Turoszów, 2022
A bitter Neighborhood
You don’t have to immediately watch an excavator from the window of your house, as the people of Uhelná do, to deal directly with the consequences of mining in the Zittau Basin. Before the desulphurization of the power plants in the 1990s, the forests of the Jizera Mountains were the most notable victims of acid rain. Now there is a new young forest growing, but the problem has not disappeared. In 2019, a study published by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found that 290,000 people in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic are still negatively affected by the burning of brown coal at the Turów power plant. Rain and the local wind can carry emissions of toxic substances such as mercury, nitrogen oxides and fine dust particles far from the mining center. After all, Liberec, a city of 100 000 inhabitants, is only 20 kilometers away from the surface mine. Like the groundwater that the mine draws in from all around it, the problem is “invisible”.
Link to the study of the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA):
Air quality, toxic and health impacts of the Turow power plant
