Prague, Oct 18 (CTK) – The lifting of brown coal mining limits in the Bilina pit in northern Bohemia, would have a serious impact on the health and the quality of live of locals and on public budgets, if approved by the cabinet, scientists, NGOs and doctors have written Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.
Sobotka’s (Social Democrats, CSSD) centre-left cabinet is to discuss two variants of the limits lifting in several localities at its session in Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia, on Monday.
Both variants, submitted by the Industry and Trade Minister Jan Mladek (CSSD), propose the lifting of the limits for the Bilina locality.
In an open letter to Sobotka, the signatories say Mladek’s proposal means an extension of the Bilina pit to a distance of a mere 170 metres from the Branany village and 330 metres from the Marianske Radcice village.
The valid limits from 1991 protect inhabited zones from noise and dust by observing the mining localities’ 500-metre distance from inhabited areas, the signatories write.
“A cutting of the distance would have strong negative impacts on the health and the quality of life of people and it would become a risky precedent,” the signatories write, adding that by nodding to this, the government would pave the path to breaching valid laws.
The letter has been signed by nine groups and organisations, including the Commission for the Environment of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Greenpeace, north Bohemian doctors and the “Limits are We” civic group.
The Industry and Trade Ministry wants the Bilina pit extended mainly for the purposes of the heating industry.
Sobotka said in September he is for the limits to be lifted in the Bilina pit. He said the coal from the pit will undoubtedly be needed, and that the Bilina pit, if extended, can employ about 1,000 new staff by 2024.
On the other hand, the other variant, which also proposes to lift the limits at another brown coal pit, CSA, is disputable, Sobotka said.
The letter’s signatories also refer to a study that Charles University experts drafted for the ministry. It says the lifting of limits in Bilina alone would cause 10 billion crowns worth of additional spending on health care and other external purposes in the Czech Republic, and another 130 billion in other EU countries.
The expenditures would mainly be covered from the public budgets, by health insurers and citizens, the study said.
According to experts, the burning of brown coal from the present limit-protected deposits would generate emissions of about 1.35 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is more than ten times the volume of the overall annual greenhouse gas emissions in the Czech Republic, which are quite high anyway, the authors of the letter write.
“The statement that the lifting of limits in Bilina is opposed by no one does not correspond to reality,” they wrote to Sobotka.
