The Road More Traveled

In 2007, Polish officials were locked in a legal and public relations battle with environmentalists and the EU over a highway near the Lithuanian border.

by Renate Zoeller 19 July 2010

The Russian environmentalists who this week stepped up their protests against a major road project that is set to bisect a large forest near Moscow can take heart from their Polish counterparts. As this article from 10 August 2007 described, local activists, backed by the EU, set themselves firmly against the Polish government’s plan to run a highway bypass through the beautiful and sensitive Rospuda wetlands near Augustow in northeastern Poland. Although the area is underdeveloped, and the need to reroute heavy truck traffic away from the center of Augustow undeniable, the protesters’ efforts paid off last year when the project was canceled.

 

AUGUSTOW, Poland | From the moment visitors set foot in Augustow, the sound dogs them like a hornets’ nest buzzing around their heads.

They hear it in restaurants, at the city hall, and in the schools of this beautiful Polish spa town near the Lithuanian border. It’s the ceaseless hum of traffic, mostly trucks, crossing the bridge that spans the picturesque Augustow canal.

The trucks move on the town’s main corridor in a never-ending line, visible from one of the Augustow’s most idyllic spots alongside the canal. Many of the town’s 30,000 residents say the view of traffic is not only an eyesore, but also a hazard and an economic liability.

“The highway through the center of Augustow is a catastrophe. We have to find an alternative,” resident Elizeusz Bartkowiak said.

With residents fuming about the road’s dangers and annoyances, the Polish government plans to build a bypass around the town. The project is part of the broader plan to convert one of the main commercial routes connecting several central and eastern European Union states from a basic road to a more efficient motorway.

But the route of the bypass around Augustow has become so hotly contested that even the European Commission has stepped into the fray.

At issue is the boggy Rospuda River valley. The Polish government wants to run the road through a stretch of the valley, but environmentalists have proposed a route that skirts it. The European Commission also objects to the Polish government’s plans on environmental grounds. In late July, it took the matter to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, asking for it to halt construction.

The court has yet to rule, leaving residents, environmentalists, and government officials alike holding their breath after months of intense controversy.

BICKERING WITH BRUSSELS

Five thousand trucks carrying heavy goods travel through Augustow each day on a narrow portion of European route E67, which runs from Central Europe to Finland by way of the Baltics. Between Warsaw and Helsinki, the route is known as Via Baltica.

The Polish government has been planning to reroute the busy highway outside of Augustow since 1992. The need became even more acute after Poland entered the EU in 2004 and the volume of commercial trucks increased.

Government planners favor a new path to Bialystok, the region’s largest city, because they believe it is the shortest, least expensive, and least disruptive option. The bypass would cost approximately 115 million euros.

But between Bialystok and Augustow are the wetlands of the Rospuda River valley, which is a designated conservation area covered by the EU’s Natura 2000 legislation on protecting seriously threatened natural areas. It is home to peat bogs as well as various species of rare and protected plants and wildlife.

 

The government’s construction plans includes rerouting part of the 17-kilometer Via Baltica bypass through a swath of the conservation area. Several kilometers would run through the Rospuda forest, followed by an overpass above the river valley.

Poland has proposed mitigation measures to ease problems generated by the construction of the bypass. The measures include reforestation and a wildlife migration walkway.

But environmentalists, along with EU officials, say these measures won’t do enough to protect the valley’s natural life. Alleging that Poland never conducted a satisfactory environmental impact assessment, the World Wildlife Fund, other NGOs, and numerous representatives in Brussels reject the government’s route. They instead support an alternative bypass that doesn’t cut through the wetlands and runs through the town of Lomza instead of Bialystok.

“Having an overpass built above the Rospuda valley would have devastating effects on the flora, the birds, the wildlife, and the water,” Adam Bohdan, a member of the Polish ecology movement campaigning against the government route, told the International Herald Tribune. “There is an alternative route that would bypass the valley, yet the government does not want to consider it.”

Indeed, Polish officials have pressed forward with their route, alleging that the alternative proposal is too expensive. The European Commission sent a letter to Warsaw in December 2006 threatening legal action for violating EU environmental law.

As a legal battle unfolded in the following months, initial construction progressed only intermittently. But Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski vowed the government would commence full construction in August, at the end of bird-hatching season.

In response, the European Commission sought an injunction with the Court of Justice “to prevent irreversible damage to a unique natural site,” Barbara Helfferich, a spokeswoman for EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas, said in a 30 July daily news briefing.

Kaczynski has said his country will await the court’s decision – but he has not promised to abide by it.

“This situation would be unprecedented. Never has a member state disregarded an interim measure by the European Court of Justice, so I can’t really tell you what we will do or what will happen,” Helfferich said.

Representatives in the European Commission have said that if Poland builds the bypass through the valley, the EU will not give funding to convert the full length of the route into a motorway. Poland is paying for the bypass, but it hopes the EU will give roughly 480 million euros to convert the full stretch.

“A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH”

Meanwhile, Augustow residents are tired of the legal wrangling. They say they can’t wait much longer for a bypass to be built.

“The debate over the Via Baltica is a matter of life and death for us,” said Bogdan Dyjuk, the leader of a community group that supports the government’s plans.

Dyjuk, the principal of a network of local vocational schools whose office is 20 meters from Via Baltica, said the trucks could destroy the town’s economic viability, as tourists begin to spurn Augustow for quieter, less congested spa towns nearby. Moreover, the trucks have struck and killed some residents, including one of Dyjuk’s students. Another student who was hit suffers permanent disabilities.

A proponent of the government’s route, Dyjuk said that almost all of the necessary right-of-way has been taken and legal problems solved. The regional governor signed a go-ahead for construction several months ago, citing that all legal requirements had been met.

Changing the route to meet the demands of the EU and environmentalists, Dyjuk complained, would require new financial and environmental assessments. He said it could set construction back several years.

“How can people far away in Brussels know what’s good for us here in Augustow?” Dyjuk asked.

Bartkowiak, who has been fighting on the side of the environmentalists, doesn’t buy arguments about a possible delay or lack of alternatives. He said the local government has done little to address the road problems over the years; residents have suggested pedestrian bridges and radar speed checks, but none ever materialized.

Now, Bartkowiak said local officials are behaving as though the national government’s route is the only option available.

“The road has terrorized this city for years. Why didn’t City Hall ever take any action to improve the situation, at least temporarily?” Bartkowiak said. “I believe the city council wants to dramatize the situation so that people see no alternative to the road project the [government’s] road construction office has planned.”

GRASSROOTS DIVIDE

If this is the case, the plan may have worked.

On 30 July, hundreds of residents blocked traffic on the road to protest the EU’s actions. Just days later, several dozen residents traveled to protest at the EU and Greenpeace offices in Warsaw. And though not legally binding, a referendum on the issue was held in the region in May, winning more than 90 percent support for work to continue on the bypass.

But less than 25 percent of the population even turned out to vote.

“People are tired of the subject,” said Adam Sienko, Augustow’s deputy mayor.

Echoing the sentiments of Dyjuk and other residents, Sienko said the sooner the bypass is built, the better. He said there is no need for more discussion about whether or not the road should run through the wetlands.

“We can’t accept any more delays in Augustow for the work to start,” Sienko said. “We citizens of Augustow don’t care if the bridge crosses the Rospuda valley or not. We just want a bypass. We’re not experts. We leave those decisions to people who understand more about them.”

Sienko added that he trusts the government’s transportation and construction officials.

Environmentalists who disagree are staging their own local fight. Hundreds of Greenpeace activists have set up a tent camp at the construction site. Other groups have written position papers and articles or held protests in Warsaw. More than 150,000 Polish citizens have signed a petition asking for the government to await a new environmental assessment before continuing construction.

Sienko noted that he, like many residents in support of the government’s route, isn’t without his own environmental concerns. He has been the director of the Biebrza National Park, which is situated near Augustow, for six years.

“Augustow cares about nature. But I can’t accept a discussion of whether or not the bypass is going to be built [on the government’s route]. We should start talking about how it is going to be built,” Sienko said.

Man-made gullies, he noted, could collect polluted rainwater from the road surface and carry it away from the valley. Moreover, protective barriers could be built to separate the road from its surroundings.

Sienko said that he believes the government’s route should be constructed no matter what ruling is handed down in Luxembourg. “There is no alternative,” he said.

But Bartkowiak predicts it won’t come to such an extreme. “In the end the government will follow the EU rules. It would be too expensive for Poland [if it did not],” he said.