IMPACT OF MINING AND METALLURGICAL INDUSTRIES ON THE ENVIRONMENT IN POLAND

Mining and metallurgical industries cause great devastation of both te rrestrial and aquatic environments on a local and regional scale. Mine s and smelters produce large quantities of wastes, which must be depos ited on land or in aquatic systems. The major effects are due to pollu tion of air, soil, river water, and groundwater with heavy metals. The most endangered surficial flows are the upper courses of both the Vis tula and Odra Rivers, whose increase in concentrations of contaminants - mainly heavy metals + chloride ions - must be regarded as alarming. About 50% of surficial flows do not even meet the standards for quali ty class III. In 1990 the volume of wastes produced by the mining and processing industries was more than 660 million tomes of spoil and ove r 490 million tonnes of tailings. It is estimated that in the period 1 984-2000 about 900 million m(3) of spoil will be dumped in the area of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin alone. Taking into account emission of dusts and gases and the volume of dumped wastes including sewage per k m(2), 27 ecologically endangered regions have been distinguished. Mini ng and smelting districts make up almost half of these regions. (C) 19 96 Elsevier Science Ltd