PAP: Polish court overturns decision allowing mining to be extended at Turów

A Polish administrative court today annulled the environmental impact assessment for mining at the Turów mine, which had enabled work to be extended at the mine near the Czech border. However, the ruling is not grounds for halting mining, the PAP news agency reported. Environmental groups welcomed the decision, which is not yet final.

It was on the basis of the EIA that Poland’s environment ministry extended the permit for the operation of the brown coal mine, which has been criticised by environmentalists and local residents, until 2044.

The Warsaw administrative court considered lawsuits brought by Czech, German and Polish environmentalists and German border municipalities against the decision by the state environmental protection authority to allow mining to continue. Their objections concern, among other things, the investor’s environmental impact report, on which the authority based its decision.

The court upheld the environmental objections and overturned the authority’s decision. According to Judge Jaroslaw Luczaj, the court „agreed with the environmental groups’ submissions concerning the impacts of burning the extracted fuels“, but „the court’s assessment did not concern state energy policy“. The ruling therefore „is not grounds for suspending operations or even closing the Turów mine“, Luczaj said, according to PAP.

Environmental groups and other organisations, including representatives of residents of nearby municipalities who have long criticised continued mining, welcomed the annulment of the EIA.

„This is a failure on the part of the mine operator, which presented its assessment of the impacts on groundwater, soil and other parts of the environment in a highly distorted way. The environmental damage was understated in the EIA report,“ said lawyer Laura Otýpková of the Frank Bold expert group, which helped bring the lawsuit, commenting on today’s ruling.

The mine is located near the Liberec Region and has previously been at the centre of disputes between Czechia and Poland. At one point, the dispute between the two countries over the impacts of mining led Prague to sue Warsaw at the Court of Justice of the European Union, which ordered Poland to pay a fine of half a million euros per day for failing to comply with an order to halt mining. The dispute was eventually settled by an agreement between the two countries’ governments. It included compensation paid to Czechia two years ago by Poland and PGE, the company that owns the mine and neighbouring power plant. The Polish side also had an underground wall built near the mine to prevent water from draining away.

Environmentalists say, however, that Poland’s measures are inadequate and that the mine should not continue operating without a valid environmental impact assessment.