Three offers were received in the proceedings: from MAGLY for the amount of PLN 680,000. PLN, INTELLIGENT HIVES for over 940 thousand. PLN and PM ECOLOGY for over PLN 1.8 million. Officials are currently analyzing them.
Monitoring of the Olszanicki stream
It all started with monitoring the Olszanicki stream. Later, the idea appeared as a project in the civic budget. However, it was rejected because watercourses are not the property of the commune and participatory budget projects can only be implemented in urban areas. Rivers and streams are managed by the Regional Water Management Board in Krakow. We confirmed that this is where the agreement between the commune and Polish Waters is being consulted.
The idea is to install sensors in 10 locations on six watercourses in Krakow. What will they measure? Originally, there was no mention of water temperature. Today, officials confirm that this parameter will also be monitored.
Yes, the water temperature will primarily indicate whether, for example, warmer, polluted or heated water flows into a given river. The sensors will also measure pH, electrolytic conductivity, suspension and turbidity, the amount of oxygen dissolved in water, and additionally air temperature and relative humidity - explains Magdalena Wasiak from the Water Infrastructure Board in Krakow.
The data will be publicly available
The official assures that monitoring data will be publicly available.
The data will come to the unit, our inspectors will have full access to it, and we will strive to ensure that everyone can see the situation on city streams and rivers at a given time - says Magdalena Wasiak.
Two sensors will appear on Dłubnia, two on Prądnik, one on Rudawa, and one on its tributary - the Olszanicki stream. Additionally, two meters will be placed on Wilga, including one at the mouth of the Olszynka stream. The devices will also be installed on Serafa and Malinówka.
However, more locations were marked on the map from the tender documentation. These include the excavated "White Seas" - the landfills of the "Solvay" plant, the vicinity of the sewage treatment plants of Kujawy and Pleszów, Kanar (Suchy Jar), into which leachate from the metallurgical waste heap in Pleszów flows, and the Port Canal at the Przewóz Water Stop, adjacent to the sedimentation tanks and other waste landfills of the steelworks. This means that the problems in these places are well known to officials. For now, however, the sensors will not be installed there.
Will river monitoring be effective?
The contract with the contractor is to allow for up to 20 changes in the location of devices per year. Such monitoring is a good start to start the fight for clean rivers in our area, but since there will be only 10 of these points, we will not be able to detect the exact places where various substances of unknown origin are leaking into our rivers - admits Paweł Chodkiewicz, River Guardian of WWF Poland and member of the management board of the Małopolska Water and Environmental Protection Association.
He adds that in addition to a larger number of measurement points, close cooperation between services and offices is necessary.
Immediate response is needed when such contamination occurs. If a river is polluted, you need to be on site almost immediately to be able to determine where the leak occurred. Otherwise, we will know that a given substance has entered the water somewhere, says Chodkiewicz.
Will monitoring shorten the response time of services?
Reaction times, as history shows, varied.
Sometimes it was several or even a dozen or so hours. It was often the case that the fire brigade and municipal police arrived at the site of the report and waited for inspectors from the Provincial Inspectorate of Environmental Protection. They were the last to arrive, recalls Tomasz Fiszer from the Nasza Olszanica Association.
