On Saturday, TVN broadcast the Superwizjer program on the tvn24 channel, focusing on the Turów mine. The journalistic investigation found that a major disaster occurred at the mine several years ago. Coal deposits worth several billion złoty were buried. Expensive machinery was destroyed. The ash is reportedly being stored improperly, which is said to be contaminating groundwater on both the Czech and Polish sides. In addition, waste from Bogatynia was illegally transported to an inactive excavation site. Someone at the Bolesławiec waste-treatment plant, where a small portion of the waste was delivered, knew about the matter and allegedly did not inform on their colleagues from Bogatynia. The Bolesławiec authorities are already investigating this aspect of the report.
Preview of the TVN material:
Terror, hypocrisy and corruption—this is how the interviewees on “Superwizjer” describe the recent years of activity of the Bogatynia local government. In just three years, prosecutors arrested several dozen people, including the mayor, municipal councillors and the president of a state-owned energy company. Most of those arrested were prominent activists of Law and Justice. At the same time, Bogatynia became the centre of a costly Polish-Czech dispute over the Turów mine. What does the international conflict over the Turów mine have in common with the corruption scandal at the Bogatynia City Hall and the mining disaster five years ago? Whose interests are served by delaying an agreement with the Czech Republic and by the lack of transparency in the mine’s operations? Michał Fuji’s report, “The Deal Around Turów.”
The Superwizjer program on TVN will be broadcast on Tuesday, 16 November, at 11:40 p.m..
More on the website: The Deal Around Turów and the Disaster “Meticulously Swept Under the Carpet.” A “Superwizjer” Report
We wrote and spoke about the Turów case in May 2021 in an interview titled “Turów Mine: Close It or Not?” with NZZ chairman Bogumił Tyszkiewicz.
Notification to the prosecutor’s office
A notification concerning the possibility that an offence had been committed was submitted to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Wrocław. The notification was filed by Michał Jaros, a member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland.
The full text of the notification appears below.
Wrocław, 15 November 2021
Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Wrocław
Podwale 30, 50-950 WrocławMichał Jaros, Member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, address for service: Michał Jaros Parliamentary Office, ul. Ofiar Oświęcimskich 36, 50-059 Wrocław
NOTIFICATION OF THE POSSIBILITY THAT A PROHIBITED ACT HAS BEEN COMMITTED
I hereby notify you of the possibility that an offence was committed by unknown perpetrators, consisting in the possibility of causing significant environmental pollution and the possibility of committing an offence against public safety by making decisions, or failing to make them, that led to a disaster at the Turów lignite mine in September 2016. The disaster may have resulted in groundwater contamination, the destruction of public property at considerable cost, and exposing a public entity, namely PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna S.A., to significant financial losses.
In the notifier’s assessment, this act may meet the criteria of offences specified in Article 296 § 1 of the Criminal Code, Article 182 § 1 of the Criminal Code, and Article 163 § 1 point 2 of the Criminal Code in conjunction with Article 231 § 1 of the Criminal Code.
I request that you:
- admit as evidence a TVN24 press article dated 13 November 2021, available at: https://tvn24.pl/polska/superwizjer-uklad-wokol-turowa-zatrzymanie-dzialaczy-pis-w-bogatyni-i-skutkikatastrofy-w-kopalni-turow-5487831
- carry out investigative activities to establish the perpetrators of the described act, as well as witnesses to the event,
- admit as evidence the expert opinions and documents used by PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna S.A., and verify whether the Management Board of PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna S.A. exercised due diligence in informing stock-market shareholders through the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW) about the actual costs of the September 2016 disaster at the Turów lignite mine,
- review the expert opinions and documents prepared and obtained during the internal proceedings conducted by the Regional Mining Authority in Wrocław concerning the September 2016 disaster at the Turów lignite mine,
- prosecute the perpetrators of the offence.
Please inform the notifier of the actions undertaken in the case so as to enable the notifier to participate in them.
JUSTIFICATION
For several months, the subject of an international dispute between Poland and the Czech Republic has been the operation of the Turów lignite mine. The consequence of the dispute, which has arisen and remains unresolved, is an interim order issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union, with which Poland did not comply, resulting in a financial penalty of half a million euros per day.
A new thread related to the Turów lignite mine case appears in the investigative report “The Deal Around Turów,” prepared by journalists from TVN’s Superwizjer. In September 2016, a disaster occurred at the mine: a dump containing millions of tonnes of earth and rocks originating from fluidized-bed ash from the power plant continued to move for more than ten days. The disaster led to a halt in mining operations and a reduction in the power plant’s output. More than 200 mining machines were destroyed as a result. Polska Grupa Energetyczna estimated the cost of the disaster at 165 million złoty, but the total losses remain concealed to this day. It is also worth noting that, according to information contained in the investigative report “The Deal Around Turów,” the greatest loss resulting from the disaster was the burial of a deposit estimated at approximately 30 to 50 million cubic metres, with a total value of between 3 and 5 billion złoty. Experts estimated that, at the time of the disaster, excavating the coal would have cost nearly 1.5 billion złoty.
According to experts, human error contributed to the disaster in September 2016: a decision was made to increase the volume of the dump by raising the number of benches, increasing the angles of inclination and carrying out improper exploitation of the deposit. At the same time, one of the people interviewed for TVN’s Superwizjer stated that the collapsed dump could be uncovered. If experts went there, they would excavate it and take samples; there is no mixing. There are enormous volumes of earth without ash, and there are places containing only ash. This cannot be hidden. Unfortunately, the disaster site has still not been made available to independent experts and observers.
In light of the material presented in the TVN Superwizjer report, particularly the experts’ statements, the situation surrounding the international dispute between Poland and the Czech Republic may be connected with the consequences of the September 2016 disaster. The program states that it is not the earth and overburden that pose an ecological hazard, but the ash. Fluidized-bed ash, of which there is approximately 10 percent, contains the entire periodic table, including heavy metals and sulfide levels. If sulfates or heavy-metal elements enter groundwater, they are deadly to organisms.
In addition, in the Superwizjer material, an expert points out that the collapsed dump forced the mine authorities to find new locations for storing ash from the power plant. The haste allegedly made it impossible to secure the soil against the infiltration of harmful substances into groundwater. This is a serious problem that has and will continue to affect not only the Czechs but also residents on the Polish side of the border (...). The mine does not discuss this, but from one day to the next it had to start storing overburden and ash somewhere. As a result, every kind of hole in the excavation was used and filled.
I point out that the notifier knows about the case solely from media reports; therefore, I request that he not be questioned in the matter.
Michał Jaros
Member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland
