Working Group Warns: Kaštijun Lacks Monitoring Well Outside the Facility
Civilian oversight demands external monitoring points and a waste management plan, while warning of 30,000 tons of waste-derived fuel stored directly on the ground.
Civilian oversight demands external monitoring points and a waste management plan, while warning of 30,000 tons of waste-derived fuel stored directly on the ground.
The Working Group for civilian oversight of the operations of the company Kaštijun issued a sharp statement on Monday, August 10, 2026, raising a key question: could the scenario at the Gospić illegal landfill be repeated at the county waste management center? Although the annual report of the Istrian County Institute of Public Health for 2025 does not record exceedances of limit values, the group warns that the monitoring system has a structural flaw that prevents a true picture of the situation.
According to the Working Group, groundwater and soil at Kaštijun are regularly monitored, but all three monitoring wells are located within the facility's boundaries. There is not a single reference point outside the center's perimeter that would allow comparison of samples before and after the site. "It was precisely the comparison of samples before and after the site that exposed contamination in Gospić. Kaštijun simply does not conduct such a comparison, so what it might reveal can neither be confirmed nor ruled out," the Working Group stated.
Particularly concerning is the method of waste storage. The Working Group claims that, contrary to environmental permit conditions, approximately 30,000 tons of SRF (solid recovered fuel) are stored at the site. The bales are placed directly on the ground, without an impermeable base, foil, or other appropriate protection. This is not the first such incident. "As early as November 25, 2022, the Working Group reported to the Inspectorate the illegal disposal of a metal fraction on an unregulated open surface, and after a liquid of unknown origin was observed near the pile, an independent analysis of surface water showed contamination with multiple exceedances of permitted values-some pollutants up to 30 times above the allowed limit. That is why residents' fears are understandable," the statement reads.
The Mayor of Pula, Peđa Grbin, announced last week that amendments to the city's spatial plan would designate a new location for the composting plant, although under the current document it is planned for Kaštijun. The Working Group welcomed this news but posed a logical question: "This is good news, and we welcome it. However, the question arises: if it is clear that Kaštijun cannot accommodate another facility, why was it announced at the last City Council session that the sewage sludge dryer would still be placed there?"
Group members expect that the same logic used to find an alternative location for the composting plant will be applied to the sludge dryer. "Kaštijun is already overloaded, and residents of southern Istria feel it every day through the stench spreading to surrounding settlements and even to the most remote islands of southern Istria," they warn.
The Working Group also notes that the Istrian County has still not adopted the Waste Management Plan, a document that was legally required by January 2024. "Without it, there is no clear, planned decision on where the composting plant, biogas facility, sludge dryer, and other missing infrastructure should be located. The result is that whenever a new facility is needed, the first and only proposal automatically becomes Kaštijun," they state.
In conclusion, the Working Group demands more transparent monitoring with external control points, the urgent adoption of the waste management plan, and an end to the practice of Kaštijun being the automatic solution for every new infrastructure need. "Residents of southern Istria deserve a plan, not chaos, and they deserve for the existing facility-if it must remain where it is-to start operating in accordance with its operating permit," conclude the members of the Working Group for civilian oversight of the operations of the company Kaštijun.
