Our struggle bears fruit: Libis brook is being cleaned up!

The clean-up of contaminated brook in the village of Libis in Central Bohemia has begun today. It takes place one year after Greenpeace symbolicly cleaned up a small part of the Libis brook and brought the contaminated mud in safety containers to the main entrance of the polluter, the Spolana Neratovice chemical plant. The stream has been contaminated by poisonous dioxins and other dangerous substances from the nearby chemical plant. After a long-time struggle and waiting, one of the big Greenpeace goals has been fulfiled.

However, Spolana’s behaviour has again proved bad as the company’s management opposes a thorough clean-up of the brook. Removal of the contaminated layer of the river bottom is not enough because the sediment on the banks are contaminated as well. To make people in Libis feel safe, the whole area including the contaminated banks must be cleaned up. It’s hard to understand why the mayor of Libis, Mrs. Hudcová, takes side of Spolana, despite the fact that a proper clean-up of the area is in the best interest of local people. There is a great danger of another flood, that may already come in spring, will once again wash the contaminated earth into Libis and the surrounding fields.

Greenpeace calls on the Spolana’s Chairman od the Board Miroslav Kuliha, Minister of Environment Libor Ambrozek, and the Governor of Central Bohemia Petr Bendl to stand up for the successive cleanup of the area around Libis.

According to the tests carried out by the Ministry of Environment, dioxin concentrations in the Libis stream exceed normal levels more than hundred times. The grounds inside the Spolana chemical plant are contaminated by a range of poisonous chemicals and high concentration of toxic substances can also be found in the soil of the surrounding area. In 2003 Greenpeace found levels of dioxins and PCB in duck tissue and chicken eggs from the village of Libis that were several times over the norm. Several months later, the State Veterinary Inspection confirmed Greenpeace's concerns when it found such high concentrations of toxic chemicals in fish and eggs from the villages of Mlekojedy and Libis that it had to declare them unfit for consumption. Moreover, according to a study of the State Health Authority (February 2004), which analysed the level of toxic contamination in human blood near Spolana, dioxin level in human blood in Neratovice, Libis and Tisice is about twice as high as the level of those from the control group in Benesov.