One of the largest waste companies in the Czech Republic, AVE CZ, cannot expand its largest landfill for the time being. The company, co-owned by businessman Daniel Křetínský, operates a giant waste center near the town of Čáslav. The Ministry of the Environment has now said that it will not allow the plan to expand the landfill in its proposed form. In addition, AVE CZ faces accusations of tax evasion because of the landfill.
“As a landfill operator, according to the Waste Act, it had an obligation to collect fees for depositing waste at the landfill and pay them to the recipient of the fee, while AVE deliberately did not fulfill this obligation,” the National Center Against Organized Crime wrote in the accusation, according to which the company prepared public budgets by operating not only this landfill by 3.76 billion crowns.
The mentioned waste center is located on the northwestern outskirts of the Central Bohemian town of Čáslav. It covers an area of 20 hectares, which is equivalent to twenty-eight football fields. According to the current permit, the landfill has a capacity of 3.365 million cubic meters of waste. This is half the volume of water in Máchov jezera.
At the end of last year, AVE CZ asked the Ministry of the Environment to enlarge the landfill. It plans to expand its area by half to 29 hectares. The company intends to store an additional two million cubic meters of waste on site. However, the resort has not yet agreed to this. This follows from the document available to Aktuálně.cz.
Ministry intervention in the proceedings
“Given the environmental characteristics of the area in question, in which the plan is located, and with regard to the nature of the plan, it is necessary to supplement the documentation,” reads one of the key passages of the partial decision, which was issued and signed by the director of the first department of state administration, Miloslav Kuklík, on behalf of the ministry last month.
Before the Ministry allows a project like the expansion of the landfill, it must examine its impact on the environment. At the beginning of this procedure, the documentation is drawn up by the originator of the project. In it, the company will describe the basic measures of the project, its impact on the surroundings and how it intends to minimize it. If the department accepts the document, the procedure continues.
But the ministry rejected the documents from AVE CZ. According to the department, the company did not sufficiently describe how the expansion of the landfill will affect the environment and how it plans to balance it. The department of Minister Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL) therefore returned the document to the company for revision.
Three years to correct the documentation
When AVE CZ redoes the documents, it must emphasize five areas and eleven sub-points determined by the ministry. It will be necessary for the company to describe the technological solution of the project in more detail. The resort also wants AVE CZ to develop a visualization of how the waste center will look after the expansion with regard to the surrounding landscape.
The company must also “complement the proportional representation of the project’s received waste and the expected balance of the territorial origin of the waste and justify these data in relation to the proposed capacities of the project”, reads another condition of the department, stating that the company must prove the project’s compliance with the strategic plan of the Central Bohemian Region for waste management.
The Ministry further called on the company to provide a more precise description of how it intends to mitigate the effects of the expansion of the landfill on flora, fauna and ecosystems in the immediate vicinity. The company’s duty will also be to describe in more detail the methods of reducing the smell from the landfill, the department is also interested in the demands of expanding the landfill to transport infrastructure.
“AVE can submit the documentation at any time after processing the requirements, the latest deadline is within three years from the date of return of the documentation,” Lucie Ješátková, spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Environment, told Aktuálně.cz about this. Until the company, which is one-fifth owned by businessman Daniel Křetínský, complies with the department’s requirements, the project will not budge.
Green from the council
AVE CZ’s attempt to enlarge the landfill was discussed by the representatives of Čáslavi at their last meeting, which took place last week. The majority among them is held by the coalition ČSSD and Nezávislí with the ANO movement led by Mayor Jaromír Strnad (ČSSD). The representatives agreed to the project under several conditions.
According to them, the company should scrap the proposal to process one hundred thousand tons of waste per year into fuel. Above all, however, it will be possible to increase three-quarters of the additional capacity of the considered two million cubic meters only when the AVE ensures the construction of the city’s western bypass so that the import of waste is diverted to non-public roads.
AVE CZ landfill in Čáslav. | Photo: Czech Television
“AVE CZ has agreed with the city of Čáslav on the proposed conditions. Based on the voting results of the council, AVE CZ will revise the documentation,” company spokeswoman Pavla Ivácková told Aktuálně.cz. Expressing approval, albeit conditional, to the project after the Ministry of the Environment has returned the basic documentation to the company is not usual.
As a rule, on the contrary, the procedure is such that the city raises objections up to the finished documents in the framework of the ongoing proceedings on the impact on the environment. As stated above in this text, the said process was stopped on March 13 by decision of the department. This contradiction is pointed out by former mayor and now opposition representative Vlastislav Málek (Čáslav for all).
The resolution of the council also includes a point according to which AVE CZ will pay the city at least 30 million crowns per year for the operation of the expanded landfill until 2030, and at least 16 million thereafter. “This guarantee is really ridiculous, because in previous years we received 46 million per year,” Málek told Aktuálně.cz.
The supreme prosecutor rejected the complaint of AVE CZ
According to criminologists, AVE CZ is breaking the law when it collects money for waste. From the point of view of the National Center against Organized Crime, some of the waste is labeled fraudulently so that it does not have to pay for it. Fees are not paid for waste that makes up the body of the landfill itself. But as such, AVE CZ also showed normal waste.
According to the results of the investigation so far, the company proceeded in this way in addition to Čáslav and in Benátky nad Jizerou, Hořovice and Mšen. Only Čáslav was denied a billion crowns in fees by AVE CZ according to police calculations. The company denies accusations of tax evasion. But as the editors have already pointed out, the office of the supreme prosecutor Igor Stříž gave the green light to the prosecution.
“The Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office decided to reject the legal entity’s complaint against the resolution to initiate criminal prosecution as unfounded,” office spokesman Petr Malý confirmed to Aktuálně.cz. In general, if companies are found guilty, they are punished by liquidation, confiscation of assets, a fine or a ban on activity.
