Czechs may face environmental disaster similar to Hungary

Prague, Oct 11 (CTK) - There are a few sites with toxic wastes in the Czech Republic that experts call "ticking bombs" threatening to cause an environmental disaster similar to Hungary's, Jana Machalkova writes in daily Hospodarske noviny Monday.

One of them is the Rozna uranium mine that is still in operation in Dolni Rozinka, south Moravia, Machalkova writes.

The mine, the last uranium mine in central Europe, is to be closed in three years. Already now, environmentalists and the state environment inspection (CIZP) warn against the risk the heavily contaminated site poses for nature.

"There are two big sedimentation basins on the mine surface. One is being filled and heightened by a mound, like in Hungary. I don't say it is dangerous now, but during a flood a few years ago, the lagoon with the sediment got close to overflowing," Edvard Sequens, from the Calla association, is quoted as saying.

Another risky site is in Straz pod Ralskem, north Bohemia, where four million litres of acids, mainly sulphur and nitrogen ones, remain underground as a remnant of a former uranium mine.

The two big drinking water sources in the close surroundings are safe only thanks to a very expensive hydrological barrier separating them from the contaminated site.

"If [the barrier] were scrapped, the contamination would start spreading," says Sequens.

The environment is also threatened by big chemical plants such as Spolana in Neratovice, central Bohemia, Spolchemie in Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia, and Synthesia in Pardubice, east Bohemia, where a million tonnes of toxins is dumped, Machalkova writes.

Also problematic is Deza, a company in Valasske Mezirici, north Moravia, that makes plastic softeners.

Deza is one of the biggest polluters in the Czech Republic, unparalleled in producing carcinogenic waste. As the company has no dump or a sedimentation basin, chemical substances from it, mainly mercury and heavy metals, spread in the surrounding environment, says Martin Oralek, from Czech Environmentalists' Association.

In addition, an explosion threatens in Deza, with its BTEX tanks, he points out.

Machalkova also writes about the sedimentation basin of Synthesia, close to the Labe (Elbe) river bed, where up to one million toxic substances are reportedly dumped. Local underground waters are contaminated with carcinogenic substances that partly penetrate in the river.

In Ostrava, north Moravia, near the Fifejdy housing estate, there is an area contaminated with oil substances as a result of the Osramo chemical company's operation in the past. The toxic lagoons became fatal for local wildlife, while residents from nearby houses complain of unbearable stink, Machalkova writes.

In Mydlovary, south Bohemia, imported uranium ore is processed at the site of a defunct brown-coal mine. As a result, large lagoons with deposits containing arsenic, chromium and mercury have arisen. At present the lagoons are being removed and the site revitalised, Machalkova writes.

The CIZP carries out annual checks of the country's big industrial and chemical companies. "In recent years we found out that most companies fulfil the set [pro-environment] goals," CIZP spokeswoman Ivana Awadova told the paper.

In spite of the checks, environmental disasters occur regularly. During catastrophic floods eight years ago, 80 tonnes of chlorine leaked from the inundated Spolana Neratovice plant, including 760 kg into the air. It destroyed the crops in the wide surroundings.

Four years ago, the cyanide leaking from the Draslovka Kolin chemical plant, central Bohemia, poisoned a huge number of fish in the Labe (Elbe) river, Machalkova writes.

She also mentions further similar leaks of lethal substances in the past years.