Air pollution in the Czech Republic
New Air Rules Worry Czech Firms
By Lynda L. Maillet

The Czech Republic has made significant progress in tackling its legacy of environmental problems and in bringing environmental regulation closer to Western standards. Pollution control had been given a very low priority -- by both enterprises and the state -- in the planned economy with its focus on gross output. Moreover, whatever efforts were made to control pollutants before 1990 used equipment which was seriously inadequate. The Czech Republic is now trying to catch up in both law and practice. The government's task is made more difficult by the need to balance protection of the environment and public health with the limits of a still-transforming economy.

Many of the new regulations have been based on standards adopted by West European countries and are being phased in gradually in order, theoretically, to give Czech firms sufficient time to meet them. The firms' biggest hurdle is to find the financing necessary to install pollution control equipment or to move to new, more efficient technologies in their plants. Most of the technology needed to meet these new standards must be purchased from abroad either by buying the equipment outright or licensing technology to be produced domestically. By law, all plants must meet the limits set in legislation by the end of 1998. Many are complaining that they will not be able to meet the limits in time because they lack the needed funds.

The most serious air pollutant in the Czech Republic is sulfur dioxide (SO2); in 1993, SO2 emissions amounted to 1.8 million tons in the Czech Republic, averaging nearly 23 tons per square kilometer. Many other pollutants contribute to the deterioration of air quality in the country as well, including particulates, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and heavy metals. The burden on the environment and the health of the populace is made worse by the country's location in the "Black Triangle," one of the most highly polluted regions of Europe, which includes portions of Germany and Poland as well as the Czech Republic. This region has historically been heavily industrialized and reliant on local high-sulfur coal. The fact that emission sources are often concentrated and nearby mountains cause frequent temperature inversion situations (which trap air with high concentrations of SO2 near the ground) exacerbate the situation....

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