Toxic Šumava: Environment Ministry and Former Officials Trade Blame Over Delayed Cleanup

Former heads of the Czech Ministry of the Environment have publicly pushed back against claims by the current minister, Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL), that they ignored toxic contamination at Šumava National Park. The dispute erupted after the minister announced a leak of hazardous substances at the site of the former military facility Dobrá Voda near the village of Prášily.

Surý, the former head of the ministry department responsible for cleaning up environmental contamination, wrote on Facebook: "The minister is not telling the truth until he sees proof otherwise." According to him, the ministry's leadership had already been dealing with the issue and had even informed the Ministry of Defence about it.

What Was Found on Site

The scandal broke on Monday, when the minister announced that toxic substances were leaching into the soil at Šumava. According to his figures, around a thousand tonnes of contaminated soil and two hundred barrels of hazardous chemicals — including dioxins, furans, mercury, arsenic and chlorinated solvents — have been found at the site. Cleanup work is expected to take nearly two years and is set to begin in late September.

The minister accused his predecessors, including former ministry head Petr Hladík, of inaction despite the problem having been known about for years.

The Former Officials' Version of Events

According to Surý, the ministry first started looking into the matter six years ago, after the basement ceiling of a former military building collapsed. An analysis of water sources conducted the following year found no contamination.

Surý himself took charge of the relevant department in 2022. That same year, a report by the company Dekonta warned of the possible presence of chemical warfare agents at the site. However, Surý says he was not the one who received that information — it went to Deputy Minister Tomáš Tesař instead.

Tesař told reporters that the ministry did investigate the suspicions at the time, but the study found no evidence of chemical warfare agents at the site. He said the report did include a recommendation to address the environmental threat, but that this, he claims, is a standard formulation used for all contaminated sites — of which there are hundreds across the Czech Republic, many taking decades to clean up due to the high costs involved.

Tesař insists the ministry acted in good faith at the time: it checked the information but found no extraordinary risk. A similar conclusion was reached in a survey conducted this year by the State Office for Nuclear Safety, which found no traces of mustard gas, sarin or VX at the site, nor any evidence of phosgene containers.

Source: novinky.cz