Special low-loader platforms were used to transport steel chambers weighing more than 14 tonnes. They were positioned using self-propelled cranes. During the transport, tourist traffic on the blue trail leading to the mountain hostel was restricted.
“All the work is being carried out under the watchful eye of Karkonosze National Park employees. The wastewater treatment plant is located in a protected area covered by the European Natura 2000 network,” says Aleksander Marek Skorupa, president of the management board of the Voivodeship Fund for Environmental Protection in Wrocław. The work is worth more than half a million zlotys, including PLN 357,000 in support from the Voivodeship Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Wrocław.
The old wastewater treatment plant, which dates back to the 1980s, was destroyed by progressive corrosion. This year, during the holiday season, the concrete tank was damaged, and its contents began seeping directly into the soil. This threatened to contaminate the environment and force the facility to close. Since the failure, wastewater has been collected in a collection well, from where a septic tanker transports it to the wastewater treatment plant in Kowary.
The damaged tank will be cleaned and sealed, and new steel chambers will be installed inside it. Other planned works include the installation of a sludge-removal pump and membrane blowers for wastewater aeration. The investment is scheduled for completion by the end of July 2016. At that point, treated wastewater will flow through a sealed installation to the sewer collector, and from there into a watercourse at the boundary of Karkonosze National Park.
Strzecha Akademicka is the second-largest mountain hostel in the Polish Karkonosze. It hosts approximately 5,500 tourists annually. The hostel is located in the heart of Karkonosze National Park, established to protect the most valuable natural areas and the most beautiful landscapes: raised bogs, dwarf mountain pine thickets, stone fields and postglacial cirques. The park has 112 km of hiking trails. One of the trails leading from Karpacz to Śnieżka runs near the hostel.
Robert Borkacki, Voivodeship Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Wrocław/ii