ĆELIJE ACCUMULATION

Lake Ćelije, location, history and purpose

The accumulation of Ćelije represents an important regional water resource for the supply of drinking water to the Rasina district and is of key importance for the planned water supply of about 200,000 inhabitants of this part of Serbia. It was formed in the period from 1972 to 1983 as part of the protective measures aimed at preventing floods and retaining the deposit in the largest accumulation in Serbia - "Djerdap". The original purpose of the reservoir has been changed and its use as a source of water supply with drinking water has begun. The accumulation is officially included in the source of drinking water for utility needs and economy, the Law on use and protection of water supply sources.

The water supply function was realized only when the construction of the dam was at the end, when it was decided to build a factory for drinking water in Majdevo.
The dam of the Ćelije belongs to the filled dam, it is made of an impermeable clay core and stone lining; It was built from 1973 to 1978 when the lake basin was filled with water. Current and potential functions of the cell accumulation at the time of its formation were:

• the leveling of the Rasina water level, ie mitigation of the flood wave downstream of the lake, especially during the spring months when the snow melts on Kopaonik and the provision of so-called biological minimum during drought,
• supply of water to the population and industry,
• irrigation,
• electricity generation and
• recreation

The area of ​​the catchment of the Lake Ćelije is 598 km2 and represents the widest area of ​​protection, that is, the zone of partial protection. The narrow gravitational area covers an area of ​​58.5km2 and consists of a space next to a water mirror and extends from the villages of Zlatari and Bogiše to the dam, covering all the river basins and rivers that are direct tributaries of the lake. The total length of the lake in Rasina's main stream was initially less than 11km. Because of the material that is mostly retained at the mouth of Rasina in the accumulation, where a significant delta has been formed, the lake is now shorter by about 1km. The length of the coastline at the elevation of normal slowing is about 31km.

Potential largest volume of the Ćelije lake on the elevation of maximum slowdown of 283.5m elevation is 66.000.000 m3, and the surface is 4.35 km2. However, the current volume and surface of the lake, at the elevation of 277m ., is 41.0000.000 and 2.85km2, giving an average depth of 14.4m. The largest depth of the lake is 41m in the Radojković basin in front of the dam. According to the measurements from 1926 to 1975, the average annual flow of Rasina was 5.9 m3 / s, so that the 1979 water retention time in the Lake was about 80 days. Due to global overheating, the flow through the lake has a tendency to decline and has a mean annual value of 4.5 m3 / s in the period from 2001 to 2015, so that the retention time of the lake is now about 105 days.

Due to the morphological complexity, the Ćelije Lake represents three regions within its own, spatially defined integrity. According to lymnological parameters, including thermal and trophic status, it represents a three-part whole and practically consists of three successive lakes, connected by smaller clustering slaves, that is, Zlatar, Vasić and Radojković basin, in which there is a water catchment with 6,000,000, 14,000 .000 and 21,000,000 m3 angles of normal slowing. The Zlatarski basin belongs to the municipality of Brus, while the other two basins, which are located in the village of Vasići Ćelije, are part of the City of Kruševac.

According to the thermal regime of water, the Ćelije lake can be classified as a transitional type between subtropical and temperate climates. Namely, due to the complex morphometry, the surface of the lake never completely faded, except for the winter of 1984/1985. For the same reason, trophicity decreases further downstream, that is, each basin acts as a relatively independent entity.

The designed working life of the Ćelije lake is until 2030. However, the lifetime of the reservoir will be considerably longer because the production of a layer of 400,000m3 in 1965, when the lake was projected, was reduced to 162,165m3 due to extensive afforestation in the basin, starting from 1945 to the late seventies of the last century. On the other hand, the tendency to avoid as much as possible the fluctuation of the surface level, so as not to disturb the stability of the lake ecosystem, slowed down the spread of deposits that bring large flows after precipitation and snow melting in Vasić and, in particular, the Radojković basin, so that the Zlatarski basin is filled with a larger amount of coating than it would fill according to the dispatch plan. In this way, the Zlatarski basin will be faster and turn into a swamp with a green curtain which will be a powerful protection against further deposits in the other two basins. Therefore, it can be expected that the lake will last at least 200 years, provided the climate does not change significantly and there is no desertification.

Morphometrically, the lake has no conditions for oligotrophy because the mean depth of 14.4m necessarily determined it as eutrophic. The process of eutrophication of the lake is faster than that which would take place naturally, since from the very beginning, no protection measures have been implemented, and sanitary protection has been defined only with the beginning of the work of the water factory Majdevo, in the middle of 1984, when the lake had the function of water supply. The main negative anthropogenic impacts on the lake are erosion, municipal and industrial waste water from Brus and Blaca, waste and solid waste, sand extraction from Rasina, fishponds in Rasina and tributaries, livestock breeding and catering facilities.

Since 2000, problems have been escalated on the lake itself and in the immediate lake environment, ie in the first and second zone of protection. On an expropriated land, the locals began to process their former fields and finally completely occupy it, to the very shores of the lake. In Vasici and Radojkovići, holiday homes were illegally built, and in Vasici and Zlatari they camped intensively until 2014, when tents, cottages, caravans and campsites from the shores of the lake were removed in the great action of the municipalities of Brus and Kruševac. A special problem is the so-called sport fishing, under whose cloak, in fact, a commercial catch of fish is taking place. Also, fishermen illegally enter fish species into the lake and disturbing sensitive land ecosystems and vegetation along the lake.

The owner of the Ćelije Lake is Serbia Vode, and only Ćelije Dam , as a construction and hydraulic facility, was entrusted to the PUC Vodovod Kruševac in 1991 for maintenance. Although without formal guidance, Vodovod Kruševac, in accordance with its capabilities, took care of maintaining the lake and preserving its ecological integrity. Laboratory of the Water Factory in 1987 started the monitoring of the Ćelije Lake with a monthly dynamics which, despite the crashes in the crisis years, is still ongoing and intensified, and definitely shaped, in 2003 during the great blooming of the lake.

PUC Vodovod were always the first to react to excessive phenomena, such as fish slaughter, and accidents that hit the lake. Due to this and high operational efficiency, Vodovod has carried out cleaning of lakes from fatty substances after traffic accidents in 2001 and 2010.

Given that Kruševac has no alternative to water supply in terms of water quantity and that the Ćelije Lake will last longer than anticipated, it is necessary to undertake more extensive actions to protect and stop the eutrophication process. A few moments give good prospects for this.

On the basis of the Study on the Sanitary Protection Zones of the Water Supply Areas of the Ćelje Reservoir, the Institute for Architecture and Urban Planning of Serbia from 2012, the Ministry of Health of Serbia adopted in 2013 the Decision on determining the sanitary protection zone of the water supply sources of the Ćelije accumulation, which redefined protection zones. The zone, or the zone of direct protection, of 4.6km2 covers the water mirror of the lake and Rasina and the coastline 10m around the coast line at the maximum elevation of the lake's slowdown and along the river bank. II or narrow zone of sanitary protection, is 13km2 and covers the lake environment. III, or a wider zone of protection, represents an area of ​​594 km2 and extends somewhat beyond the boundaries of the lake basin. Permitted activities and prohibitions are prescribed for each zone.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia issued in 2015 Decree on the establishment of the Spatial Plan of the Special Purpose Area of ​​the Ćelije catchment basin. Thus, the Spatial Plan, which contains guidelines for the use of space on the lake basin, has come into force. One of the important provisions of this plan is the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in Brus and Blace as a strategic development priority.

First of all, an informal interview with the then head of the Institute for Nature Protection of Serbia in Kruševac was conducted in 1999 on the possibility of placing the Ćelije Lake under some kind of nature protection. At that time, the only artificial creation under protection was “Botanička bašta” (Botanical Garden) in Belgrade. Negotiations between the Water Supply Company and the Institute on the initiation of the protection process lasted from 2001 to 2003, when a contract was signed between the Municipality of Kruševac and the Institute on Financing Research, which started in 2004 and completed in 2007. The study of the Area of exceptional features, for the protection of the nature by putting the lake under state protection, was announced in 2009, but it was not realized. The main arguments of the study present what the Lake Ćelije and its surroundings contain - biological diversity from genetic to ecosystem, significant number of plant and animal taxons and biocenosis in specific and very rare biotopes, attractive geomorphology with geoscientific objects, large area of ​​unturned soil and preserved forests the slopes of the Jastrebac, the large areas towards Župa which are completely under traditional agriculture, specific aesthetic landscape properties and the station for the migratory birds. According to the categorization of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the study has classified Ćelije and the environment in the VI category, Protected area with sustainable use of natural resources, and by classification in Serbia, in category II, Natural good of of a great character. The total area of ​​the protected area should be about 40km2 and covers the I and II sanitary protection areas. Three levels of protection are defined within the entire area. The first degree of protection provided the delta Rasina with the first half of the Zlatar Basin and the entire Radojković basin. The second degree of protection is the following: Raška, between the Head of the Berde in the Razbojnica and in the Zlatarska gorge, as objects of the geo heritage; the stand of the mountain beech, the Fagus of the Moesites, at the location of Nišan around the source of the Suva River; the other half of Zlatar and the entire Vasić Basin and the Blueberry breed, Anemone Blanche, in the forest above the left bank of the village Vasići basin.