Full-sized Project to Implement an Environmentally Sound Management and Final Disposal of PCBs in the Republic of Serbia, UNIDO 100313, GEF 4877

The overall objective of this project is to protect human health and the environment by reducing and eliminating the releases of and exposure to PCBs through establishment of an environmentally sound PCB management system including final disposal of 200 tons of PCB contaminated equipment.  

The project is co-financed by Global Environmental Facility (GEF), Electric Power Company of Serbia (EPS), Serbian Railways and by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection of Serbia (MoAEP). Expected project duration is by the end of 2020. Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy University of Belgrade is Project Management Unit (PMU) and the Ministry of Environmental Protection is National Execution Agency (NEA).

One of the 5 Outputs of this project is Output 5: Public private partnership (PPP) policy integrated into national assessment scheme for PCBs contaminated sites. The following activities are to be performed within this Output: PCB contaminated sites investigation, Criteria definition for prioritization of PCB contaminated sites within the PPP framework, Risk assessment study for a pilot site and Management plan for PCB contaminated sites.

39 potentially contaminated sites were selected from the Inventory managed by the SEPA, screened within the UN Environment/GEF project titled: Enhanced Cross-sectoral Land Management through Land Use Pressure Reduction and Planning. All 39 potentially contaminated sites are brownfield sites. In April 2017 collaborative activities were established between projects, as well as with SEPA and MoEP, in order to include PCBs investigation in project activities. In January 2018, the investigation was completed and obtained results indicated several locations contaminated with PCBs. Five locations with concentration slightly above the legal limits and only three locations with PCBs concentrations slightly above the remediation values. Due to the fact that preliminary investigation of the potentially contaminated sites was mostly based on historical records and the information received from the site owners, rather than previously collected analytical data on PCB contamination, it was necessary to conduct site investigation in such a way which will provide sufficient data to enable the selection of optimal remediation actions at the site.Based on this data, three potentially PCBs contaminated sites were chosen, FOM Prokuplje, Župa Kruševac and Fabrika radijatora Zrenjanin, and detailed site investigations were performed. A Handbook dedicated to contaminated site management was developed within the project activities, and also training sessions for professionals in the field were organized. Currently the high-risk site of Radijator Zrenjanin is being analyzed for potential remediation activities.