Liberec Pollution

Boilers and stoves powered by brown coal. What is the trouble there?

it's enviromental safety.

Local incinerator claiming

Local incinerator using filters to be eco-friendly. Does it work?

Thus began the century long pollution. The increase in air pollution from cars was staggering and made the air less breathable and the skies darker. But what are it's effects on our city? Read more about it here!

Citizens worry about their health.

Car pollution

Since the beginning of the 20th century there have been cars and us driving them. First, only rich people could afford them and they were used for military service, but throughout the years, cars became more affordable so more people bought them.

"What shall we do"?

from Liberec

Breaking News

We have a big square in the middle of the city called Šaldovo náměstí. It's basically a big crossroads with five exits, four for cars and one for trams and buses. The traffic there gets worse and worse throughout the day. There are traffic jams on the regular and many, many cars stopped at the lights emitting gases into the air.People are under the impression that diesel engines are the main cause of the pollution but the truth maybe different then we might think.

Liberec car pollution

The truth is that both of the engine classes (Petrol and Diesel) are both bad for the enviroment due to different types of air pollution. Diesel engines produce way more "particulate matter" which means: " a complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets." that don't pollute the air in a sense of cleanness, but they can cause health problems upon inhaling (dust, metals, soil, etc.) . On the other hand petrol produces carbon solutions that pollute the air with more-

Cars in the city centre

-greenhouse gases which help strengthen the "greenhouse effect". Car manufacturers are trying to avoid these problems by employing "Catalytic Converters" that control emissions and reduce the number of toxic gases.

Life without cars would mean that we would need to either walk all the time or use public transport more but that would then cause the same pollution problem. Motorcycles would then be out of the question as well because they are just smaller, compact cars engine wise. The only means of transportation for us would be trams, trains and subways as they don't require motors running on diesel or petrol.

But what about life without cars?

Then there is the problem of using anything else as fuel. People often throw plastic, rags and chemicaly treated wood into their boilers/stoves.This can then cause severe air pollution and in the case of plastic even a really bad smell.

The main problem is what fuel we use. The most commonly used fuel in Czech houses amongst all of them is brown coal.Brown coal has a couple of issues though. First and foremost, the brown coal market contributes to air pollution because of the factories needed to process the coal.Secondly, the coal purchased can be very low quality leading to again polluting the air or damaging the boiler/stove.

What fuels should we use?

Boilers and stoves powered by solid fuels.

Termizo a.s. (the company running the incinerator) is convinced that the best way to deal with waste is to burn it that it's investing into development of better technology for this way of processing waste.

One of the problems is that the incinerator is in the centre of town so if something malfunctions and a fire starts it could spread further faster.Another problem is that the smoke clouds rising through the incinerators chimneys are toxic as they're formed by burning waste. But they deal with that problem by using high caliber filters. This approach to this issue may not be the best one as the incinerator is in operation for 8000 hours a year and burns approximately 96000 tons of waste a year and the load might be too large for the filters to handle.

Is it really that good for the enviroment?

The local incinerator in the centre of Liberec.

planned expansion

current location

If PGE decided to still go with the expansion then they according to the Czech Ministry of the Enviroment would have to: pay a fine or build a sealed wall to prevent underground water to flow out of the Czech Republic.

This also includes the extension of the mining plan from ending in 2020 to being prolonged for the next 24 years.

The Czech Ministry of the Enviroment disagreed with the expansion of the Turów power plant declared by the Polish company PGE.

The Turów power plant is a big problem in the Liberec region as it's really close to our border. The power plant is fueled by brown coal which is causing air pollution when not properly filtred. When the mining begins near the power plant it produces a lot of sound pollution and disturbes the city and the nature around it.

Polish power plant Turów causing sound and air pollution.

What to do about it?

Thank you for your attention