Adverse Influence of Legal Surroundings of the Historical Relics of the Underground Works in the Area of Lower Silesia on Removal of the Environmental Risks Related to Them

Abstract

This paper presents the complexity of issues related to removal of risks related to historical mining workings and underground structures that are located numerously in the area of the Sudetes and their Foothills (Lower Silesia). These grounds, rich in raw materials, feature complex political and economic history, the material remnants of which are i.a. different kinds of underground structures of the anthropogenic origin, predominantly scantily surveyed and constituting risks resulting both from sheer existence of incorrectly or almost completely not liquidated underground hollows and especially from various sorts of wastes that have been accumulated there—including hazardous ones. Due to incorporation after World War 2 of a part of Lower Silesia into Poland (so called “Recovered Territories”), these historical workings and underground structures were created in the area of another state (Germany), which is the cause of a number of uncertainties concerning both the legal status of these objects and determining the form its responsibility for eradication of the risks related to them will take. An excellent example of this kind of situation constitutes the issue of the cluster of the underground workings located in the area of the town of Bolków where, in the years 1943–1944, an attempt was undertaken to locate an underground factory of airplane subassemblies there. Over half a century since the end of World War 2, an accumulation of potentially hazardous substances was discovered there—probably petroleum-derived, which have never been identified correctly and their present storage place remains unknown—due to an illegal penetration of the underground places by unauthorized persons and theft of the artefacts located there (including containers with an unknown content).

Keywords

• underground workings
• hazardous wastes
• environment
• historical pollutions