Orlová-Lazy Land Reclamation, Construction 1

ORLOVÁ – The mining colonies of Liberdova and Červená between Orlová and Karviná-Mines presently exist only in eyewitnesses’ minds. Due to the mining performed in the near mines,  there was subsidence there, and the local houses were collapsing and in the end, they were pulled down. The water stream of Lazecká Stružka, which used to flow through the colonies, overflew. But even before the flooding, the miners launched a rescue.

Before the soil was waterlogged and degraded, they started to remove the precious soil to a safe place so as to use it for the land reclamation later on. It was done as early as the second half of the 1980s. The construction itself was kicked off in 1992. However at first, the company relocated all the engineering networks to the corridors pre-prepared along the rail siding, connecting the Lazy and Doubrava Mines and the public road between the cities of Orlová and Karviná.

Afterwards by means of heavy machinery, people could already start to shape and model a new landscape relief. They formed an up to 10 m high made-up ground layer, mainly consisting of waste rock, but also of fly ash, slag and debris. In doing so, they used 1.2 mil. m³ of materials.

In the valley of the former water stream of Lazecká Stružka, they preserved a 20 ha water area, and planted water-receptive vegetation there – willows, bushes, reed... The area between the new “Lazy Lake” and neighbouring forest was shaped and afforested. They also vertically connected the remaining section of the “moonscape” with the rail siding, and the land was grassed and landscape greenery was planted there.

They completed this technical phase of the land reclamation in 1998, which was afterwards followed by the biological phase, including five-year maintenance of the planted vegetation. And as such in 2003, the miners turned over 55 hectares of land back to nature and people. Apart from their efforts, they expended CZK 90 million thereon, and a portion of these funds was provided from a so-called environmental subsidy of the state.

(Vlasta Vaculíková, Josef Lys)