The Turów mine is surrounded by an embankment. It is intended to reduce noise along the border with Germany

The Turów Brown Coal Mine has completed the construction of the second acoustic embankment. Its purpose is to reduce the noise emitted by the mine in Germany. The need to build it resulted from the provisions of the environmental decision. A similar investment was built earlier on the Polish-Czech border.

The completion of the works was announced in a press release by the company PGE Górnictwo i Energetyka Nowoczesnalna, which owns KWB Turów.

PGE GiEK spokeswoman Joanna Blewąska explained that the embankment was built on the southwestern dumping ground and is one of the key investments carried out by the mine as part of cross-border arrangements with Germany. This is protection against noise emitted in the west and north-west directions. The protection applies especially to protected areas in the area of ​​the German towns of Zittau and Drausendorf.

“As a result, in the town of Drausendorf, the level of noise emitted will not exceed the permissible limit in Germany,” Blewąska assured.

Work on this protection lasted for 5 years. The earth acoustic screen is over 1.2 km long. Over 22.5 million cubic meters of input were used for its production.

In accordance with the assumptions adopted by KWB Turów, the embankment will now be forested. Various tree species will appear there, including: pines, birches, alders, maples, oaks and beeches. This is to further increase its noise protection function.

This is the second such investment carried out by the plant. On the southern side of the Turów open-pit mine, a green earth embankment was previously built, which became a natural habitat for animals. Over 14,000 trees and shrubs were planted there. In this way, the provisions of the Polish-Czech agreement were fulfilled.

As the PGE GiEK spokeswoman added, the mine carried out a number of activities to reduce the plant's impact on the environment. The construction of dust screens was completed in May. In addition, there is an automatic road sprinkler system in the mine, and the machines are equipped with fogging systems. In addition to building acoustic screens, mine employees are gradually replacing idlers on conveyors with silent models.

The mine also has three modern sewage treatment plants that filter 15 million cubic meters of water annually, which minimizes the impact on the ecosystem of Nysa Łużycka. In order to limit the flow of groundwater into the excavation, a special underground barrier was built.

PGE Górnictwo i Energetyka conventional, the owner of Turów, is one of the companies of the PGE Capital Group – the largest company in the electricity sector in Poland. The company's core business is lignite mining and electricity generation.

PGE GiEK is a leader in the lignite mining industry, as well as the largest producer of electricity in Poland, covering almost 29%. national energy demand.

In 2024, PGE GiEK branches supplied almost 3.0 million GJ of heat to local markets. (PAP)

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