No one will be brought to account for an environmental accident which caused the water supply in the eastern Croatian city of Slavonski Brod to be polluted by an oil spill in March this year, as the local county prosecutor has dismissed criminal charges brought against an unidentified perpetrator.

At the time of the accident, the Croatian oil company Crodux was conducting tests on a pipeline in the near vicinity of the incident site.

The leak occurred on March 28 in an area where the soil is made of clay, about 2.6 kilometres away from the nearest water well. Crodux continues to claim to this day that there was no way that the pollution could have affected the Jelas water supply plant within 48 hours of their testing.

Inspectors identified the pollutant that leaked out of the pipeline as motor petrol containing 2.7 percent of benzene, which was not found in any of the water samples, Crodux said then.

Hydrogeologist Darko Mayer said that the pollution came from underground, adding that it had appeared suddenly and disappeared suddenly.

The county prosecutor also dismissed charges of criminal responsibility for the people who participated in the process of sampling the water supply and its quality testing.

The investigation into the incident established that anyone who came into contact with the water samples and testing apparatus could have caused the water pollution.

During the field investigation, local police took several soil and water samples that were then analysed at the main forensics centre in Zagreb. The samples were found to contain traces of components of heavy oil fractions that are components used in motor oil, paraffin, or lubricants, and concluded that the samples had been contaminated by accident.

Following the incident, the water in the public water system in Slavonski Brod and six surrounding municipalities was declared unsafe for drinking for ten days, with regular supplies replaced by water tanks brought into the city.

Follow N1 via mobile apps for Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| and social media on Twitter | Facebook.