Fear of environmental pollution in central Europe was growing this week as it became clear that the recent flooding had caused large amounts of chlorine gas to leak in the Czech Republic, near the border with Germany.
The Spolana chemicals plant on the river Elbe, 24km north of Prague, was the site of what a Czech official described as ”a mini Chernobyl” after being inundated with flood water and leaking the lethal gas into the air.
The Czech authorities ordered a police investigation, sacked the management of the plant and complained that they had been deceived by the people in charge of one of the most notoriously toxic sites in central Europe.
Chlorine gas, which is lethal in high concentrations, was used as an early form of chemical weapon.
Perhaps even more serious, the highly contaminated site is also known to be riddled with dioxins, which are likely to have been washed into the Elbe flowing north through Germany and into the North Sea.
The Czech Interior Minister, Stanislav Gross, announced this week that the management had been dismissed for failing to disclose the chemical leak to the authorities.
Jan Papez, head of the government committee dealing with the floods, said the problems at Spolana ”threatened a large number of lives”.
The leak was the second in a week. The first prompted the Czech and German environment ministers to tour the area to calm fears that chemicals were leaking into the water.
The chlorine gas escaped on Friday, apparently while being moved from one warehouse to another to try to protect it from the flooding. Samples have been taken and the analysis results are expected in the next few days.
Much of the plant was closed down years ago. In the 1960s there was an epidemic of dioxin poisoning that was covered up by the communist regime.
Even before the recent flooding, Greenpeace in Prague had warned the Czech government of an environmental disaster waiting to happen.
”Contaminated buildings are situated in an area near the Elbe that floods on average once every 50 years. If this happens, dioxins will be washed into the environment,” it said last month. ”The groundwater under Spo-lana is contaminated not only with dioxins but with many other toxic chemical substances.”
The land by the river is heavily polluted with mercury, according to environmentalists, and some of the most dangerous buildings have been encased, Chernobyl-style, in a concrete sarcophagus. — (c) Guardian Newspapers 2002