Flooded Czech plant raises chemical leak concerns
Date: 21-Aug-02
Country: CZECH REPUBLIC
Czech and German environment ministers were due to tour the Spolana chemical plant in Neratovice, some 20km (12 miles) north of Prague, yesterday to assess for themselves the risk of leaks into the River Elbe which flows north into Germany.
Environmental and health dangers have risen as swollen Czech rivers calmed after devastating floods last week, revealing destroyed waste cleaning stations, animal carcasses, rotting food and other debris that could be disease breeding grounds.
Environment Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Sulova said the ministers - Juergen Trittin of Germany and his Czech counterpart Libor Ambrozek - would come to see how much flooding there was of contaminated buildings and storage facilities.
"They want to see right at the source how it looks, whether the fears are founded or not," Sulova said.
No one was killed in the chlorine leak, but Sulova said the danger still persisted and there could be further leaks of dioxins, highly poisonous chemicals which have contaminated several buildings in Spolana when they were used in 1960s.
She said water had flooded two contaminated buildings, but a flood wall and sandbag barriers would hopefully contain the substances as water receded. Samples of the flood water have been taken for analysis.