Saline Waste Water from the Hard Coal Sector

Abstract

The topic of this case study is a major implementation failure in Poland’s environmental policy in the 1990s: the discharges of saline water to the Wisła and Odra rivers. This book has so far concluded that, since systemic change in 1989, Poland has improved its environmental performance substantially. The mechanisms for (1) the financing of environmental protection measures (notably the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management) and (2) the enforcement of environmental law (executed by the State Inspectorate for Environmental Protection) have eliminated much of the notorious implementation deficit of the 1980s.²⁵⁸ However, with respect to the discharges of saline waste water from the hard coal mining sector in Upper Silesia in southwestern Poland, these two mechanisms have not worked properly and hence very little progress can be discerned.