V a t t e n f a l l - Sweden´s other face

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·The Jänschwalde strip-mine is an ecological and human
catastrophe
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·No Environmental Impact Assessment was carried out.
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·There is still no Brown Coal Plan for the Jänschwalde strip-
mine, and; therefore no legal basis for the resettlement of
Horno
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·Horno is not the last Sorb village to be sacrificed: Grießen,
less than two kilometres north of Horno, is the next victim
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·The Jänschwalde mine is an economic disaster for the
Guben region
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The Jänschwalde strip-mine is an ecological and human catastrophe - no environmental impact assessment
The State Government avoided an investigation of the mine's devastating impact on the balance of nature and on the lives of the inhabitants of a dozen villages in the region. LAUBAG's Outline Mining Plan was approved by the State Mining Office (Oberbergamt) in March 1994, although the planning approval procedure laid down in the Federal Mining Act (Bundesberggesetz) and involving public participation and an integrated environmental impact assessment (EIA) had not been carried out.
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Instead of conducting an environment impact assessment for the Jänschwalde mine, LAUBAG commissioned a so-called "Ecological Profile" of the mine. This "profile" was little more than a benevolent description and confirmation of LAUBAG's own plans for the recultivation of the area to be devastated by its mine, as laid down in its Outline Mining Plan, coupled with a fantasy-like picture of the final scenario when the mine was shut down in the year 2019.
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The "Ecological Profile" drawn up for the Jänschwalde mine came nowhere near fulfilling the requirements of the EIA Act. The essential element of an EIA, namely, the description and assessment of the impact of a project on human beings, animals, plants, soil, atmosphere, climate and the countryside as well as on cultural and other tangible assets, was hardly touched upon. The effects of strip-mining on the ecological balance were also ignored, as were the examination of total land demands and the substantive investigation of the social impacts of the mine on Horno and its inhabitants.
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The effects of groundwater drawdown were neglected in the "Profile" to such an extent, that LAUBAG, when it came to submit its Jänschwalde drainage plan for approval in July 1994, felt encouraged not only to manipulate the extent of the influence of groundwater depletion (most of the 18 lakes in the Guben region – all of them dependent on groundwater – were excluded from consideration of the harmful effects of the Jänschwalde mine), but also to restrict the radius of influence of groundwater drawdown to a very conservative seven kilometres, when ten kilometres would have been more realistic.
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These groundwater cosmetics were designed to play down the ravages of strip-mining and the catastrophic consequences of groundwater depletion for the Guben greenbelt recreational area and drinking water protection zones. Groundwater depletion leads to desertification and landscape destruction far beyond the immediate strip-mining area. The quality of life in the area of impact will be adversely affected over a period of two generations, because only around the year 2050 can the water table be expected to have normalized.
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