Ostrava Oil Lagoons
Ostrava Oil Lagoons field site can be found within the City of Ostrava (Moravian Silesian Region, eastern part of the Czech Republic), approximately 2 km west of the centre of the polycentric city. Since Ostrava’s urban development has been closely linked to industrialisation, the area originally founded as an oil refinery in the late 19th century on the city limits became a part of the city organism very quickly. During the period of socialism, when the area was intensively used as a storage of used oils from almost the whole country, the housing estate named Fifejdy was built nearby the locality (approx. population 10 000). A source of fresh water is located approx. 3 km southwest (Nová Ves), the Odra River goes approx. 1.5 km west of the area.
Today, the process of cleaning the area is in progress by the Clean Ostrava Project, financed by the state budget of the Czech Republic. With an area of 7 hectares and a depth of contaminants up to 80 meters it is known as one of the largest and oldest ecological hazards in the Czech Republic. Contaminants (predominantly petroleum, chemical substance BTEX, polyaromatic hydrocarbon, chlorinated hydrocarbon) are extracted, mixed and used as a fuel. There are estimations that the area contains 380 000 m3 of contaminants.
The cleaning of this state owned area should be finished by 2018; the future function of the location will be as a forest for recreational use for the population of Ostrava. Regeneration of the area will have a large socio-economic impact on nearby settlements.
Impressions of the timbre test case Ostrava Oil Lagoons
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