OKD Company Returns Life to the Region

REGION – The black coal mining, though taking place hundreds of meters under the ground, significantly impacts the landscape above ground. Ironically, the landscape relief is even more created by subsequent reclamation the aim of which is to obliterate the footprints of mining activities.

In Orlová, for example, there is a site called Svojsíkovo údolí (Svojsík Valley) after Antonín Benjamín Svojsík, the founder of Czech scouting. It is a subsidence depression that was for a certain period of time used for depositing waste from the nearby coal washery of Lazy Mine. Due to the reclamation commenced in 1998 a large rugged hill was modelled here by heaping up more waste, planted with forest tree species, pine in particular. The original valley has thus changed into Svojsíkův vrch (Svojsík Hill) with murmuring woods and singing birds.

What actually is reclamation? The term was coined in our vocabulary 50 years ago in relation to a landscape fundamentally altered by human activity. Basically, it is a process seeking to restore the biological functions of the landscape, to improve the condition of an affected area to such an extent that it is once again capable of functioning as a self-sufficient ecosystem. Inspiration can be drawn from abroad. Large reclamation projects were especially recently implemented also in the territory of Ostrava and Karviná coal mining district.

Examples are close at hand. It is e.g. the case of the so called Darkovské moře (Darkov Sea), the Lipiny site in Karviná, restoration of Loucké rybníky (Louky Ponds), landscaping around Karvinský potok (Karvinský Brook), Husova site in Karviná or Kateřiny and Nový Svět sites in Stonava, Křemenec – a fold of land between Orlová and Doubrava, Macurůvka at Doubrava, the water body of Kozí Becirk near Orlová, Lazecké jezero (Lazecké Lake), Oprechtický les  (Oprechtický Wood) along the road from Ostrava to Frýdek-Místek and others. All these are examples of targeted landscape changes and its quality improvements.

OKD  company pays major attention to reclamation activities. It is also exemplified by the data contained in the newly released publication called Returning life to the region subtitled Reclamations of the landscape in Ostrava-Karviná region which you may find in the e-form on www.okd.cz website. Apart from information on the results of reclamation activities, it also present the description of essential principles governing the reclamation activities. This area too is flooded with numerous simplifications and myths circulating among the general public which should be set straight.

One example for all. Let us quote the referred to publication: “Many people think that a mining company can simply do whatever it likes during reclamation works. Yet the very opposite is the case. Decisions regarding the use of the land in a specific locality are always taken by the council of the respective municipality and the works under way are overseen by the environmental protection authorities.“

Bohuslav Krzyzanek