, then we don't have clean results," she said.
She demands three things from the city authorities: PFAS analysis at Grabovica and the Ombla spring before and after the treatment plant, information on the second phase of the treatment plant and the activated carbon essential for PFAS, and the publication of the complete monitoring of Grabovica from 2017 to the present within seven days. She has also sent all this to the city company Čistoća.
"For nine years, this administration has known about the dye tracing, for three years about these findings, and the public hasn't heard a word. Mato Franković has clearly hidden these findings from the public, and that is not allowed, because data on groundwater status is environmental data, and the public must know about it by law," she emphasized.
Bonačić Obradović stressed that she is not claiming the water residents drink is unhealthy, but believes it is necessary to know what is happening, especially since there are substances in the groundwater that are prohibited by law. "My children, my parents, and I have all drunk this water, and I believe all of you have too," she said.
She reminded that the mayor has announced the closure of Grabovica six times, while capacities are constantly being expanded and protective liners are being installed. "You installed them in 2019, but these findings date from 2023? What are Grabovica's capacities? What kind of waste goes where? Where does asbestos end up? Citizens deserve answers because drinking water is not a matter of politics," she concluded.
