Gospić, the small inland town that most people whizz through on the way to the Velebit mountains or Plitvice Lakes, has become the centre of one of Croatia's more uncomfortable environmental stories — and now it has the monitoring equipment to prove (or disprove) the damage.

On 13 October 2026, a reference air quality measuring station was installed at the PPK Velebit site in Gospić, where waste was illegally dumped on a large scale. The station was set up by a team from the Teaching Institute for Public Health of Split-Dalmatia County, led by Nenad Periš, at the request of the city administration.

The kit tracks particulate matter — PM2.5 and PM10 — plus the presence of metals in the air. Two sedimentators have also been deployed to collect total deposited matter, one beside the station and one in a nearby settlement, with wind direction factored into where the sampling points were placed so any drift of dust can be followed. The Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund and Lika-Senj County are co-financing the work.

Why the fuss? Local officials want reliable, independent data during the remediation of the illegal landfill, which is expected to be a long operation. Deputy Mayor Ivica Kovačević said results will be published almost daily so residents can see exactly what is in the air. Fund deputy director Mirko Budiša said the station will stay in place for the entire clean-up, while County Prefect Ernest Petry confirmed an initial one-month deployment with funding secured to continue measurements over the coming year, and longer if needed.

For travellers, the practical takeaway is modest but real. Gospić and the wider Lika region are the gateway to northern Velebit National Park and the main inland route toward the Adriatic and Plitvice. If you are planning hiking or cycling trips around Velebit, air quality readings from the town are now publicly available daily — useful context if you were weighing whether the waste story should affect your route. So far the story is about transparency and clean-up, not an active health hazard for passing visitors, but the daily data is worth a glance if you have a stop planned in Gospić itself.

Who it's for: anyone travelling through Lika-Senj County, and locals who have been understandably worried about what has been sitting in their backyard.