Sinclair Knight Merz provided technical assistance and was part of the management advisory team for the Trepca lead mining company. The Trepca company comprises of a series of lead mines, concentrators, smelter (lead and zinc), battery and battery recycling plants and associated facilities at the Mitrovica Industrial Park.
The objectives of the environmental elements of the project were:
- Evaluation of the existing state of the environment following the war both within the company and in the surrounding communities
- Institutional strengthening across an ethnically divided management team and workforce
- Implementation of clean up programmes
- Design and submission of successful environmental clean-up programmes to international aid agencies.
The overall goal of this project was to assist the company in the clean-up programmes, developing local environmental skills and allowing the re-opening of the Trepca facilities that had been closed either during or after the war. Activities included technical, financial and environmental assessment of which SKM contribution was:
- Training for Kosovar Serb and Albanian staff in environmental assessment
- Liaison with NATO troops, UN Mission in Kosovo, WHO and international funding agencies for development of programmes for clean up activities
- Setting up environmental monitoring programmes for air quality monitoring, waste recycling and disposal activities
- Setting up an emergency response team and developing an Emergency Response Plan for dealing with hazardous materials including acid and hydrazine (rocket propellant) stored in unsafe conditions, cyanide and other process materials
- Mapping of contamination by lead, arsenic and other heavy metals in soil, groundwater, food and vegetables in two areas of Kosovo – Gracanica and Zvecan
- Assessment of levels of lead in dust in local schools
- Assessment of needs to repair and rehabilitate local power supply systems.