Description
The project seeks to examine the process of issuing and enforcing mining waste disposal permits in the Lublin Coal Basin. The mining area is located in the vicinity of environmentally sensitive sites which are covered by strict protection schemes (national park, UNESCO biosphere reserve). The project plans to obtain and examine data from relevant government departments: official decisions, site visit reports; desk research will also be conducted and a general invitation to send comments from the local population will be published. The project is implemented in partnership with the Frank Bold Foundation, an organisation specialised in legal affairs and which will be responsible for legal review of the status of access to information enforcement. The process will produce a cross-section report and recommendations for all the relevant institutions such as the Environmental Protection Inspectorates, county authorities and Province Government, as well as waste disposal and trading companies and local communities; we wish to initiate a broad debate on ways of improving the control of waste streams.
Summary of project results
"Neighbouring with two environmentally valuable areas (a national park, a UNESCO biosphere reserve), the “Bogdanka"" mine produces approx. 5 million tonnes of extractive waste annually, some of which is disposed of under strict environmental control, while from 2 to 3 million tonnes are used to fill sand pits, according to some rather general environmental regulations. As part of the project, the reuse of excavation waste in the open environment has been thoroughly analysed for the first time, and in particular, the processes of issuing and implementing administrative decisions. Findings from the analysis as well as the monitoring of numerous alarming practices (the use of land rehabilitation to secretly dispose of household and industrial waste; gaps in decisions, low effectiveness of land rehabilitation which led to formation of useless wastelands) were submitted to all institutions contributing to the decision-making process, made public and put under discussion. Approx. 1,000 documents relevant to this practice were obtained from county authorities. Teamed up with on-site observations more than 50 quarry excavation became the cornerstone of the report and recommendations. The research report with several specialist studies, has been entitled “01 04 12 Rehabilitation of pits using waste from the extraction of coal in the Lubelskie voivodship."" These issues became the subject of a heated discussion during a seminar in Lublin on the 23rd of October, 2015. The report and related documentation are available at skalaplonna.ekolublin.pl. The addressees and beneficiaries were the employees of 13 county authorities from the province, mining and environmental protection authorities (Regional Directorates for Environmental Protection, Provincial Inspectorates for Environmental Protection), municipalities and local NGOs and academics. The project was implemented together with the Frank Bold legal foundation, which supported activities with consultations and papers on legal matters."
Summary of bilateral results