Since the 60’s, plant protection agents with expired dates were stored in hazardous waste dumps (concrete or brick containers buried in the ground or located in old military facilities). At the beginning of the 90’s, along with an increase of ecological awareness, people started to search for these environment-harmful repositories for toxic substances. They also made an inventory of the hazardous waste dumps and destroyed them.
The audit showed that the Minister of Environment and the Offices of the Marshal neglect the monitoring of areas remaining after liquidated hazardous waste dumps in terms of the emission of pollution into the environment. Most areas remaining after 216 liquidated hazardous waste dumps were not monitored at all or relevant data was missing (it was the case with 147 repositories). In 37 cases such research was made but the Ministry did not have its results. Neither the Minister nor the local governments took actual activities to make the situation better. For instance, most of these institutions did not commission proper tests of underground waters in immediate neighbourhood of liquidated dumps (that would be the basic ratio proving that there is no pesticide contamination).
The Minister of Environment also did not take any measures to motivate local governments to search for the not yet uncovered hazardous waste dumps. He did not do it despite being aware that it had not been done until then. That task was fulfilled by few district heads. NIK warns that as a result of this negligence pesticides may be stored under the ground which may be a ticking ecological bomb.
The National Waste Management Plan adopted in 2006 assumed liquidation of all hazardous waste repositories by the end of 2010. Until 30 June 2011, more than 90 percent of plant protection agents with expired date stored in 211 stock-listed hazardous waste dumps were liquidated. The costs of that operation were at least PLN 175 million. Liquidation was on-going in case of 20 out of 31 remaining dumps (12 in Zachodniopomorskie Province, 7 in Łódzkie Province and 1 in Warmińsko-Mazurskie Province). In case of 11 hazardous waste dumps, no works were started yet (5 in Podlaskie Province, 2 in Zachodniopomorskie, 2 in Dolnośląskie, 1 in Mazowieckie and 1 in Opolskie Provinces).
According to NIK, the main reason why the plan assumptions were not implemented was that the regulations did not clearly determine an administrative body responsible for the liquidation of hazardous waste dumps. As a consequence, the auditors observed shifting responsibility. In the audited Offices of the Marshal people believed that the hazardous waste dumps should be liquidated by someone else. They pointed to the State Forests, district heads, communes and mayors of the cities or land owners. However, according to the Ministry of Environment - which shares NIK’s opinion - this is the responsibility of Provinces as only they can conduct this process on a complex basis in their area.
The very process of the liquidation of hazardous waste dumps was conducted properly. NIK thoroughly verified activities related to the liquidation of 37 out of 43 hazardous waste dumps in the period 2009-2010 in four Provinces: Mazowieckie, Łódzkie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie and Zachodniopomorskie. The audit revealed that all procedures were in place, transport was carried out properly and plant protection agents with expired date were neutralised.
