Elevated lead found again in water near Prague — old landfill under suspicion

In the town of Odolena Voda near Prague, a morning water sample from the upper reservoir showed lead levels four times above the norm — 1.4 µg/l. An afternoon sample came in lower, at 1.1 µg/l, but still exceeded the limit, prompting the water utility to step up testing.

Samples now taken three times a day

"At the locations where we have suspicions, samples are now taken three times a day instead of the previous two," said Andrea Rabasová, a spokesperson for Central Bohemian Water Utilities (Středočeské vodovody). She said the company continues to closely monitor the entire network and has not yet lifted the measures already in place: water in the 12 municipalities connected to the affected reservoir still cannot be used for drinking or cooking.

Deliberate contamination ruled out, but not the landfill

The company's CEO, Jakub Hanzl, said no signs of forced entry into the well area had been found. The catchment zone spans two valleys and includes 41 protected wells. According to him, deliberate contamination of the sources is unlikely, but given the size of the area, it cannot be ruled out that lead entered the groundwater by some other route.

"There's a landfill not far from our wells, and today probably no one really knows what's in it. That's one of the possible sources," Hanzl noted. A link between the landfill and the appearance of lead has not yet been proven.

The Kasova Rokle landfill is decades old

According to regional authority spokesperson Adam Hejda, the Kasova Rokle site has been closed for several decades and is considered a long-standing environmental risk. Tomáš Hulan, a spokesperson for the Czech Environmental Inspectorate, said the agency's only information about the landfill comes from the Ministry of the Environment's registry of contaminated sites: household waste was dumped there from the 1960s through the 1990s. The inspectorate has not yet carried out any inspections at the site.

Source: novinky.cz