Pilot area in Jaworzno

Basic information about Jaworzno

The town of Jaworzno lies in the southern part of Poland, in the eastern part of the Province of Silesia (the most industrialised area in Poland), at the place where the regions of Upper Silesia and Lesser Poland meet; at the crossing of some major national and international lines of road, railway and air communication. In respect of area Jaworzno is among the largest towns in Poland – its area is 152,59 km2 with more than 96 000 inhabitants. The town of Jaworzno is a member of the Metropolitan Association of Upper Silesia – the largest urban centre in this part of Europe.

Map: Jaworzno against background of Poland

Jaworzno’s economy is based on power engineering connected with the extractive industry. Centuries of activities of the extractive industry (coal, dolomite and sand), power engineering, cement and chemical industry have affected far-reaching transformations of components of the environment. The most significant transformations affected surface water, including the composition of ecosystems, changes in the river network and its nature (infiltration/drainage), mining drainageand the appearing of post-mining settlers, adverse changes in water chemistry. Equally profound, but much more harmful are consequences of the anthropogenic impact on the state of resources and quality of groundwater as a potable water reservoir.

Environmental problem of Jaworzno

Jaworzno’s biggest problem is the impact of pollutants from the chemical industry in the valley of brook Wawolnica. The brook of Wawolnica is located in the south-western part of Jaworzno. Wawolnica passes through the territory of the Chemical Plant “ORGANIKA AZOT” SA, which was founded in 1917. Since this time there have been produced a lot of chemical substances and effectuated some synthesis. As from 1928 to eighties of the twentieth century, the valley of brook Wawolnica was the site of hazardous waste collection from production, e.g. plant protection products and preparations for hygiene. Irregularities in the way of waste collection has led to significant environmental pollution of soil and groundwater.

Map: pilot area against background of Jaworzno

Direct contact between pollutants and surface water cause cross-border pollution, which classify the Chemical Plant as an European hot-spot (one of seven especially severe sources of industrial pollution for the Baltic Sea), placed on the list of the Baltic Sea Joint Comprehensive Environmental Action Programme in the framework of the Helsinki Commission.

Map: The Chemical Plant in Jaworzno against background of Polish HOT-SPOTs [2009]

Within the valley of brook Wawolnica have being found out compounds that pose high risks to ecosystems and human health. There have been inventoried more than  195 000 tons of hazardous waste so far (including HCH, DDT/DDE/DDD, dieldrine, endrine, etoxychlorine, benzene) – however, this figure does not reflect the actual quantity of pollutants in the pilot site, which area has been initially estimated to be 0,5 km2.  Up to now, some investigations have been done in this area didn’t show the whole picture of environmental impact of pollutants accumulated in the valley.

FOKS activities

In the framework of FOKS project, at the Polish pilot area are being implemented, among the others, field investigation on contaminated sites, including drillings, geophysical works,  geological interpretation, pumping tests, soil and water sampling as well as passive sampling technology. In addition to traditional methods, it is also being planned to implement fingerprinting and backtracking – technical tool which allows to follow the back tracking paths of pollutants through pumping tests. Pilot remediation in Jaworzno includes the application of Permeable Reactive Barrier, Phytoremediation and Copper Mediated Destruction technology invented by Czech Partner.

These activities should help with comprehensive identification of environmental risk in Jaworzno’s pilot area and with selection of the most suitable technology to prevent problematical pollution – optimal in costs and outcomes. Implementation of innovative tools proposed in the FOKS project, in comparison to traditional methods, should significantly reduce the costs of identifying and evaluating risks of groundwater pollution.