Brown coal mining limits in North Bohemia

Territorial limits to the mining of brown coal in North Bohemia are legally binding according to Resolution No. 444 passed in 1991 by the government of the Czech Republic, on the basis of a proposal tabled by the then Minister for the Environment, Ivan Dejmal. The limits define the areas that can be mined, as well as areas where coal reserves have been written off. There is now the prospect, however, that the limits will be breached and sanction given to increase coal mining further, which would involve the demolition of more communities within the currently demarcated limits, e.g. Horní Jiřetín and Černice.

This article focuses almost exclusively on the limits as they apply to mines in the Mostecko region roughly between the towns of Most and Litvínov operated by Czech Coal.

During the course of the 20th century, the North Bohemian Basin, an area of over 1100 km2, was heavily mined from Kadaň to Ústí nad Labem for brown coal for burning in a large number of thermal power stations, electrical power stations and factories. In the 1970s and 1980s, the mining increased on a massive scale, and because of the expansion of mining operations whole villages, towns and even cities (Most) were demolished to extract the coal that lay beneath; their inhabitants were rehoused in large-scale new prefabricated panelled apartment buildings.

The low quality technology used for large-scale burning of brown coal led to a sharp increase in the content of harmful sulfur dioxide and aerosols in the atmosphere. The result was wholesale damage to the environment (such as the die-back of the forests in the Ore Mountains from acid rain) and human health. In view of the unsustainable situation, the first post-communist Czechoslovak government decided to resolve the situation by introducing desulphurization and aerosol removal from major state-owned power plants, and the setting of limits which specific mines should not go beyond in future. In areas that had already been mined, support was also given to the reclamation of damaged landscape. The limits hence served as a government guarantee to North Bohemian communities that their environment would no longer continue to deteriorate and that their very existence has a long-term future, i.e. that it is worth purchasing property there, building and renovating houses, reconstructing roads and utilities, establishing businesses, etc.

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