Will the water sprite return to Orlová lake?

ORLOVÁ – What do you think of when you hear the word “Figura”? Skiers may presumably think of a ski resort Figura under the Praděd Mountain, or rather the name of the owner of the property. However, a site of the same name also lies in Orlová, near road No. I/59 that connects Ostrava and Karviná. In the past there used to be a romantic park with a lake and an island dominated by a majestic water sprite right in its centre, or rather a stone sculpture of a water sprite. The lake, established at a tributary of the Doubravský Stream, attracted people living nearby to take a stroll and relax there. But alas!

Underneath this site near the historical centre of Orlová where a railway siding was also located a precious mineral was to be found too – coal. What could the outcome of the situation be? Due to the mining activities performed by the Lazy plant the site gradually sunk, was underflooded and devastated. People started to leave the place and began to use it as an illicit dump and rubble heap, which step by step became overgrown with wild self-seeding shrubs and saltbush. What to do with the unsightly site?

A clear answer came in 2007: reclaim! OKD obtained a building permit and its company, OKD, Rekultivace, started a job worth CZK 9 million. The company chopped down the self-seeding woody species, removed the illicit landfill and a malfunctioning culvert via Doubravský Stream and Lazecký Stream and changed the landscaping including the river banks into shapes close to the imagination of Mother Nature.

The above activities required the bringing in of 35,000 m³ of tail rock from the mine, which was covered by a layer of soil. A total of 4,200 m³ was used for that purpose. Then grass was planted together with original woody species in the 3.5-hectare site, in total it was 5,130 trees and 1,820 shrubs. The planted woody species have now been maintained for two years. Expert care will continue by the end of 2012 when biological reclamation will be completed.

And one more piece of good news. The job, officially entitled “Remediation of the Figura site”, also includes reclamation of the former park and lake. The miners aim at renewing the well-kept site around the lake, onto whose island perhaps even the water sprite will return.

(Vlasta Vaculíková, Josef Lys)