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Environmental tasks executed in 2017

Environmental tasks executed in 2017

Water protection

The key directions of activity aimed at protecting surface water against salination were connected with:

  • limitation of the quantity and load of underground salinated water through their maximum utilization for production purposes and in the mines for fire prevention and liquidation of redundant workings,
  • dosing unused water from draining the Borynia-Zofiówka-Jastrzębie and Pniówek mines into the Odra River using a hydroengineering method of water protection, i.e. the Olza retention and dosage system operated by PGWiR. In 2017, 4.4 million m3 of water from dewatering the Group’s mines was drained using the Olza system,
  • improving the Olza retention and dozing system by continuing modernization and renovation work,
  • desalination of unused water from draining the Budryk mine by PGWiR in the Dębieńsko plant,
  • controlled release of unused water from draining the Knurów-Szczygłowice Mine into surface water in compliance with the conditions specified in prevailing regulations.
Waste management

With regard to waste management, land reclamation and management of areas transformed by mining activity, in 2017, the Group continued to use the production methods and service forms, and raw materials and other materials that made it possible to prevent generation of waste or keep their level as low as possible. All actions associated with waste management were taken in accordance with the waste management hierarchy, minimizing their negative impact on human life and health and natural environment through optimum management of space and natural resources, with special focus on reclamation and revitalization of sites and land transformed by mining activity. In extraction and processing of coal, in 2017 THE Group generated 11.1 million tons of mining waste. To minimize the negative impact of the mining waste on the natural environment and to increase revenues through rational waste management, the Group followed the strategic directions of activity, including: limiting the quantity of waste produced, increasing the amount of utilized waste in the underground pits, selling unprocessed waste, producing and selling crushed rock produced from waste, managing waste in the facilities for managing mine waste on the surface.

Intensifying action to produce crushed rock in the mines’ coal preparation plants and to sell it provided for the optimum utilization of mining waste in highway and road construction, in civil engineering and hydro engineering projects. Crushed rock was produced in accordance with the technical approval given by the Road and Bridge Research Institute in Warsaw for a construction product called “Kruszywo skalne górnicze JSW” [‘JSW Mining Rock Aggregate’] and the Institute for Technology and Nature in Falenty for the product named “Kruszywo hydrotechniczne z łupka powęglowego JSW” [‘JSW Hydrotechnical Aggregate from Coal Shale’]. Waste was subjected to a recycling process based on the decisions held by the mines. In 2017, about 0.1 million tons of crushed rock and mine waste were sold.

Mining waste management in the mining waste management plants on the surface was compliant with the local zoning plans, waste management plans and currently prevailing waste management regulations according to the directions agreed with local government units.

In all the facilities for managing extraction waste, work was conducted to protect the environment against the negative effects of the accumulated extraction waste and to develop the areas affected by the mining operations to revitalize them and to reinstate their natural and scenic values that will serve local communities in the future, as maintained green areas and forests and sport and leisure facilities.

The mine waste management facilities were covered by technical and biological reclamation based on traditional and soil-free greening methods guaranteeing a rapid and sustainable achievement of the intended environmental effects.

Greenhouse gas emission reductions

Curtailing greenhouse gas emissions in the Group was accomplished by making the maximum energy utilization of gas through methane drainage in the mines. As a result of utilization of captured methane for production of electricity and heat in high-efficiency co-generation systems, in 2017 the emission of methane into the atmosphere was reduced by approx. 91.6 million m3. In 2016, the Budryk mine commissioned a cogeneration system – 2 engines of ca. 4.0 MWel each in the area of the VI Chudów shaft, which made it possible to reduce methane atmospheric emissions by approx. 8.0 million m3. It is planned that starting from 2018, procedures will be initiated to construct another engines running on gas from methane drainage in the Budryk and Knurów-Szczygłowice mines.

In 2017, the Group initiated implementation of comprehensive solutions in the area of advanced assessment of “carbon footprint” of the entire organization and each of the key production processes. The works are accompanied by detailed inventory-taking and analysis of emission sources as well as putting in order the system for managing emission data. Considering the absolute necessity to preserve coherence of messages communicated to the public, the Group decided to suspend the publication of information about emissions until the work on the new model for calculating the data is completed, and then to announce the information publicly from one period to another in a manner guaranteeing their comprehensiveness and comparability. At the same time, JSW’s position is that communicating to the public data collected in a different model today and then to continuing the reporting based on another methodology could mislead investors by the failure to observe the principle of comparability.

Elimination or limitation of excessive noise

The strategy regarding liquidation of excessive notice emitted into the environment assumes taking actions leading to reduction of noise emissions from the most onerous sources to a permissible level. In 2017 the Group continued performing the tasks associated with muffling the facilities in the main plant of the Pniówek mine.

The concept which is under consideration is the Energy Cluster Green Jastrzębie with the construction of a pumped-storage power plant in the area of the former KWK Krupiński mine. The upper reservoir in the form of a water reservoir valuable for the landscape and offering recreational use would be placed above the lower reservoir with an elevator shaft as a water discharge corridor. An important advantage of such a power plant, which allows for storing energy when there are its surpluses and it is inexpensive, in order to use it when it is in the greatest demand, is the possibility of starting the plant very quickly in case of emergency; the plant achieves full power in a few minutes. The construction of a pumped-storage power plant is at the same time one of the actions included in the operation of the Energy Cluster Green Jastrzębie and the Green JSW strategy, describing the opportunities for joint actions of local self-government units and JSW to achieve such aims as, among others, rational use of natural resources, increased use of energy from RES, increased energy efficiency and improving the air quality on the area of neighboring townships.

Another aspect, which makes up a separate category of environmental risk, involves the use of hazardous substances. In that area, the Group constantly monitors the laws and regulations defining qualification criteria, categories and quantities of hazardous substances which, if found in a work establishment, cause it to be classified as a unit of higher risk or a high risk of occurrence of a serious industrial failure.

In 2017, expenditures connected with broadly conceived environmental protection in the Group exceeded PLN 100.0 million.

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