Chelm - the town I want to live in -...

Program Ochrony Srodowiska LAS

Lokalna Akcja na Rzecz Srodowiska, Chelm – czerwiec 1999 1

Environment Protection Programme for the town of Chelm

"Chelm - the town I want to live in"

Preliminary version

Narodowa Fundacja Ochrony Srodowiska ul. Krzywickiego 9 02-098 Warszawa

COWI Polska Sp. z o.o. Doradztwo i Projektowanie ul. Iganska 10 04-087 Warszawa



Chelm, May 1999



Project/draft compiled by: Members of the voluntary Programme Committee for the Local Environmental Action Programme in Chelm and specialists from: COWI Polska

The National Foundation for Environmental Protection financed by:

United States Environment Protection Agency

International Development Agency in cooperation with:



The Ministry for Protection of the Environment, Natural Resources, and Forestry

The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Conservation Photographs by Olgierd Bielak used in the programme were made available through the kindness of the Board of the Chelm Landscape Parks in Chelm



Declaration by the Chelm Town Authorities

in regard to execution of the

"Programme for Protection of the Environment in Chelm to the year 2010"

The Council and Board of the Town of Chelm are pleased to accept the "Programme for Protection of the Environment in Chelm t the year 2010", the result of over a year's voluntary work by a group of our town's inhabitants in the Programme Committee of the Local Environmental Action Programme. We treat this document as a list of policy directions binding for the Board and for the communal services and as a base for compiling detailed plans of action in the area of environmental protection as widely understood. Particularly valuable for us are the recommendations of priorities and directions of action in areas which provoke social unrest and which could threaten the unmarred development of the Town in the future.

We wish to stress that the Council and Board of the Town of Chelm have attached and do attach the greatest importance to matters of environmental protection. In past years, at the cost of enormous investment outlay, and thanks to the efforts of the entire Chelm community, communal services and bodies, and industrial plants, a number of ventures have been implemented in the Town, bringing about a radial cutback in our effect on the environment, a reduction in emission quantity, and an improvement in the basic indicators for environmental quality. As a result this enabled cancellation of the Chelm and Rejowiec Environmental Threat Area.

We do not intend to stop with these achievements. The accomplishment of tasks serving protection of the environment in the Town will still have the highest priority. The strategic environmental aim of the Town Authorities is to lead to a situation in which the degree of pollution or environmental degradation caused by the emission of pollution into the air, water, and soil from stationary and mobile sources of pollution (point and dispersed sources) present in our region, and also connected to the necessity to exploit the natural resources of nature and usage of space, will not only be within the limits set by law, but will also be hard for the surroundings to notice.

Aiming for such an aim, in the Town development plans and current management we will take account of the constitutional principle of lasting and balanced development, gradually eliminating the actual and potential threat to the environment, to human health, and the quality of life for the inhabitants of Chelm, or, where this will not be possible, cutting it back to the minimum.

This will be helped by the consistent execution of annual and many-year plans for environmental protection, compiled successively and kept up to date, and for which the basis will be the Environmental Protection Programme mentioned at the beginning, compiled in 1999 as part of the Local Environmental Action Programme. At the same time we will ensure that the broad issue of environmental protection find a practical and not only formal reflection in the plans of work and current operations for all cells of the Town Offices and the services, institutions, and organisations which are answerable to the Town Authorities. We will also pay attention to the need of ensuring good coordination for steps undertaken by these structures which could cause both positive and negative changes to the environment.



We will use all legal, organisational, and economic instruments available. First of all we will pay attention to the necessity for a permanent reduction in the emission of pollution and environmental nuisance related to the operations of units answerable directly to the Town authorities or working for the town.

We will ensure that activities undertaken in these units fully adhere to legal environmental protection demands currently in force and anticipated for the future, giving an example of how to proceed in an "environmentally friendly" way. At the same time we will be creating the appropriate organisational and technical conditions enabling other businesses and individual citizens to adhere to these demands, and we will attempt to promote and support activities undertaken in accordance with the strategic objective, forming appropriate systems of enticements.

Processes with a potential environmental nuisance will be subject constantly to our comprehensive control, and information about the level of impact and about planned ventures will be systematically made available to the Community of the and interested scientific bodies and pro-ecology organisations. In this respect especially we will be using new legal instruments available to the Town Authorities as a result of the creation of a town "powiat" (administrational district) covering Chelm.

We will also increase our pressure for effective execution of new and current legal demands both for industry plants operating in our Town and for those members of our community who do not want to abide to environmental protection demands as widely understood and accepted, acting thereby against the interests of the Town and its inhabitants. We also wish to work broadly in this area with government administration and inspection institutions.

We acknowledge that the cultivation of permanent contacts with the members of our community who, working and living in our Town, devote their time and involvement to activities in the field of environmental protection, has a special role. This is because we see a unique chance here, based on authentic and honest foundations, for an improvement in the effectiveness of steps taken by the Town authorities for environmental protection.

It is therefore with pleasure and hope that we welcome the creation of a "Local Environmental Action Programme" Association in Chelm, which will continue the activities initiated by the LEAP Programme Committee. We declare our desire to afford the said Association with the essential organisational and financial aid at the phase of its creation, and we would like to be involved in the future in the execution of all more important environmental protection ventures, especially those in which the mobilisation and broad-ranging participation of the local community is a condition for success.

We would like to see an important partner in this Association, one for honest discussion and consultation, putting attention constantly on the matter of environmental protection when solving all issues and problems vital for our Town, and participating in the selection of priorities, in the planning, and then in the execution of steps essential in this area. At the same time we expect far-reaching help from the Association in the accomplishment of our objectives and plans in the area of education and increasing the ecological awareness of the Town's population, deeply convinced that a pro-environment reconstruction of social awareness and specific organisational and technical ventures will bring benefits for the Town



and its inhabitants, making it possible for our environment to be maintained in good condition for future generations. This Declaration was announced publicly in Chelm on the International Environment Protection Day of 5 June 1999.

The Town Council and Board



We devote this programme to accomplishment of the idea:

"Chelm – a town I want to live in"

LEAP Programme Committee



Contents:

1. Wprowadzenie................................................................................................................1

2. Diagnoza stanu wyjsciowego.....................................................................................13

2.1. Charakterystyka Miasta Chelm......................................................................................13

2.1.1. Polozenie geograficzne ........................................................................................13 2.1.2. Charakterystyka fizjograficzna i geologiczna......................................................13 2.1.3. Walory srodowiskowe ..........................................................................................13 2.1.4. Ogólna charakterystyka miasta............................................................................16 2.1.5. Podstawowe dane demograficzne.........................................................................17 2.1.6. Podstawowe funkcje miasta .................................................................................17

2.2. Szanse i ograniczenia rozwojowe ...................................................................................18

2.3. Glówne problemy srodowiskowe – podsumowanie wyników identyfikacji zagrozen........21

2.3.1. Zagrozenia zwiazane z emisja zanieczyszczen do atmosfery.................................21 2.3.2. Zagrozenia srodowiska zwiazane z gospodarka wytworzonymi odpadami ...........23 2.3.3. Zagrozenia dla zasobów wód podziemnych..........................................................26 2.3.4. Zagrozenia dla jakosci wód powierzchniowych ...................................................28 2.3.5. Brak równowagi pomiedzy terenami zurbanizowanymi, a aktywnymi biologicznie29 2.3.6. Zagrozenia zwiazane z ruchem samochodowym ...................................................30 2.3.7. Niewystarczajacy poziom edukacji ekologicznej spoleczenstwa ..........................31

2.4. Ranking zagrozen - wyniki prac Komitetu Programowego ..............................................32

2.4.1. Wyniki porównawczej analizy zagrozen...............................................................32 2.4.2. Hierarchia zagrozen w ocenie Komitetu Programowego......................................32 2.4.3. Ocena zagrozen w swiadomosci spolecznej..........................................................32

3. Zakladane cele oraz kierunki rozwiazywania problemów i eliminacji zagrozen 34

3.1. Ochrona zasobów wód podziemnych.............................................................................35 3.2. Bezpieczna dla srodowiska i mieszkanców Chelma gospodarka odpadami......................36 3.3. Ochrona czystosci wód rzeki Uherki – lepsze wykorzystanie jej walorów .......................37 3.4. Ograniczenie uciazliwosci miejskiego systemu komunikacyjnego .....................................38 3.5. Zmniejszenie poziomu zanieczyszczenia atmosfery do poziomu w którym nie wystepuja w

ogóle przekroczenia.......................................................................................................39 3.6. Stworzenie koalicji zaklady przemyslowe i spolecznosc miasta na rzecz zrównowazonego i

trwalego rozwoju...........................................................................................................39 3.7. Rozwój i wlasciwe gospodarowanie terenami zielonymi ..................................................40 3.8. Rozbudzanie swiadomosci i ksztaltowanie prosrodowiskowych postaw mieszkanców

Chelma..........................................................................................................................41

4. Program Ochrony Srodowiska ................................................................................42



4.1. Konstrukcja i tresc Programu.........................................................................................42 4.2. Realizacja i kontrola stopnia wykonania Programu..........................................................42

4.3. Lista zadan i celów szczególowych..............................................................................39



1. Introduction The "Environment Protection Plan" thus presented is the result of a project conducted since December 1997 under the name "Local Environment Action Programme" (LEAP). This project was conducted by the consortium of COWI Polska and the National Foundation for Protection of the Environment. Finance was ensured by the Agency for International Development (US AID) and the Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) of the United States, and the body supervising the progress of the project was the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Conservation in cooperation with the Ministry for Protection of the Environment, Natural Resources, and Forestry.

The "Local Environmental Action Programme" is a pilot programme for management on a local level conducted simultaneously in the towns of Chelm, Starogard Gdanski, and Tczew, and in the powiat [district] of Aleksandrów Kujawski, chosen as demonstration units through a nationwide Polish competition.

The objective of the project is not only to compile environment protection programmes for the selected towns and powiat, but most importantly for methodology and instruments (already used elsewhere) making wide-scale involvement of the community possible in decision-taking processes on a local level to be adapted to the conditions in Poland. Through stimulating local communities and encouraging them to actively take part in town life and also work actively with its authorities in order to solve the most vital problems affecting the communities, one can obtain much wider support for the execution of programmes frequently requiring some austerity and significant expenditure. At the same time comprehension of problems occurring and the importance of different threats is made more widespread. This all contributes towards a constructive dialogue within the community, and counteracts processes of the alienation of the authorities which are so characteristic for young democracies.

The project's objective was to organise local programme committees which, based on the social/voluntary active involvement of their members voluntarily declaring their participation in the project, and in cooperation and regular consultation with local government authorities and other institutions and organisations operating in the area of environmental protection, would draw up long-term programmes (covering many years) for protection of the environment, taking into consideration the local community's most vexing problems.

The consultants' role was restricted mainly to preparing the Programme Committee to compile the programme independently, following a threat analysis conducted prior to this process using the comparative risk analysis method, and to carrying out the function of guides and moderators during the Committee's plenary meetings.

As a result the actual executor of the LEAP programme and author of this Environment Protection Programme is the voluntary Programme Committee, comprising inhabitants of Chelm - representatives of the most important social and professional groups of Chelm, the Town Council and Board, industry, education, the health service, and professional services dealing with environmental protection, and school pupils.

The results of the Committee's work, and information about environmental protection problems in the town were presented during a number of education and information campaigns undertaken on the initiative of the Committee by local mass media and during a survey of the town's inhabitants' ecological awareness conducted with the help of Chelm's high-school pupils. A presentation of results was also organised for the Board and representatives of the Town Council.

A programme compiled in such a way should constitute a basis for the future activities of Chelm's authorities and the communal services responsible for environmental protection issues in practically all aspects of the town's life. Although the voluntary/social character of the document meant that it was impossible to go into the technical details of the solutions proposed, its undoubted benefit is its detailed identification of those matters which for Chelm's inhabitants are of vital importance.



As a result, detailed action plans drawn up and executed on the basis of the programme's recommendations will reflect well the expectations of Chelm's citizens.

Simultaneously the Programme Committee developed original methodology for the creation of programme documents of this type, methodology which may also be put to good use in the future, and not only for environmental protection but to a large degree also for developing Chelm's strategy for balanced and lasting development. The experience gathered in this respect and the practical skill of reaching joint decisions and the identical comprehension of problems are equally valuable, and perhaps even more valuable than what over a year of the Committee's work has resulted in - an Environment Protection Programme for 2000-2010. Because of this the Programme Committee has decided to continue its operations once the project has been completed as well. It has been agreed that the best form of continuation will be through founding the Association "Local Environment Action Programme - Chelm", which will be an organisation open to all the town's inhabitants interested in active participation in the life and problem-solving of Chelm's community.

Establishment of the Association will contribute towards building an atmosphere of mutual trust between the local community and representatives of the town authorities representing this community, an atmosphere favouring the exchange of authentic and objective information about environmental threats in the town and the consequences of applying investment, organisational, and legal solutions aimed at improving the state of the environment and the health and quality of life for the town's inhabitants.

Convinced that this environment protection programme has been compiled in good faith on the basis of all information and data available to the Committee, we submit this document to the town authorities with the hope that it will serve to the good of Chelm's community.

Programme Committee

"Local Environment Action Programme"

Chelm, 5 June 1999.



2. DIAGNOSIS OF INITIAL CONDITION

2.1. Profile of the Town of Chelm

2.1.1. Geographic setting Chelm is located in the eastern section of the Lublin province, and situated on important international road and rail transport routes from Warsaw to Lublin to Chelm to Kiev. The road and rail border crossings with Ukraine are located in Dorohusk, about 25km from Chelm.

2.1.2. Physiographic and geological profile The town is located on the border between two morphological sub-regions, known as the "Pagóry Chelmskie" [Chelm Hills] and the "Obnizenie Dubienki" [Dubienka Depression], belonging to the Polesie Wolynskie macro-region. The varied land profile is characterised by height differences exceeding 50m. The dominant elements of the town landscape are:

− Upland in the central and western parts of town, with isolated hills, the highest of which is the Góra Katedralna [Cathedral Hill];

− the valleys of the Uherka river and its tributaries. The Chelm Hills as well as the substratum of the valley Quaternary deposits, are built of beds of marl and chalkstone (upper-chalk deposits), covered by sand and clay spreads. The river valleys are filled by quaternary deposits laid on the chalk (clay, loam, and sand), with peat occurring on the surface. Within the borders of the town the land surface is dominated by moderately good and moderate soil, mainly 3rd and 4th soil quality class. There are small fragments of poor soil and soil unfit for agricultural production, of 5th and 6th soil quality class.

Because of the natural resources chalk mining developed back in the early Middle Ages, as a result of which there are chalk basements and vaults unique in Europe.

The chalk is presently used as a basic raw material for the production of clinker bricks by the local cement industry. Chalk deposits of industrial significance occur in the eastern part of town, where in 1996 the "Góra Kredowa" mining area was demarcated.

2.1.3. Environment qualities

Sanitary condition of the environment

As a result of several investment projects being carried out in the 90's for the protection of air and water, a significant improvement was achieved in the condition of the environment in Chelm. The greatest positive changes were in a reduction of dust and gas pollution emitted into the atmosphere, a reduction of water usage, a stop put to the growth in quantity of sewage deposited into the environment, and an increase in the amount of industrial waste used commercially.

A reduction in the nuisance factor of many Chelm plants gave grounds for eliminating the Chelm and Rejowiec Environmental Threat Area, which also covered the town of Chelm, and cancellation of the list of the most burdensome industrial plants in the former Chelm province.

Currently no cases are being noted in town of admissible norms for the concentration of pollution substances in the air and dust-deposit norms being violated. The problem of so-called "low emission", caused by individual hearths and small boiler-houses using hard coal as fuel, is still a serious problem



however. In addition problems are increasing with air pollution caused by the rapidly growing road traffic and transit traffic driving through the town.

There are also significant problems in relation to the quality of underground water reserves. Chelm is located with the Highest Protection Area for the Main Underground Water Reservoir no. 407 Niecka Lubelska - Chelm - Zamosc. The absence of natural isolation for the water-bearing levels and the fissured character of the rocks in the reservoir's basin means that the threat to the underground water from surface pollution is, within the town, very high or high. Evidence of this includes serious chromium compound contamination of water in the direct neighbourhood of the "Bariera" intake, or the contamination of water with oil derivative substances in the region of the "Trubaków" intake.

Despite a new town sewage treatment plant being opened which takes sewage from the whole of the town of Chelm, and which is highly effective in reducing pollution, the classification of water in the river Uherka has not changed significantly. This testifies to the problems of water and sewage management not yet being fully solved. Lower classification for the state of the river's water purity is due to a small number of indicators, usually the coliform count and biogenous compounds characteristic for raw sanitary sewage.

Nature and landscape values

The town of Chelm is situated beyond the limits of the former Chelm province's Ecological System of Protected Areas, although it is closely tied to this system. Directly adjacent to the town, to the north and north east, is the Chelm Landscape Park and the Chelm Protected Landscape Area surrounding it, with a complex of carbonate peatbogs unique in the world.

Due to the natural and landscape values of land directly adjacent to the town, this land was classified into the International Nodal Area (27M Obszar Poleski) in the ECONET- Poland system of protected areas and bird refuges of importance in Europe. In addition the borders of the Cross-border Protected Area "Polesie Zachodnie" were marked in this region.

The most valuable nature and landscape objects within the town are under legal protection:

− the "Wolwinów" nature reserve, created in 1972, covering an area of 1.12 ha in the north-west portion of the Borek forest, has a forest glade with rare species of xerothermic plants (including the dwarf cherry)

− 13 nature monuments: 16 trees (single or in groups), 1 patch of xerothermic vegetation, 1 viewpoint hill. Four objects have been identified as nature monuments by the Chelm Town Council.

The monument trees include native and acclimatised species alien to our flora

(including the ginkgo biloba, the ailanthus altissima, and the unifoliate variety of European ash). The "Borek" nature monument is close to the "Wolwinów" reserve, and is similar in profile. The "Grodzisko" viewpoint hill on the Górka Chelmska is under protection for historical, commemorative, scientific, and aesthetic reasons.

Forest complexes and dense tree groups play an important part in the formation of the town's ecological structure. Forest areas and green settlement areas cover over 370 ha (10.5% of the town's area). The forests within the town belong to group 1 protected forests (the tree zone). The largest



dense forest complex within the town is the Borek Forest. A larger concentration of trees is the "Kumowa Dolina" valley at the north-western edge of town.

There are two town parks in Chelm: the Park Miejski [Town Park], by ul. Lubelska, and the park on the Cathedral Hill. The largest housing estate parks are the one in the "XXX-lecia" estate, and in the "Cementownia" estate (the "Ogródek Jordanowski").

An object very interesting for its natural values is the park at the former military depot on ul. Hrubieszowska, with very rare and interesting species of trees and shrubs.

One of the elements of the town's greenery is that of the allotments. Within the town there are 14 sets of allotments covering a total area of 110.39 ha.

The town's system of trees is supplemented with greenery along traffic routes and in the cemeteries.

The river Uherka, a right-hand tributary of the Bug, flows through the town cutting it into east and west sides. On the one hand the river valley forms a very distinct accent in the landscape, whilst on the other it is of great importance as an ecological corridor. The river valley is the most important natural ventilation channel in the town.

Within the town's administrative area the river collects water from two tributaries: the Janówka and Slyszówka. The river's water supplies two storage reservoirs, the "Zóltance" and "Stanków" beyond the town's limits, which are very interesting objects for nature and for recreation.

Cultural values

Many valuable historical monuments of material culture have survived within Chelm and its vicinity. In town the late-baroque Mariacka Basilica, with its 19th century bell-tower and buildings of the former Chelm bishops' palace and Basilian monastery, dominates from an impressive hill. The basilica is a sanctuary devoted to the cult of the Virgin Mary, with an image of the Chelm Mother of God also revered by orthodox Christians. The Baroque Church of the Apostles, with its richly adorned interior and interesting polychromes, is a noteworthy building, and in the town centre is the 19th century St. John the Theologist classicist orthodox church. However, the greatest tourist attraction of Chelm is that of its chalk vaults and basements, unique on a worldwide scale. The extraction of chalkstone from beneath the town centre from at least the 16th century has resulted in many levels of underground corridors covering about 15km, and reaching a dept of 12 metres. A two kilometre route is open to visitors.



2.1.4. General town profile

As a result of successive administrational reforms in the country, Chelm was the capital of the Chelm province from 1975 to 1998. Following the administrational reform of 1999 the town was granted the rights of a town powiat.

Chelm covers an area of 35.72 km2 and has over 70,000 inhabitants. The town of Chelm is situated on an important international road and rail, from Warsaw and Lublin through Chelm to Kiev. The town has convenient transport connections with border crossings with Ukraine, in Dorohusk and Hrebenne. Road no. 83 links the town to a planned border crossing with Belarus in Wlodawa.

The town has an internally diversified functional and spatial structure. Within the town limits four multifunctional zones can be clearly distinguished:

1st zone: industrial zone

In the north part of town is an industry and storage district with a concentration of nuisance-causing industry, with the exception of development of water-intensive industry. The existing housing has been set aside for temporary retention.

2ns zone: town investment zone

The area of the Old Town, in a strict conservation area, should be separated from this zone. The main dominant element of the town is that of the buildings on the "Górka Chelmska". The basic function of this area is housing and services (mainly trade and gastronomy).

The Old Town is surrounded by a town centre area with pre-war housing districts. The "Dyrekcja" housing state located here is in a conservation area. In part of the town centre there is a ban on locating buildings over three storeys high which would screen the townscape. The main function of the town centre is housing and town services, with the location of non-arduous industry and crafts possible. Services contributing to the creation of a centre are located in the south part of the zone. Road traffic has been limited to the essential needs of local and supply traffic, especially on sections of ul. Lubelska and ul. Lwowska, and on Plac Luczkowski.

Multi-family and single-family housing estates occupy most of the surface of this zone. The largest estates with multi-family housing are in the east of town ("Dyrekcja" and "Cementownia"), in the centre ("XXX-Lecia and "Sloneczne"), in the west ("Zachód"), and in the south of town ("Bazylany" and "Kosciuszki").

3rd zone: suburban zone

The basic function of this zone is single-family housing. Estates with family houses (detached or terraced) are located mainly in the east of town ("Paderewskiego", "Kilinskiego", and "Ogrodnicza") and in the north ("Rejowiecka - Wlodawska"). This zone contains most of the town area's farms.

4th zone: ecological zone

This zone includes the meadows by the Uherka river, the "Kumowa Dolina" valley, the "Borek" forest complex, and the directly adjacent park at the former military depot on ul. Hrubieszowska. The river valley fulfils the very important function of ventilating the town. In the Kumowa Dolina there are tourism and recreation facilities (an amphitheatre and sports shooting range). Plans are for "Borek" and the "Kumowa Dolina" to be connected by a cycle path.

The zones thus determined are connected by the basic street layout, which comprises sections of powiat, province, and national roads (altogether 72 km). There are distinguishable main streets forming



the basics of the town's traffic system, and which connect its different regions, and catchment streets whose main functions are to service housing estates or the industrial and storage district and for communication with roads beyond town. Two bypasses, south and north, are planned in order to ease the road traffic within town.

2.1.5. Basic demographic data On 31.12.1998 the town's population was 70,654, of which over 26% were of pre-production age, and 11% in post-production age.

According to forecasts the growth in the town's population will be limited to natural growth plus slight migrating, and will reach a level of 72-80,000 inhabitants by 2010-2015.

The main areas of employment in the town are industry (over 25% of all employees), with a systematically falling number of workers, trade and services (11%), education (9%), and administration (8%). About 0.3% of the town's inhabitants work in farming, although one must remember that this number refers only to the inhabitants of Chelm with farms within the town's limits. Many people have farmland in communes bordering Chelm, and hence the percentage of those working in farming is actually much higher. Over 33% of the working population is employed in small businesses employing up to 5 people in each of the above employment areas.

At the end of 1998 almost 4000 people in Chelm were without work, which is 9% of the population of working age. A further rise in unemployment should be expected as a result of the country's administrational reform and the expected liquidation of some jobs.

2.1.6. Basic town functions Despite its loss of provincial capital rights, Chelm is still an important and multifunctional centre, mainly industrial in character, with supra-local services.

The biggest Chelm industrial plants expanded on the basis of the raw materials occurring here: chalk, marl, and sand. The biggest plant in the building materials sector is the "Cementownia Chelm S.A." [Chelm Cement-works], for over 30 years one of the largest cement producers in Poland.

The agricultural profile of communes neighbouring Chelm forms favourable conditions for the development in town of the agricultural food industry, represented by such as "FRUTIMEX" (formerly the Zaklady Przetwórstwa Owocowo-Warzywnego), the "BIOMLEK" Dairy Cooperative in Chelm, Zespól Mlynów [Mills], Lublin Breweries (Chelm, "WIST", "Jagiello"), and PPHU "Drimpex" (formerly the SPPS "Wyzwolenie"). The most important light industry plants include the "Escott" Leather Industry Plants, the "MEBLOTAP" Furniture Factory, "Nasza przyszlosc", and "Sungboo".

One of the town's functions is for servicing international tourist and freight traffic. Chelm is a centre for the servicing of transit traffic to the country's border and tourism requiring accommodation. This is related to the town's location on the international route from Warsaw through Lublin to Chelm and via Dorohusk to Kiev.

The town has warehouse facilities and railway sidings for the cargo-handling of commercial goods. Accommodation facilities for tourism and transit traffic consist of hotels and holiday centres. The town also fulfils the function of servicing international business; it is where the East-East International Trade Fairs are held, and home for the Polish secretariat of the "Bug Euroregion", which supports ventures including the economic cooperation between Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Chelm also renders services in the following areas: − public administrations: the town is home to local government administration offices of

different levels: the Town Offices, the Starostwo Grodzkie and Starostwo Ziemskie, and branches of the Urzad Marszalkowski in Lublin; local branches of provincial government



administration and joint administration (e.g. the Provincial Office in Lublin, the Customs Office, Regional and Provincial Public Prosecutor, the Provincial Statistical Office, and the Education Office) are located in Chelm;

− health services: the Samodzielny Publiczny Zespól Opieki Zdrowotnej (formerly the Wojewódzki Szpital Zespolony)

− education: secondary schooling, branches of places of higher learning (e.g. the Medical Academy in Lublin, the Higher School of Journalism, the Jonski Higher School of Enterprise and Management), and the Pedagogic Library;

− culture: the Chelm Cultural Centre, the Public Library, and Regional Museum; − local communication: Chelm has convenient connections with all larger towns in the

region: Lublin, Zamosc, Biala Podlaska, Krasnystaw, and Wlodawa, and with neighbouring communes.

2.2. Development chances and limitations The fundamental conditions for stimulating town development include the town's location by the border and in the zone of influence of the trans-European traffic route.

The basic factor influencing town development is its location on very important international and regional road and rail communication routes. The shortest road from Western Europe through Berlin and Warsaw to Ukraine leads through Chelm. In the future, the Warsaw-Kiev road is to be classified into the "E" European international road network. Chelm has good communications with Krasnystaw on road no. 17 (Warsaw - Lublin - Zamosc - Hrebenne (border crossing with Ukraine and from there the shortest road to Lvov) and Wlodawa, where the construction of an international road border-crossing with Belarus is planned.

Chelm's connections with neighbouring countries are also good by rail. The most important line is that from Warsaw and Lublin through Chelm and Dorohusk to Kowel (formerly the Kolej Nadwislanska). There is also a direct broad gauge railway line from Chelm to Kiev. The railway line from Chelm to Wlodowa is also potentially of high economic importance; following the planned reconstruction of the railway bridge over the river Bug it will afford rail connections with Belarus.

As an important railway junction, the town has railway sidings available, free warehouse space, and storage yards largely unused by their owners.

Because of such a location, the significance of Chelm is rising as an important centre for lively business contacts for investors from the Commonwealth of Independent States with Poland and countries of the European Union. Chelm is thereby becoming a very attractive place for investors determined to locate their capital here. Western foreign capital has been invested in such as Chelm's cement works and the former ZPOW Fruit and Vegetable Processing Plants.

Chelm has the prerequisites to fulfil the role of a national centre for contacts mainly with the Ukrainian market. A number of Chelm companies have trading contacts with partners east of the border, and already have a well-established position on the markets there. Such businesses include the Chelm Cement-works, which using its location directly next to the broad gauge railway line has obtained the privileged position of exporter to eastern markets. A fair proportion of the furniture produced by "MEBLOTAP" Furniture Factories is also sold on the eastern market.



The International East-West Trade Fairs, which have been held in the town for a few years now, fulfil the function of maintaining and developing business cooperation for Poland and the European Union with the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Chelm has also joined the "Pasmo" Union of Communes covering eight territorial local government bodies in the direct vicinity of transit routes with Ukraine. The aim of the Union's activities is to create convenient conditions for undertaking investment activities directed towards international cooperation.

Chelm is also home to the Polish secretariat of the "Bug Euroregion" Agreement, created to facilitate economic and trade cooperation as very broadly understood between Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Business enterprise is also supported by chambers of commerce, consulting companies, and other bodies in the business environment.

Some higher places of learning with institutes in the town have also directed the profiles of their teaching programmes towards Polish-Ukrainian cooperation. The Jonski Higher School of Enterprise and Management, educating future businessmen, has obligatory lectures for the English and Ukrainian languages. Students from Ukraine have preferential conditions for studying in the School. The branch of the Higher School of Journalism, in its Politology and Social Sciences department, has commenced teaching the specialisation of border traffic servicing.

Chelm has realistic chances for the development of tourism as an important area of the economy based on its rich natural and cultural heritage. Within town and in its close vicinity are many valuable historical monuments of material culture, silent witnesses of the stormy and colourful history of the land and coexistence of different faiths (Catholicism, orthodox Christianity, and Judaism) and peoples (Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish).

In Chelm's immediate vicinity (from 3 to 10 km) there are unique low peatbogs protected as nature reserves, and classified as "carbonate" peatbogs. The Chelm peatbogs and the Poleski National Park, about 60 km from Chelm, have become a fixed part of increasingly popular specialist nature expeditions.

A few nationwide and international cultural events are held in Chelm and other nearby settlements:

− Chelm is where the Nationwide Confrontation of Social Dance Formations is held; − for 25 years Krasnystaw has been home to the "Chmielaki Krasnostawskie" - the

Nationwide Swieto Chmielarzy i Piwowarów; − in the summer Wlodawa welcomes participants to an international folk song and dance

festival; − Wola Uhruska is home to the international painting outdoor event "Kresy’86".

The large number of very interesting historical buildings and valuable objects of nature in the town or close by, plus the diversity of cultural events with long traditions and of recognised renown taking place in the region mean that the town performs the function of an important local tourist centre. In town there are a number of tourist facilities, including a Tourist Information Centre, hotels, eateries, and recreation and sports objects. However, neither the number nor the standard of services offered is fully satisfactory.

There are a few travel agencies operating in Chelm, although the range of holidays they offer is very modest. Most often they only intermediate in the sale of other agencies' holidays. Of the companies organising trips around town or around the former Chelm province, the "Chelmskie Podziemia Kredowe LABIRYNT s.c." [Chelm Chalk Basements] is worth a mention.

Because of the quite poor tourist infrastructure, tourists stay for around two days, and fewer and fewer tourists stay in the town for longer than one day. Chelm is therefore becoming a transit town for other towns.



The following are amongst the main obstacles to town development:

− low abundance of surface water and limited availability of underground water; the depression sink which has emerged as a result of chalk exploitation by the Chelm Cement-works restricts the possibility of having investments in town which would use underground water in the production process;

− the occurrence of land with soil unfavourable for the erection of buildings (the chalk basements in the town centre): putting buildings in this region could result in building catastrophes;

− a significant proportion of the town's area consists of good soil;

− unemployment: over the last few years the number of jobs has been falling, and thereby high unemployment continues. There are about 4,000 job seekers, and the unemployment rate in the province at the end of 1998 was about 9%. The poor situation on the job market was intensified by changes connected to reform of public administration, and as a result of this reform's implementation a further rise in unemployment should be expected;

− population migration caused by the low availability of attractive jobs;

− the population's insufficient level of education;

− a fair degree of impoverishment of society related to earnings being below the national average;

− the unsatisfactory state of the town's road infrastructure e.g. the need for improvement of local connects and the construction of bypasses to ease road and transit traffic;

− insufficient tourist infrastructure and town promotion: with the town's aspirations to perform the function of a centre for servicing tourist and transit traffic, there is a need for further expansion in trade, services, and production, plus an improvement in the standard of services connected with this traffic; greater town promotion is also essential.



2.3. Main environment problems: summary of threat identification results

During the work on this ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION PROGRAMME FOR THE TOWN OF CHELM , the Programme Committee for the Local Environment Action Programme identified the most important environmental problems occurring within the Town, which were as follows:

1. Air pollution caused by "low" emission from households 2. Excessive environmental pollution as a result of heat loss 3. Environmental pollution caused by waste 4. Contamination of underground water 5. The contamination of surface water 6. No equilibrium between urban areas and biologically active areas (with appropriate infrastructure) 7. Nuisance caused by road traffic.

Using the comparative risk analysis method, the Committee then analysed the risks related to these problems, appraising their importance or the severity of their effects. The potential / likely harmful effect was evaluated for the following:

• human health and life

• the local environment

• the quality of life for the town's population.

Prior to appraising the scope and effects of the risks, the Programme Committee drew up and adopted qualitative criteria for the appraisal of the size of the risk, which were then used for conducting the comparative risk analysis.

In order to ensure comparability for the different types of criteria, they were defined on a five-point scale (extreme, high, significant, low, or no risk). The prerequisites for the analysis, and criteria tables for the different task types, are given in detail in Appendix no. 3 for the operational version of the Environment Protection Programme in the possession of the Town Offices. Below the most important decisions and conclusions from the analysis are presented in synthetic form.

2.3.1. Risks related the emission of pollution into the atmosphere Air pollution within Chelm as a result of stationary industrial sources is not a problem today. For a number of years now there have been no violations of the medium-term norms for concentration of basic dust and gas pollution (suspended particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, and nitric oxides).

Thanks to steps taken in recent years for modernisation, changes in technology and organisation, and also changes in the structure and volume of production, all the larger industrial plants are able to adhere to the admissible emission values defined by administrative decisions. Reduction of the degree of air pollution in the town is helped especially by execution of a programme for centralising heat sources, and a programme for expansion of the district heat distribution system. As a result a number of ineffective boiler-houses, not equipped with suitable dust collecting units, have been shut down. The aero-sanitary state of the town is also being improved by the construction of a natural gas supply network.

The main heat supply sources, and at the same time some of the most significant sources of emission, are currently the Centralna Cieplownia [Central District Heat Station] and the Cieplownia [Heat Station] on ul. Moscickiego, highly effective power stations equipped with very efficient systems for reducing dust pollution.



Another important source of emission is the Chelm Cement-works, although over the last decade this plant has also significantly cut back the quantity of pollution emitted into the atmosphere, especially dust.

A factor which worsens the degree of air pollution is the growing emission of pollution (mainly hydrocarbons and nitric oxides) related to the increasing volume of road traffic, both local and transit.

Emission of pollution into the air from individual fires and local boiler houses

When analysing the local situation and comparing it to the results of research into air quality in other Polish towns, one may presume that one of the most significant factors influencing air quality in Chelm is currently what is known as "low emission" from individual fires. Fires and individual heating systems using hard coal are still used in hundreds of single-family and multiple-family buildings, including in areas where connection to the gas network or district central heating system is possible. This is related, amongst other things, to the higher unit price for the gas used for heating than for hard coal, but mainly to the high costs for gas equipment and the yet higher costs for actually connecting individual buildings to the urban central heating system.

The pollution emitted from individual home fires and small coal-fired local boiler houses includes the widely known basic pollution related to power generation: dust, sulphur dioxide, and nitric oxides, but also polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) less well-known to the public, including benzo-a-pyrene which is a compound with a proven highly carcinogenic nature. These are the by-products of burning fuel at low temperatures with restricted oxygen availability.

This situation is made worse by the burning of various types of flammable waste in household fires, e.g. plastic packaging, something which is observed quite commonly. In regions dominated by individual heating systems this can increase the degree of air pollution with particularly dangerous substances emerging when burning complex organic compounds (polycyclic and halogen-derivative hydrocarbons).

Areas where "low emission" has a particularly visible effect on air quality include the following: the Rejowiecka estate (especially ul. Szpitalna and Wlodawska), the Cementownia estate, the Dyrekcja Górna estate, the Old Town, the Town Centre, the Metalowa estate, and the Paderewskiego estate. When compiling this programme it was estimated that about 40% of Chelm's population is permanently subject to the influence of pollution related to "low emission".

Appraisal of the threat to human health and life

The concentration of the basic pollution types has not exceeded the norms for some time now (year-average concentrations are: for SO2 – 4.5-11.5% MAC [maximum allowable concentration], NOx – 30-44% MAC, dust – 9-30% MAC). However, as the theoretical results of calculations and the results from measurements taken in other comparable places in the country indicate the possibility of the MAC being exceeded in the case of benzo-a-pyrene, it was assumed for the requirements of the appraisal that the emission of polycyclic hydrocarbons constitutes the greatest threat to the health and life of the inhabitants of the town. Using health risk analysis methodology, it was estimated that the forecast concentrations of PAHs could cause 6 additional deaths a year in Chelm's population as a result of the risk of increased illness rates amongst the inhabitants for cancer of the respiratory tract.

Using the adopted criterial scale, the threat on this level should be defined as high.

Rating of threat to the natural environment

The relatively low level of air pollution observed in recent years in the town (for basic pollution types) gives no grounds for saying explicitly that the emission of pollution from dispersed local sources (low emission) is causing the widely occurring and visible damage to the town's ecosystem. Nevertheless,



such pollution undoubtedly has causes a temporary increase in the concentration of sulphur dioxide and nitric oxides, substances causing severe acidification of the environment (in the heating season, the average monthly concentrations are: for SO2 – 18% MAC, and for NOx – 49% MAC). This is causing a reduction in plant resistance and changes in their existence conditions. At the same time one should note that, especially in the central part of town, particularly sensitive species of indicatory organisms, which include lichens, are disappearing. This could suggest the occurrence of harmful but difficult to notice influences, the consequences of which over longer periods could also affect more resistant species. However, because these changes are not currently causing any perturbations in the functioning of ecosystems, the Programme Committee agreed that the ecological risk caused by "low emission" is low.

Rating of threat to the quality of life

A feeling of discomfort related to "low emission" is quite a common thing, and covers a fair proportion of the town's inhabitants. Most members of the Committee claimed that the nuisance related to "low emission" was noticeable for them, and a source of discomfort related to a reduced sense of aesthetics, additional costs incurred for maintaining cleanliness, and a sense of responsibility for the quality of the environment which future generations would live in. The fact that there is a particular concentration of such arduous conditions in recognisable areas of the town, inhabited by about 40% of the population, is also beyond discussion. However, using the criterial scale adopted earlier, the Programme Committee considered the risk to quality of life caused by "low emission" to be low.

Excessive environmental pollution as a result of heat loss

About 60% of the town's population use the town's district central heating system. The temperatures still used during transport of the heat energy along the old distribution lines and the heat losses through insufficiently insulated building walls and the draughty condition of windows mean that the emission of pollution into the air is greater than optimal. The effectiveness of the town's district heat system is also worsened by the heat junctions, especially in the old type of heat exchanger and hydro-elevator, a large proportion of which require rapid modernisation.

Rating of threats to health and the environment

The threats caused to health and the environment by raised environmental pollution resulting from heat energy loss are connected to the same factors as in the case of "low emission", and are difficult to separate. On the basis of the information available, and using the same criterial scales, the Committee defined these threats as follows:

− for human life and health: significant

− for the ecosystems: low

Rating of threats to quality of life

The significance of heat energy loss for the quality of life is connected mainly to the influence it has on family budgets. This is because heat losses cause a rise in home heating costs. Care for the retention of heat fuel supplies for future generations is also significant. After estimating the additional costs, the Programme Committee determined that excessive financial costs related to heat loss valued about 10 zl/inhabitant per month, which when compared to the criterial scale was defined as a low risk.

2.3.2. Environmental threats related to waste management Communal waste management in Chelm involves mainly the collection of unsegregated waste from households, from institutions, service points, and plants within town, and transporting this waste out to a



communal waste dump located in Srebrzyszcze (beyond the administrational borders of Chelm). Of the total waste mass, only a small quantity of broken glass and waste paper is collected and used.

Threat related to removal of communal waste to dump

The communal waste dump, currently occupying a site of about 5 hectares, has been in use since 1961. Today the dump is seriously overstrained; over 80,000 m3 of waste is added to it each year. Sewage sludge and some types of industrial waste from plants within town are also transported out to the waste dump.

The dump is located in the region of the "Bariera" water intake, currently the main supply source for the town's drinking water. Contamination of underground water with leachate from the dump has been observed around it, although in the local water circulation system the contamination focus has a relatively short reach (up to 500m from the edge of the dump), and does not currently pose a threat for the town's water supply system. However, the inhabitants of nearby settlements (in the Kamien commune) are under a potential risk due to the poor quality of local underground water.

Threats related to industrial waste

Industrial waste is utilised to a significant degree, although a proportion is deposited in the communal dump or on the plants' own dumps.

The largest industrial waste dump is located within the grounds of the Chelm Cement-works. It contains waste of various classes of nuisance, from such as materials coming from the cleaning of roads, yards, and roofs, to chamotte bricks from rotary kiln linings and magnesite-chrome bricks.

The existing dump has changed the appearance of the landscape around the cement-works (an enormous heap of waste) and contamination of the soil and water around the dump with chromium compounds. This pollution is migrating in the direction of the "Bariera" water intake, and can be observed constantly in a few of the intake's wells. In April 1999 the presence of Cr+6 compounds was also observed in wells which until then had seemed unthreatened.

Fot. nr 7 Chelmskie wysypisko komunalne w Srebrzyszczu



Dangerous waste

The utilisation of waste classed as dangerous, hospital waste produced in closed medication, takes place in the SPZOZ hospital waste furnace. This solution does not meet the conditions which a modern dangerous waste furnace should fulfil, but just now the town has no other equipment of this type.

Another unsolved problem is that of utilisation of medical and veterinary waste produced in private practices, as well as oil-derivative waste substances, out-of-date herbicides and their containers, and batteries, bulbs, and other dangerous waste from homes and services.

Most dangerous waste ends up on the communal waste dump, increasing the level of chemical, sanitary, and epidemiological threat in the dump's vicinity. This pollution has an effect especially on the local water and soil environment, although the threat to those servicing the dump and incidental people cannot be ruled out.

Illegal dumps

There are at least 5 illegal waste dumps within the town, places systematically littered by unidentified culprits, and then periodically cleaned up by the municipal services.

Such practices, forbidden and violating the demands of environmental protection, worsen the quality of the environment and the local aesthetic values, and could also constitute a potential threat to the soil and water environment, the functioning of the local ecosystem, and even for human health and life.

Appraisal of the threat to human health

The illegal waste dumps appearing sporadically and locally are not, just now, an estimable threat to the health of the town's inhabitants. However, it cannot be ruled out that dangerous or even toxic substances will appear in these dumps, substances which could threaten people's safety and lead to environmental degradation difficult to revert.

However, the there is a real danger in the expanding reach of contamination of water with chromium compounds in the region of the Chelm Cement-works' industrial waste dump. Cr+6 compounds are toxic and should not be present in drinking water (the admissible concentration is 0.01 mg/l). If this contamination covers all or most of the wells for the "Bariera" intake, supplying the town with water from this source will prove impossible, since it would be a violation of the law, and would be a universal threat to the inhabitants' health.

Because of the above it was accepted that, although there is no real direct threat at the moment to people's health and lives related to waste dumping (both illegal and legally sanctioned in the past), neglect in this respect and in particular a lack of preventative measures in the near future could have sanitary consequences difficult to determine and to reverse. In this situation the threat to health from waste management was defined as potentially high.

Rating of threat to the environment

The method used so far for storing waste, both communal and industrial, has caused contamination of underground water. Changes in water quality have been observed at distances of up to 500m from the communal waste dump in Srebrzyszcze, and to a significantly greater radius around the magnesite-chrome brick dump, especially in the direction of the well to the intake draining the mine. The specific properties of the chalk water-bearing deposits mean that contamination which once finds its way in and accumulates may remain there for decades, whilst at the same time spreading relatively quickly (the speed of underground water flow in local geological conditions can reach up to a few metres an hour).

These factors pose a threat of degradation for underground water reserves of exploitation importance, including the "Bariera" intake, which is used by the town. Although there are alternative possibilities for supplying the town with water, the degree of underground water contamination in the region of the



dump forces one to recognise that there was been long-lasting and probably irreversible contamination of the local water-bearing level over a large area, and to an extent ruling out its commercial utilisation. This constitutes a very high / extreme threat to the environment.

Rating of threat to quality of life

The spreading chromium contamination of underground is also a threat to the quality of life for the inhabitants of Chelm. Because of the increasingly common occurrence of chromium in wells from which water is directed into the town water mains network, the possibility of the "Bariera" intake being excluded from the town's water supply system is becoming realistic. This would signify the following:

− restricted access to natural resources for the entire community

− a necessity to spend large town budget sums on creating a new water supply source

− an unavoidable rise in the cost of water

Using the criterial scales agreed upon earlier, the Committee recognised that the threat related to contamination of underground waters resulting from industrial waste dumping should be classified as high.

2.3.3. Threats for underground water resources The underground water resources are the only available source of water supply for the inhabitants and the economy of Chelm. The communal water mains system currently supplies water drawn mainly from the "Bariera" intake, a set of 15 wells located within the grounds of the chalk mine at the Chelm Cement-works, drawing underground water from the chalk beds. The average intake yield is 9,500 m3/day.

Water from "Bariera" intake is transported via the trunk mains to the water treatment station in Strupin for chlorination.

The second source of Chelm's water supply is the "Trubaków" intake opened in 1939. This intake's yield is 8,400 m3/day, of which 3,200 m3 is currently drawn per day. The water from this source is subject to deironing and chlorination treatment.

The "Strupin" water intake, following complete exploitation of its water resources, was disconnected, and only the water treatment and pumping station left for further use. In emergency situations the town could also be supplied from industrial plant intakes.

Production plants cover their water needs from their own intakes. The largest such plant intakes function in the Chelm Cement-works, FRUTIMEX, and the SPZOZ hospital.

In the region of Chelm the underground water on all useable levels is of high quality. However, the geological layout and character (mainly highly permeable and fissured chalk beds) do not ensure suitable protection for these resources from contamination of anthropogenic origin, penetrating through from underground water contamination focuses occurring locally (point focuses), such as leaks from the sewers and storm drains, leaking cesspools, leachate from communal and industrial waste dumps, oil-derivative product pollution.

Threat of contamination infiltrating from waste dumps

Chromium compound water contamination in the region of the "Bariera" intake is amongst the most serious threats to underground water identified - and especially so for toxic Cr+6 compounds, of confirmed carcinogenic nature. The primary source for this contamination is above all the industrial waste dump of the Chelm Cement-works, where magnesite-chrome bricks were dumped in the past.



The area and degree of underground water pollution in this region has significantly increased since 1996. As a result of chrome concentrations exceeding drinking water norms, 6 wells of the "Bariera" intake have been disconnected from exploitation.

Another potential threat for the "Bariera" intake could be the communal waste dump in Srebrzyszcze, located about 2km to the north-east. This is an out-dated dump without the currently demanded safety measures against the infiltration of pollution to underground water, and it requires rapid recultivation. However, the underground water leachate contamination focus from the dump has a relatively short radius (up to 500m), and is not spreading. So far the degree of underground water contamination has not been high either.

Threats connected to incorrect sewage management

A basic threat to the quality of underground water is posed by the uncontrolled discharge of sewage into the ground. This is related to such things as no sewers in some parts of town, plus low ecological awareness (or culture) of many household cesspool users. Such behaviour has been observed for example in the region of the "Trubaków" intake, where it directly threatens the quality of the underground water collected by this intake.

Threats related to emergency situations

The water from the "Trubaków" intake has also bee threatened in the past by contamination of the soil and water environment with oil-derivative products coming from the overloaded CPN fuel base in Zawadówka. Contamination of underground water with oil-derivative products has also occurred in the region of the CPN petrol station on ul. Okszowska, and the "Spóldzielnia Inwalidów" intake. Oil products in this region are systematically pumped out from the surface of the water table, and observation has shown that the scope of the pollution is not increasing.

Threats related to excessive exploitation of resources

The exploitation of underground water resources by communal and plant intakes has significantly transformed the natural system of water circulation in the region of Chelm, and has brought about the emergence of a vast depression sink, in the centre of which the natural water-table level has fallen by 25 metres. Significant drying of organic land has occurred in the region of Srebrzyszcze, Kolonia Okszów, and Józefin. In dry periods the borders of the depression cover the southern part of the "Bagno Srebryskie" [Srebrzyszcze Bog] reserve.

Appraisal of threats to human health and life

Most of the town's inhabitants (about 94%) are supplied with water from the town's water mains network, systematically controlled for the quality of its water. However, chromium pollution of the "Bariera" intake region, especially with Cr+6 compounds, means that the possibility of this intake being disconnected from the town's water supply system is realistic. Because it would be hard to imagine the services responsible for supplying the town with water permitting chromium contaminated water being let into the system, the Committee recognised the likelihood of there being a danger for this reason as unlikely. Were such a situation to occur, e.g. as a result of oversight or too infrequent control tests, the threat could have very serious health consequences for the town's entire population.

At the same time about 6% of the town's inhabitants use shallow individual household wells. In most of them there is the constant occurrence of microbiological contamination, and an increased concentration of nitrates and nitrites, which are a realistic threat to health. Such a situation increases the risk of the occurrence of contagious disease and blood diseases amongst the town's inhabitants. The Programme Committee therefore rated this threat as high.




Chromium compound environmental pollution has brought about irreversible or difficult to repaid degradation for a significant proportion of local underground water resources, currently threatening the basic source for the town's drinking water supply. The Committee rated the related threat as very high / extreme.


The potential possibility of one of the most important sources of the town's drinking water being shut off poses a threat to the quality of life connected to the necessity of building a new intake. Should the bleak scenario - economically and technically - of having to use the "Garka" intake be implemented, this would mean that the town would have to spend large sums exceeding 1/3 of its budget over a period of a few years, whilst withdrawing from the implementation of other urgent tasks, and would also require a significant rise in the price of water. The Programme Committee rated such a threat to the quality of life as high.

2.3.4. Threats for the quality of surface water Chelm has an extensive sewer system for collecting and sending sanitary sewage for treatment. It covers the larger part of the town area, although some buildings have not yet been connected to the sewers. The main receiving water for town sewage is the river Uherka flowing through Chelm and its tributary, the Slyszówka.

The Uherka river, the main surface stream within Chelm, currently has only a minor role in town life. Due to years of the bad state of its water's cleanliness, and general neglect, the river has ceased playing its already limited role as a location for recreation and leisure. Bathing or playing in the river is rare, and few people only do so. Neither is the river an important water supply source.

In the river's upper course (beyond the town limits) the water is mostly of 1st and 2nd class purity for most parameters, and 3rd class for suspended matter, nitrates, and the coliform count. However, once within the town's limits, the quality of the Uherka's water ceases to meet bacteriological and biogenic compound classification norms.

Domestic and some industrial sewage from the smaller plants are directed by a network of collectors to the town sewage treatment plant with appropriate throughput and efficiency standards. However, in areas devoid of sewers the liquid sewage is collected in building collectors without drainage (cesspits), from where it should then be transported to the sewage treatment plant. Precipitation from about 50% of the town is drained in a rain drainage system through 12 discharge points into the river Uherka, with 2 of these points so far fitted with pre-treatment equipment.

On the basis of the information gathered, the Committee determined that the practice of illegal discharge of this sewage into the soil, the rainwater drains, or directly into the river was a pretty widespread practice. This is confirmed by the results of tests for microbiological parameters, as an analysis of the situation has revealed that the discharge of sewage from building cesspits connected



illegally to the rain drains, and the drainage of most precipitation from the town area without sufficient treatment, are the main sources of river pollution at present.

One of the problems in the protection of water quality is also that of highly polluted water in the Slyszówka watercourse, a tributary of the Uherka. This stream is the receiving water for main drainage polluted with chromium compounds and the treated sanitary sewage from a few buildings.

Rating of threats to human health and life

The occurrence of toxic substances has not been ascertained in the Uherka river (with the exception of trace quantities of chromium compounds below the river confluence with the Slyszówka channel). More probable is the occurrence of pathogenic bacteria (microbiological pollution ratios exceeding the norms). However, because the town's inhabitants do not currently use the river for recreation, as a drinking water supply source, or for other commercial purposes, the risk of absorbing water polluted with microbes is limited to sporadic cases, and the related possibility of suffering from a contagious disease not very likely. The Programme Committee therefore defined the health risk as low.

Rating of threat for the environment

The long-lasting pollution of surface water upsets the functioning of the river's ecosystem, including a drop in the biological diversity (the "falling out" of certain species of water flora and fauna naturally existing in surface water, with other unwelcome species developing excessively). As a result the Committee decided that the threat for the environment is high.

Rating of threat for quality of life

Contamination of the river water, the absence of any appropriate management of the river's banks, and the littering of the river corridor and vicinity, all mean that significant portions of the Uherka are not practically accessible to the town's inhabitants. Amongst other things, this limits the possibilities for various forms of recreation there. Due to the significant limitation of the inhabitants' access to the river, and the degradation of its potential useable values, the Programme Committee decided that contamination of surface water constituted a very high threat for quality of life.

2.3.5. Brak równowagi pomiedzy terenami zurbanizowanymi, a aktywnymi biologicznie

Aerial photos of Chelm suggest that the town is "drowning" in greenery. Most streets, parks, and district squares are planted with trees. The share of arable land (38% of the town's area) and forest (7.5%) is significant, but green areas meeting the parameters for town recreation and leisure land (such as town parks and district squares) cover barely 3% of the town's area. The layout of this land, and the way it is managed, are disordered, and the accompanying infrastructure is poor (with insufficient lighting, benches, litter bins, play areas, cycle paths, health paths, small built objects, and public conveniences). New estates in particular do not have enough land with tall greenery.

The town lacks a body which cares for the greenery, and such work is commissioned out to various units. This hinders integrated management and usage of green areas throughout the entire town. Also lacking is a coherent concept for increasing the attractiveness of these places as recreational objects.



So far the town has not developed a concept for utilisation of the park at the former sanitary military depot on ul. Hrubieszowska, and has taken no steps aimed at adapting the land in the Uherka valley for recreational purposes.

However, coming up against difficulties in determining the appraisal criteria, the Programme Committee determined that this problem would not be considered a factor creating a risk for health, the environment, or the quality of life for the town's inhabitants. The task of determining the correct balance between areas of urban greenery and built-up areas should, however, be treated as the basis for constructing a town ecosystem of suitable quality, diversity, and qualities buffering other negative anthropogenic effects.

2.3.6. The threat related to road traffic For the last few years an intensive increase in road traffic has been observed in town (by over 1.5 times), an increase related both to the rise in number of cars owned by the town's inhabitants, and amount of transit traffic on the route to the border crossing at Dorohusk.

Threat related to local traffic

The inhabitants of Chelm travel from the largest housing estates (the Zachód, Sloneczne, XXX-Lecia, and Rejowiecka – Wlodawska estates) mainly to the central part of town where most commercial and service buildings, jobs, and places of learning are located, and towards the industrial and storage district and the Chelm Cement-works. Transport to these areas is pretty good. However, the road layout in the southern part of town is not satisfactory.

The nuisance related to increased road traffic (exhaust fumes, noise and vibration, more accidents, and the threat to safety for vehicles and pedestrians) is felt above all by those living on ul. Rejowiecka, Rampa Brzeska, Wschodna, Armia Krajowa, I AWP, and Hrubieszowska, and within the Town Centre, in the region of the streets Lubelska and Lwowska. Monitoring tests conducted indicate that admissible noise levels in these regions are exceeded by even as much as 56% during the day.

Public transport problems

The town's public transport is serviced by the Chelmskie Linie Autobusowe (Chelm Bus Lines - CLA) and other transport companies. Fleet wear is high, even over 70%. Most vehicles are from the years 1981-1992, although the CLA does also have a few new although relatively small buses.

The change in the routing of CLA buses has been criticised; the buses now serve significantly longer routes, and travel times have lengthened, in many cases with buses slowly driving through estates of detached houses along roads not suited for manoeuvring large vehicles. Ul. Ogrodowa is one of the streets this problem affects.

Problems with transit traffic

The has been a rise noted in the quantity and unit tonnage of vehicles driving along town roads and a related increase in noise, vibration, and exhaust fumes.

The layout of the town's central streets and their technical state is not prepared for dealing efficiently with heavy transit road traffic on top of growing local traffic. In addition the town has no bypass roads which would take some of the road traffic and transit vehicles outside of town.



Appraisal of threat to human health and life

There are significant nuisance problems related to road traffic: noise and the emission of fumes, containing a whole range of substances harmful to the health. The concentration of benzene, a compound with confirmed carcinogenic nature and a distinctive indicator of emission from petrol engines, was adopted for analysing the threat to health. It was estimated that the increased concentration of benzene along the traffic routes (on average around 5 µg/m3) could cause almost 3 additional cancer cases a year. Using the criteria adopted earlier, the Programme Committee recognised this risk as significant.


The increased concentration of other substances such as nitric oxides, sulphur dioxide, or ozone from photochemical smog cause changes in how ecosystems function, including changes in the number of species, in the vicinity of transport routes. Because of this the threat for the environment was defined as significant.


Road traffic nuisance has a negative effect on the quality of life for Chelm's inhabitants, in particular as a result of causing: a sense of discomfort, a reduction in local aesthetics, restricted relaxation possibilities (because of the noise), and a fall in the sense of safety. These factors occur constantly, influencing the town's inhabitants through the greater part of the day. The Programme Committee defined this threat as significant.

2.3.7. Insufficient level of society's ecological education Ecological education is one of the weakest links in the process for implementing ecological policy not only in Chelm, but in the country as a whole. However, not only places of learning can be blamed for insufficiently developed ecological awareness in society, but also the family, the mass media, and publishers.

Society's awareness related to the necessity to respect and develop values of nature and culture is currently very low, and still insufficient.

Chelm lacks important institutions and organisations, with appropriate scope of influence, which would conduct their own pro-environment educational programmes addressed to a wide audience, whilst simultaneously fulfilling the role of a kind of "information bank" regarding environmental protection as broadly understood, and which would be places where discussion, the exchange of experience, and making contacts between interested parties would all be possible. One of the bodies taking steps aimed at the ecological education of children at Chelm's primary and secondary schools is the Board of the Chelm Landscape Parks.

Similarly, as in the case of green areas, the Programme Committee recognised that this problem cannot be subject to a comparative risk analysis, although it is of key importance for solving all environmental protection problems in the town, and should, as a result, have an appropriate place in the Environment Protection Programme.



2.4. Ordered threat list: results of the Programme Committee's wor

2.4.1. Results of comparative risk analysis The table below shows the results of the comparative analysis for risks for the health and quality of life of Chelm's inhabitants, and for the quality of the town's natural environment caused by factors occurring in identified problem areas.

Problem area Threat

Health Environment Quality of Life Air pollution caused by "low" emission

Significant Low (Significant)1

Significant

Excessive contamination of the environment due to heat energy losses

Significant Significant Low

Contamination of the environment with waste

Potentially high Extreme Significant / high

Contamination of underground water

Low (further tests) Significant Significant

Contamination of surface water Low High Very high (extreme) Nuisance caused by road traffic Significant Significant Significant

2.4.2. Hierarchy of threats in the Programme Committee's appraisal On the basis of the risk analysis results verified during the ranking session, the members of the Programme Committee accepted the following hierarchy of importance for environmental problems in Chelm:

I. Contamination of underground water

II. Contamination of the environment with waste

III. Contamination of surface water

IV. Nuisance caused by road traffic

V. Air pollution caused by "low emission"

VI. Excessive contamination of the environment due to heat energy loss.

2.4.3. Threat appraisal in social awareness

In order to investigate social awareness a public opinion survey was conducted in Chelm regarding the perception of environmental problems and threats. Over 800 completed questionnaires were obtained, with answers to questions regarding the quality of the environment in Chelm and the importance of specific problems and their related threats.

1 Obecni na sesji rankingowej specjalisci w zakresie ochrony przyrody zlozyli votum separatum sugerujac uznanie zagrozenia za znaczace



Aggregation of the answers resulted in the following hierarchy for the problems, showing how the inhabitants of Chelm perceive the significance of specific issues (with their position in the Programme Committee's ordered list shown in brackets): 1. Contamination of the environment with waste (2nd)

2. Air pollution connected to "low emission" (5th)

3. Traffic nuisance (4th)

4. Contamination of underground water (1st)

5. Contamination of surface water (3rd)

6. Contamination of the environment resulting from heat energy loss (6th)

The survey results indicate that the town's inhabitants rate the environmental problems according to their consequences and nuisance felt directly, whilst putting issues on which information is poorly publicised or hard to obtain further down the list.



3. Setting aims and directions for solving problems and eliminating threats

The achievements so far by the community and authorities of Chelm in the broadly-understood field of environmental protection prove that co-ordinated and consistent effort can lead to positive and highly noticeable results. Over the last decade the state of the environment in town has significantly improved, thanks to which our region has been taken off of the list of ecological threat areas, on which it was places in the early 80's due to excessive environmental pollution from industrial sources, and the absence of appropriate infrastructure in most areas of environmental protection.

Today's ecological situation in town is incomparably better, which does not mean that we have carried out all the tasks our community had and still has to do. The rapidly changing conditions bring new challenges: increasing pressure of road traffic, unemployment and related areas of poverty, and more difficult access to natural resources. These problems do not only affect Chelm; practically all communities the world over have to deal with them.

The condition for solving them effectively and in accordance with the town's and its inhabitants' interests (of at least lessening their consequences) is the creation of foundations for balanced and constant development. On the one hand this means systematically eliminating environmental problems and threats whilst at the same time creating appropriate living conditions for all the town's inhabitants in regard to leisure, recreation, study, and work. Therefore the leading motto adopted for this Programme is:

'CHELM - THE TOWN I WANT TO LIVE IN' All intentions and steps proposed in this Environment Protection Programme, and in the plans and detailed programmes resulting from it which the town will be implementing over the coming decade when carrying out the tasks proposed in it, should conform to this idea.

The results from appraisal of the importance and consequences of threats identified during work on the programme, presented in synthetic form in the 2nd part of this Programme, lead to definition of the following general objectives which Chelm should achieve during execution of the Programme:

+ Protection of underground water from contamination: counteracting the effects of underground water contamination so far

+ Organisation and implementation of a waste management system completely safe for the environment and for the town's inhabitants

+ Maximum limitation of the town's influence on the Uherka river: better utilisation of its recreational and landscape-forming values

+ Creation of a transport system beneficial for the inhabitants and visitors with minimal nuisance

+ Reduction of the level of atmospheric pollution to a level at which there is no violation at all

+ Creation of a coalition between industrial plants and the town's community for ecological development

+ Development of recreation and leisure land along the lines of the idea "Chelm - a town in green"

+ Increasing the ecological awareness of the town's inhabitants.



3.1. Protection of underground water resources The underground water in the region of Chelm, in all exploitable water-bearing levels, is of high quality. However the character of local geological structures does not ensure suitable protection for these resources e.g. from sewage infiltrating from the leaking sanitary and sewers and rain drains, leakage from building cesspits, pollution migrating from communal and industrial waste dumps, or from the effects of breakdowns, for example causing spillage of oil-derivatives. Because of this the basic detailed aims the town must achieve in order to ensure the maximum protection for underground water resources, which in practice are the only significant and easily accessible source of water supply, are:

+ Directing all sewage to the sewers and for appropriate treatment

+ Liquidation of area sources of pollution

+ Consistent protection of water resources in particularly sensitive zones

In addition it is essential that the effects of the threats so far towards underground water resources be counteracted by:

+ Limiting the spread of pollution

+ Ensuring the town with appropriate quality drinking water

+ Limiting the irretrievable usage of local water resources

In particular it is essential that the execution of legal water protection demands be more effective. The town authorities have a wide range of legal and administrative measures at their disposal in this respect, recently extended in relation to the formation of a town powiat in Chelm.

Bodies which in the past caused or currently cause pollution of the land environment may be obliged to remove the cause of the threat and restore the proper state as in article 82 of the law on protection of the environment. This instrument should be used in particular for assuring appropriate quality of the water drawn from the "Bariera" intake, which is currently the main source of the town's water supply. Such measures should be directed towards ventures possible from a technical and economic point of view involving the following:

− preventing the infiltration of contamination to underground water;

− appropriate safeguarding and recultivation of objects posing a threat for underground water (such as industrial and communal waste dumps);

− using organisational and technical means limiting the spread of pollution which cannot be eliminated (e.g. the appropriate exploitation of resources in regions of contamination).

The formation of suitable formal legal foundations for execution of underground water protection demands at the planning and execution stages of new investments is also essential, through the introduction of appropriate settlements in a new town spatial management plan and compiling and implementing appropriate procedures both for investors and local government administration bodies supervising their activities.

Optimisation of how resources already exploited are used, and to what degree, should also be seen to, with consideration not only of the need to maintain high quality underground water, but also to maintain a sufficient quantity for future generations and for the requirements of the town's development. Because of this all steps contributing towards the saving of water and preventing the excessive drainage of the town region should be given preference.



3.2. Waste management safe for the environment and the inhabitants of Chelm

In the present day waste management problems have become one of the most urgent environmental issues. This may also happen in Chelm if steps aimed at forming a waste management system safe for the environment and the town's inhabitants are not intensified in coming years. The following are the conditions essential for achieving the established strategic objective:

+ complete implementation of the provisions of the law on order and cleanliness in towns, and the law on waste

+ putting the waste dumping system into order

+ increasing the degree of commercial utilisation of waste and recycled materials produced within the town: reduced waste transport and dumping costs

+ elimination of illegal dumps and cases of irregular waste transport

+ solving the issue of rendering dangerous waste harmless

+ solving the issue of utilisation of sewage sludge from the town's sewage treatment plant.

The town has a concept for the disposal and management of communal waste produced within the town area of Chelm, compiled in 1997. The town authorities have bought a further 4.5 ha of ground next to the present communal waste dump for extending the said dump.

It should be taken as a basic condition that expansion of the dump may only occur in parallel with recultivation of its "old" section. At the same time it must be assumed that eventually the communal dump will only be used for waste which cannot be used commercially or in some other way.

In the near future the town should take a final decision regarding the selection or modification of one of the variants of the already compiled "Concept for disposal of communal waste in Chelm", and then start building a Town Waste Utilisation Plant. The concept proposes two solutions based on the technology of composting which would seem the optimal usage options with Chelm's conditions. Although the variant of composting segregated waste (as a result of selective collection from the source) is more difficult organisation-wise and requires more time to achieve the designed handling capacity, due to the lower investment costs (lower throughput required for the composting equipment) and exploitation benefits (much better quality compost, the recovery of selected materials, and a reduction in the quantity of ballast sent to the dump) it should be given preference.

At the same time immediate steps should be taken to create a system for selective waste collection in town. In the first phase the selective collection of waste which can easily be used commercially should be concentrated on (e.g. broken glass and waste paper), also treating these steps as an element of the campaign shaping modern and environmentally-friendly habits in how Chelm's inhabitants dispose of their waste. This is because the experience of other towns has shown that as a rule, in accordance with the objectives, a selective collection system begins functioning properly after 3 to 5 years from when it is initiated. Selection and segregation will enable a significant reduction of investment costs for construction of the Utilisation Plant and the construction of the new waste dump.

At the same time the conditions should be formed for selective collection of dangerous waste so that it may be dumped in a manner safe for the environment or be made harmless in some other way. This refers to oil-derivative waste substances, out-of-date herbicides and their containers, as well as batteries and bulbs etc. from homes and service points.

The creation of better conditions than so far for environment and people -friendly utilisation of waste classed as dangerous and produced in closed medicine and other medical and veterinary practices within the town is also essential.



As for the Town Wardens, this order-keeping service should increase the effectiveness of identifying and penalising the culprits of illegal waste dumping in certain regions of town. The results of such steps should be appropriately publicised, treating this is a factor restraining potential perpetrators.

3.3. Protection of water purity in the Uherka river: better utilisation of its values

The technical conditions necessary for fuller protection of the Uherka river from contamination were recently created in Chelm. The mechanical-biological Town Sewage Treatment Plant, opened in 1996, is a modern plant operated correctly which disposes of sewage meeting legal requirements. Nevertheless, the improvement in the state of cleanliness for the river Uherka's water is still dissatisfactory. The following is essential for a further improvement in the quality of the water, and thereby for improving the nature-related and recreational qualities of the river:

+ liquidation of all untreated or insufficiently-treated sewage discharge points

+ the suitable treatment of rainwater.

The Town Sewage Treatment Plant, which 12-16,000 m3/day flows into at present, has a throughput capacity exceeding 19,000 m3/day. This reserve makes it possible for the plant to take all sewage from the town and even from land neighbouring the town. At the same time the town has a concept for extending the sanitary sewer network, implementation of which would enable the system to cover the whole town. In the meantime some buildings do not discharge of their sewage into the sanitary sewers, either being connected illegally to the rainwater drains or discharging it directly into the ground.

Because of this it is essential that there be an increase in steps taken to implement the Concept drawn up, and at the same time there should be increased pressure put on the sewage producers aimed at getting all buildings connected to the sanitary sewer network as soon as possible. Primarily all buildings in areas where such sewers already exist should be connected, with particular account taken of those buildings for which the town is responsible.

A system of economic enticements should be created in this area (e.g. tax relief) especially for those who organise connection to the sewer system themselves or who declare participation in the sewer system construction costs. Execution instruments given to the town authorities by the law on order and cleanliness in communes should be used consistently and resolutely in the case of resistance.

The problem of using the sludge from the Town Sewage Treatment Plant commercially also needs solving. Scientific research already being conducted into such things as the possibility for agricultural utilisation of this sludge should be brought to an effective end, and then the selected utilisation version should be implemented urgently.

Many years of neglect and excessive contamination of the water has meant that land in the Uherka valley has not yet been used for recreational purposes, despite the valley and the Uherka river itself being one of the main landscape elements, whilst the picturesque character and rich variation in land along the river and its central situation in the town are the land's main qualities. Steps with the following objective are therefore essential:

+ utilisation of the river's recreational qualities.

In particular it is essential that a decision be taken regarding a final choice of river valley management concept, and then that implementation begin for the selected variant. The objective should be that most of the funds for this purpose will come from private and institutional investors without burdening the town's budget. It is therefore essential to draw up a system of enticements which would encourage investors' interest in executing this concept.



3.4. Curtailing the nuisance of the town's traffic system Local traffic is concentrated mainly in the central part of town where most administrational buildings, trade and service points, plus jobs and places of learning are situated. At the same time there has been a grown in recent years in the intensity of transit traffic using some of the town's through streets. These factors determine the choice of objectives the town should achieve when executing this Programme, as the following is of primary importance:

+ solving traffic problems in the Old Town

+ segregating transit and local traffic

In particular it is essential that road traffic be curtailed in the region of the Old Town, with special account taken of heavy vehicles and public transport. However, a ban on entering the area, especially for light vehicles, should not be the preferred method. Limited parking zones with progressive charges favouring parking stays not exceeding 30 minutes should be introduced in the wake of other towns' examples, where such solutions have proved themselves in practice.

Reduction of traffic nuisance should also be favoured by verification and maximum simplification of public transport vehicle routes. The following should be preferred:

− simple routes joining relatively distant regions of the town

− with suitable frequency (e.g. once every 15 minutes during peak hours, and once every 30 minutes at other times)

− appropriate vehicle speed (with no more than 30 minutes between the end stops)

− frequently crossing other lines

− making it possible to get from any point of town to the closest stop in no more than 3 to 5 minutes.

Public transport routes should not be planned along routes within housing estates along roads unsuited for the manoeuvring of large vehicles.

The public transport fleet should be systematically renewed or modernised, with account taken of environmental protection demands.

A system of preferential charges for combined routes and one-day, weekly, and monthly zone tickets should be designed and put into effect, encouraging the town's inhabitants and visitors to use public transport.

For people coming into town park-and-ride type car parks should be established on the outskirts of town, where the parking fee would simultaneously be a zone ticket for the town's public transport.

An inspection should be made of the condition of roads threatened by heavy traffic, and in particular Rejowiecka, Rampa Brzeska, Wschodnia, Armia Krajowa, I Armii WP and Hrubieszowska, taking special account of the state of the road surface (in regard to increased noise levels on uneven sections) and the functioning of the traffic lights (for traffic fluidity and to stimulate the preferred driving speed), and on this basis a modernisation plan should then be drawn up for elimination or at least a significant reduction of the level of noise and vibration and danger of accidents.

It is also essential that a concept for improving the street layout in the southern part of town be drawn up and executed.

There should also be intensive lobbying and a search for external funds for implementation of the existing bypass construction plan for diverting part of the local and transit road traffic out of town.



3.5. Reducing atmospheric pollution to a level with no violation at all Thanks to modernisation steps, technological and organisational changes, and changes in the structure and volume of production in recent years, all larger industrial plants are able to adhere to the admissible values of emission defined by administrative decisions. A reduction in the town's air pollution is favoured especially by execution of a programme for centralisation of heat sources and a district heat extension programme. As a result a number of ineffective boiler-houses without the appropriate dust collecting equipment have been shut down.

The latest technology is currently being used for extending and modernising the district heating trunk system and modernisation of the heat junctions (e.g. insulated pipes, stainless steel heat exchangers etc.), enabling reduction of the loss factor for the delivery and distribution of heat).

Improvement of the town's aero-sanitary condition is also furthered by the construction of a natural gas supply network.

With the situation as it is, the basic atmosphere protection aims cover the following:

+ reduction of the threat to health and the environment caused by "low emission" to only a low level

+ maximum limitation of heat loss in the district central heating system

In order for these objectives to be achieved it is essential above all that the modernisation concept drawn up for the town's central heating supply system (Master Plan) be executed consistently, which would enable all buildings within Chelm to be connected to the district central heating system or to the gas network by the year 2010.

It is particularly essential that the planned modernisation of the heat distributions system (partially already underway) be accelerated, including replacing the pipes (for insulated ones), older types of heat exchangers and hydro-elevators, and draughty windows, as well as insulating the buildings themselves. This should eventually reduce the usage of fuels and thereby emission by at least 10%.

At the same time a system of enticements should be formed for people planning to change their heat supply sources, especially for those who would like to connect to the town's central heating system. This is because an increase in the amount of system users should bring about a reduction or at least a halt in the rise of heat energy unit costs.

3.6. Creating a coalition between industrial plants and the town community for balanced and lasting development

In the nineties the issue of environmental protection has become one of the most important factors influencing the image of industrial plants, especially in their cooperation contacts and in international cooperation. Business partners increasingly often expect the plants to have management systems in line not only with the ISO 9000 quality standard, but also with the norms of the ISO 14000 series, covering matters of protection and rational utilisation of the environment. However, many plants are either unaware or unable to break through barriers connected to the implementation of systems of this type. In the meantime experience has shown that with such systems companies not only cut back their effect on the environment, but also gain significant economic savings. One of the important aspects in environment management systems is cooperation between industry and the local community. Creating conditions favouring an improvement in and maintaining the good condition of the local economy is in the long-term interests of the Chelm community. Because of this it is advisable that the town take steps which will simultaneously favour the following:

+ a reduction of threats posed by Chelm's industry

+ changing the inhabitants' attitude towards industrial plants' operations in the environment



+ increasing the competitiveness of Chelm plants compared to those from other regions.

In relation to the above it is essential that the town take steps to stimulate the creation of a local agreement / coalition of businessmen for the environment, which would eventually involve representatives of Chelm's industrial plants and the town's community.

This coalition should draw up and announce a declaration of environmental steps on the example of other regional, national, or even global agreements such as "Responsible Care" in chemical industry plants, or the "Czystsza Produkcja" [Cleaner production] movement grouping together over 600 companies in Poland already. The basic task of this agreement should be to undertake common and thereby less costly measures enabling interested plants to begin the practical utilisation of modern system solutions. The experience exchange platform formed by the coalition should also further common solution of problems appearing, including getting Chelm's businesses and communal services organised to solve the town's environmental problems, especially in regard to those issues where this could bring realistic savings and economic benefits, whilst at the same time favouring the development of the local economy.

The Town President should announce an annual Competition for Chelm Ecology Leader, which would further the distinction of companies or people doing the most to improve the state of the town's environment.

The effects of the above steps should be used as they appear for building up and promoting an image of Chelm as a town ahead of other communities in Poland for the pro-ecology solutions it uses, whilst also being a town where businessmen respecting the environment have a very good climate and conditions furthering the expansion of their operations. At the same time the information campaigns conducted and the competition should further a formation of greater ecological awareness amongst Chelm's population.

3.7. The development and correct management of green areas Although Chelm gives an impression of being a town immersed in green, the state of the town and estate parks and greens leaves a lot to be desired. It is therefore essential that an action plan be developed and implemented for achieving the idea of "Chelm - a town in green", in a manner ensuring optimal equilibrium between biologically active land and urbanised areas. This idea could be brought to life by accomplishing the following:

+ maintaining, extending, and managing parks, gardens, squares, and greens which could be used for leisure, recreation, and educational purposes

+ undertaking legal and organisational steps aimed at maintaining the correct proportions between urbanised and green areas plus the creation of conditions for protection of the most valuable areas

+ development and protection of green areas in housing estates

Appropriate shaping of leisure areas in parks and gardens, not only on the town's outskirts (the "Kumowa Dolina" and "Borek") but also within urbanised areas, will be of vital significance for giving the conditions needed by the town's inhabitants for recreation. The principle must be adopted that the time for a town inhabitant to reach a properly equipped and safe recreation and park area, located in the nearest vicinity, cannot be more than 10 minutes' walk for a moderately fit person (i.e. a distance of 0.5 to 0.7 km).

First of all it is essential that more steps be taken for the preservation, appropriate management, and proper maintenance of the existing gardens and parkland, squares and greens, which could be used for leisure and recreation.



The next step should be identification of the population's needs and extension or creation of new recreational areas. In 1984 a "Study for the development of green areas in the town of Chelm" was compiled, the aim of which was to be to "determine the optimal layout for all types of green area in the town as biologically active vegetation in the formation of favourable socio-ecological conditions". The results of this study, as yet unused, could form the basis for further general plans for the town in this respect.

In 1996 the Chelm town authorities announced the competition "Uherka - a park without borders", the main aim of which was to create a concept for management of the river valley and possibilities of comprehensive and staged organisation and management of land along the river, for generally-accessible recreation and leisure purposes, and of regional significance. Execution of the concept selected should constitute a significant step towards improving the balance between green and urbanised areas, and achieving the aim of ensuring all the town's inhabitants with easy access to recreational ground.

3.8. Stimulating awareness and forming pro-environment attitudes amongst Chelm's inhabitants

In the town's system for management of the environment's resources a greater role should be given to social instruments aimed at forming pro-environment attitudes in the population and stimulating them to help solve the town's important ecological problems.

The effectiveness of solutions for socially important problems (e.g. proper waste management or protection of surface water) should be sought in the social acceptance of investment, organisational, and legal activities undertaken by the town authorities. Hence the town authorities' activities related to stimulating the populace's ecological awareness should be directed towards the following: + Stimulating the activities of social organisations and the town's inhabitants

+ Coordination and support from the Town Offices for measures related to ecological education

Systematic ecological education for the town's population, conducted or steered by the town's authorities, should be an element of the dialogue with the community, and complement or support other steps being taken by them in regard to environment protection.

In being responsible for nursery, primary, and secondary schools, as well as other places of learning, the Town Offices could have a big influence on these institutions' educational programmes. Execution of teaching programmes related to ecological education should be supported to a greater degree by funds from the commune's fund for environment protection and water conservation. Very great important should be ascribed to the possibility of building up good cooperation between the population and the town authorities via the Association which was established during execution of the programme. The Association could significantly support the activities of local authorities and contribute to dissemination of true and objective information regarding environmental threats in town and the possible hardships related to applying investment, organisational, and legal solutions aimed at improving the state of the environment and the health and quality of life for the town's inhabitants. With the support of the town's authorities the Association's operations have a chance of successfully filling in gaps in the informal system of environmental education for all social and professional groups.



4. Environment Protection Programme

4.1. Construction and content of Programme

The general and detailed realisation aims accepted by the Programme Committee, presented in part 3 of the Programme, and the directions outlined there for problem solving, were supplemented in later programme work by a list of tasks upon which in the Committee's conviction the achievement of the objectives laid out depended. The list of tasks, combined with the general and detailed aims, is given in table form in section 4.3.

The tasks identified cover measures of all types (legal-administrative, technical, organisational, investment, financial, and educational) which must be undertaken by the authorities and communal services. They are described in detail in the Task Cards in section 4.4., with essential implementation steps given for each case. The cells or institutions responsible for execution are given for each step, and execution deadlines have been suggested. Wherever possible estimates have also been given for execution costs, with the price level from the first quarter of 1999 taken as a basis.

For many of the ventures demanded the Committee did not specify the costs, recognising that the measures concerned fitted within the duties of specific cells, and should therefore be financed from their normal budgets (as running costs). The specification of costs therefore means, as a rule, that the task or step concerned should or can be executed by external bodies selected by the town using procedures in accordance with the law on public orders. It is suggested that the execution of certain steps be entrusted to local non-governmental organisations, simultaneously giving their operations appropriate financial and logistical support.

The list of tasks remains open. This means that accomplished tasks may be removed from the list, whilst the changing conditions may bring about the necessity adding new ventures to the list. This refers also to the detailed execution steps, the list of which may and even should change depending on changing requirements.

4.2. Executing and controlling the degree of accomplishment for the Programme

The Committee's intention is that the task list constitute guidelines for drawing up annual and many-year working plans for all organisational cells and communal services. As a result it is essential that the Town Board take decisions obliging its subordinate units to systematically execute the tasks defined in the Programme, and should a specific venture be impossible, to present on each occasion a detailed justification for such a decision.

It is recommended that a current registry of accomplished tasks, tasks being carried out, and those waiting their turn be kept by the Environment Protection Department of the Town Offices, which would present an annual report on the matter to the Town Board, and then make it available to the general public. As a result all organisational cells of the Town Offices should be obliged to present the Environment Protection Department with reports on the execution of specific tasks.

The responsible department should also regularly monitor the changes in the Polish legal system, as the process of Poland's law being adapted to the demands of the European Union will cause numerous changes to the current legal conditions and the occurrence of new obligations as well as new executory instruments.



4.3. List of aims and detailed tasks

General aim Detailed aim Tasks Responsible When Price (in 1999 prices)

1. Protection of underground water from contamination

1.1 Directing all sewage to sewers and / or for treatment

1.1.1 Executing the sewer system extension programme (for the town's current and future requirements)

BIM, MPGK, GFOSiGW

1999-2010

1.9÷2.1m zl

1.1.2 Creating a system of enticements mobilising individuals to connect to the sewer system

GFOSiGW, MPGK, ZM, WF, WGMK

1999-2010

150,000 zl

1.1.3 Effective execution of the law

WOS, SM, MPGK, UM lawyers, WGKL

1999 - running task

10,000 zl

1.1.4 A programme for increasing the inhabitants' awareness of threats caused by pollution getting into the soil and underground water from leaky cesspits

WOS, MPGK, LAS

1999 - running task

35,000 zl

1.2 Liquidation of area pollution sources

1.2.1 Proper management of ground used agriculturally and for similar purposes within the town limits

WOS, SM, WGPA, land owners and administrators, LAS

1999 - running task

40,000 zl

1.2.2 Reducing the threat caused by rainfall infiltrating into the ground from areas without sewers or drains

WOS, MPGK, SM, BIM, LAS, Police, IOS, land owners and administrators

1999 - running task

50-60,000 zl




1.3 Consistent protection of water resources in particularly sensitive areas

1.3.1 Identification of particularly sensitive zones and defining the conditions for commercial operations in these areas

WOS, MPGK, WGKL, WGPA, sanitary services, organisation units, IOS

1999 – running task

400,000 zl

1.3.2 Drawing up and launching a system of imposing and controlling the implementation of conditions safeguarding land from contamination for new investments

WOS, WGPA, sanitary services, IOS


Running costs

1. Counteracting the effects of contamination so far

1.4 Limiting the spread of contamination

1.4.1 Appropriate exploitation of the "Bariera" intake

WOS, MPGK, Cement-works, IOS, sanitary services, MPGK


Running costs

1.4.2 Recultivation of the Cement-works dump

WOS, ZM 1999 – after termination of dump exploitation

Running costs

1.5 Ensuring appropriate quality drinking water for the town's inhabitants

1.5.1 Preparation of an alternative water supply system for the town independent of the Cement-works (the Garka and Bariera Bis intakes)

BIM, WOS, MPGK, WGMK, GFOSiGW, WFOSiGW

1999 – should there be defined threshold conditions

200,000 zl - documentation; 1.5-6m zl execution



1.6 Limiting the irretrievable usage of local water resources

1.6.1 Consideration of alternative management possibilities for water from drainage of the chalk mine at the Chelm Cement-works

WOS, Cement-works

2003 – 2010

Running costs


2 Organisation and implementation of a waste management system completely safe for the environment and inhabitants

2.1 Complete implementation of the provisions of the law on maintaining order and cleanliness in towns and the law on waste

2.1.1 Preparing and implementing procedure for co-ordinating waste management programmes for bodies producing waste

WOS


15-20,000 zl

2.1.2 Preparation for the development of a waste management programme for the town (adjustment to meet the EU regulations)

WOS, MPGK 2000 – running task

Running costs

2.2 Putting order into the waste dumping system

2.2.1 Opening up a new waste dump

BIM, MPGK 1999 - 2002 200-250,000 zl -document. 3-7m investment

2.2.2 Recultivation of the present waste dump

MPGK, BIM, IOS, sanitary services


1.3m zl

2.2.3 Usage of the communal waste dump - in a manner enabling prolongation of its usage time and limiting the requirements for extension

MPGK, WOS, IOS, sanitary services


15,000 zl document., 0.7-1m zl purchase of machinery and



2.3 Maximising the commercial utilisation of waste and recycled materials produced in town: reduction of waste transport and dumping costs

2.3.1 Preparing and carrying out a staged programme of selective collection of waste which can be recycled (glass, paper, plastic) and its utilisation

MPGK, WOS, targeted funds, ZM, RM


1.3 - 1.6m zl

2.3.2 Conducting a programme to inform inhabitants about selective waste collection and to promote the resultant benefits

WOS, WE, OM


80,000 zl


2 Organisation and implementation of a waste management system completely safe for the environment and inhabitants (cont.)

2.4 Elimination of illegal dumps and irregular waste transport

2.4.1 Covering all real estate owners with contracts for the transport of waste

MPGK and other waste collectors, WOS, SM


10,000 zl



2.5 Reducing the threat related to dangerous waste

2.5.1 Covering all producers of medical and veterinary waste with an appropriate system for rendering this waste harmless

WOS, SM, IOS, WZiPS


250 tys. zl

2.5.2 Launching a system of collection and harmless disposal of dangerous waste similar to communal (batteries and bulbs etc.)

WOS, MPGK and other collectors, LAS


170-200,000 zl

2.6 Reducing the threat related to sewage sludge

2.6.1 Utilisation or dumping of sewage sludge

MPGK, ZM, WOS, sanitary services, IOS


for definition after concept acceptance




3 Maximum limitation of town's influence on Uherka river - better usage of its recreational and landscape-forming qualities

3.1 Eliminating the discharge of untreated sewage into the river

3.1.1 Eliminating illegal connections to the rainwater drains or direct river discharge points

MPGK, SM, WOS, WGPA


executory costs

3.1.2 Launching a system of registering and controlling sewage disposal

MPGK, SM, WOS


30-40,000 zl

3.1.3 Increasing the inhabitants' awareness in regard to the discharge of sewage and waste into the storm drains or directly into the river

WOS, LAS


15-20,000 zl

3.2 Treating rainwater and correct operation of existing equipment treating such water

3.2.1 Building separators at the river discharge points on rainwater channels

ZDM, BIM, MPGK, ZDM, land owners and administrators


1.3-1.5m zl

3.3 Making use of the river's recreational values

3.3.1 Implementation of the results for the competition for management of the Uherka river valley

WGPA, WSP, ZM, MOSiR, private and institutional investors

1999 – 2010 for definition after concept acceptance

3.3.2 Programme to make active use of land in the river valley

land owners and administrators, ZM, RM, BIM, MOSiR


400-500,000 zl




4 Creating a traffic system serving the inhabitants and visitors and causing minimum hardship

4.1 Solving the traffic problems in the Old Town

4.1.1 Limitation or liquidation of road traffic within the Old Town

ZDM, ZM, RM, Police, SM, WOS


1m zl + investment costs for definition after acceptance of concept

4.2 Segregating transit and local road traffic

4.2.1 Reducing hardships related to road traffic

ZDM, CLA, private carriers, vehicle inspect centres, vehicle owners, estate administrators, WOS


4.2 Segregating transit and local road traffic (cont.)

4.2.2 Completing construction of the southern bypass

ZDM, ZM, BIM

2005 - 2010

50m zl

4.2.3 Cooperation in designing the route and starting construction of the northern bypass

WKTD, WGPA, WOS

2000

10,000 zl



5. Reduction of air pollution to a level with no violation at all

5.1 Reducing the threat to health and the environment related to "low emission" to a low level

5.1.1 Development of infrastructure enabling elimination of some emission sources though connecting buildings to the district central heating system

MPEC, WFOSiGW, GFOSiGW, RM, BIM

1999 – 2010

10-11m zl


5. Reduction of air pollution to a level with no violation at all

5.1 Reducing the threat to health and the environment related to "low emission" to a low level

5.1.2 Development of infrastructure enabling individual customers to switch to gas-fired heating

gas suppliers, social/voluntary committees for gas network construction, individual customers, BIM, WFOSiGW, GFOSiGW, RM, WOS


17m zl

5.1.3 Launching enticements for individual customers, stimulating choice of the heat supply source preferred for the area concerned

WF, targeted funds, ZM, private customers, WGPA, WOS


5,000 zl

5.1.4 Raising social awareness regarding threats related to the incorrect usage (wrong fuel) of heating systems, and methods for limiting these threats

WOS, media, LAS 1999 – running task

25-30,000 zl



5.2 Cutting heat losses to the maximum in the district central heating system

5.2.1 Modernisation of town district central heating stations / boiler-houses

MPEC, BIM,


150-350m zl

5.2.2 Insulating recipient buildings and putting effective insulation on the distribution pipes

MPEC, estate administrators, WOS


11m zl


6. Forming a coalition between industrial plants and the town community for ecological development

6.1 Reduction of threats related to the operations of industrial plants and changing inhabitants' attitudes

6.1.1 Cooperation with industrial plants for tasks undertaken to reduce hardships

ZM, LAS


Running costs

6.1.2 Informing the town inhabitants jointly (town authorities and industry) about measures reducing the threats

ZM, LAS


Running costs

6.1.3 Taking measures encouraging industrial plants to reduce their nuisance (e.g. a prize for the first company to launch the "clean production" or ISO 14000 system)

ZM, LAS


Running costs



7. Chelm - a town in green

7.1 Protecting greenery in universally accessible areas

7.1.1 Correct management of greenery

WOS, ZDM, WGKL, WGPA, estate administration, GFOSiGW, companies


200-300,000 zl + investment costs according to concept

7.1.2 Increasing the attractiveness of green areas for recreational and leisure purposes

WGKL, WKK, MOSiR, ZDM, WGPA, WOS, WZ, PFRON


500-600,000 zl

7.1.3 Using green areas as locations for educational activities related to the protection of nature and culture, and an element for tourism

WOS, LAS, WKK, travel agencies, WSP


80-100,000 zl

7.2 Protecting the greenery in housing estates

7.2.1 Levelling out the disproportion between the urbanised and green areas

WGPA, estate administration, designers, WKK


300,000 zl


8. Increasing ecological awareness amongst the town's inhabitants

8.1 Stimulating the activities of social organisations and the town's inhabitants

8.1.1 Establishing the "Local Environment Action Programme" Association

LAS Voluntary Committee, WOS


100,000 zl + campaign costs

8.1.2 Monitoring the process of execution for the environment protection programme

WOS


100,000 zl



8.2 Coordination and support by the Town Board for measures in the area of ecological education

8.2.1 Creating a post for ecological education in the Town Offices

ZM, RM

2000

300-500,000 zl


Lokalna Akcja na Rzecz Srodowiska, Chelm – czerwiec 1999 i

Chelm - the town I want to live in -...

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