By a decision dated May 30, 2025, the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office discontinued the investigation into an incident occurring in Jelenia Góra from September 14 to 15, 2024, which endangered the lives and health of many people and property on a large scale—in the form of flooding residential areas in the Cieplice district between Lubańska, Dworcowa, Sobieszowska, Wojewódzka and Sprzymierzonych streets. (This concerned excavating a breach with an excavator across the surface of an embankment located in the area between Dworcowa and Lubańska streets in order to redirect water from one of the holiday resorts in Cieplice toward the neighboring streets.
– The prosecutor based the discontinuation on Article 17 § 1 point 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that is, the absence of statutory elements of a prohibited act—explains Ewa Węglarowicz-Makowska, press spokesperson for the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office.
What was done?
During the proceedings, witnesses were questioned, including injured parties, employees of a holiday resort in Jelenia Góra, as well as Police and Fire Service officers who intervened at the scene. Extensive documentation, including surveying documentation concerning the flooded area, was secured. Data on the weather and flood situation at the critical time was obtained. Data storage devices belonging to resort employees were secured and examined.
A hydrology expert was then appointed, who issued an opinion in the case and, after it was analyzed, also prepared a supplementary opinion at the request of the case officer.
The spokesperson summarizes:—Both the opinion and the statement by the State Water Holding Polish Waters clearly show that between Lubańska and Dworcowa streets there is an embankment that is not a flood-control embankment. In the opinion issued, the expert stated that excavating a deeper channel with an excavator across the surface of this embankment and its effects did not have a significant impact on the amount of water flowing at the critical time.
Investigators determined that the flooding and inundation of the surrounding areas were caused by water from other sources. The Prosecutor’s Office says:
There was extreme rainfall causing rapid surface runoff and rising water levels throughout the upper Bóbr River basin. According to the expert and the evidence collected, particularly unfavorable conditions occurred in the Młynówka stream catchment.
Prosecutor E. Węglarowicz-Makowska:
It should be emphasized that at the gauge in Piechowice, upstream from Cieplice, the water level exceeded the alarm level by 160 cm, and in Jelenia Góra by 277 cm. These levels were higher than during the 1997 flood by 40 and 80 cm, respectively. The expert also pointed out that upstream from the scene there is the Sobieszów dry reservoir, which retained a flood wave containing 6.7 million cubic meters of water, significantly limiting flooding and inundation of nearby properties.
In the expert’s view, as a result of actions taken on the grounds of the holiday resort in Cieplice and its surroundings—particularly deepening with an excavator an already existing depression in the earth embankment between Lubańska and Dworcowa streets, as well as excavating earth embankments along the western boundary of the resort, as an extension of Dolnośląska Street—the incident in the form of flooding that endangered the lives and health of many people did not occur. The volume of water flow caused by these actions was insignificant for the flooded areas covered by these proceedings.
These findings arise not only from the expert’s opinion but also from the extensive photographic and video documentation collected. The spokesperson says:—The photographs and videos show that the water flowing through the breach did spread on the opposite side of the embankment from the resort, but it was carried away by artificial irrigation channels and continued flowing toward the Kamienna River through culverts beneath the railway tracks and Sobieszowska Street. Therefore, the prosecutor concluded that in this situation the elements of the offense under Article 163 § 1 point 2 of the Criminal Code had not been fulfilled.
And concludes:
The incidents reported by the injured parties, as well as the resulting threat to the property and health of many people in the vicinity of Lubańska, Dworcowa, Sobieszowska, Wojewódzka, Sprzymierzonych and Książęca streets, were the result of extreme weather conditions that developed in the area during the critical period, from September 13 to 15, 2024, and led to the accumulation of rainwater at the scene.
The decision to discontinue the investigation is not final.