Being as ecological with waste as possible
Currently the construction of additional containers at the hazardous and non-hazardous waste stockpile is being completed. The containers have been added this year to the U. S. Steel Košice dry dump facility as the part of the multistage stockpile construction project that started in 2008.
"Construction of the hazardous waste stockpile was originally scheduled in three stages. The first was completed in 2010 and the stockpile operation started in January 2011. The installation of two additional storage containers was scheduled for 2015," says Igor Bazár, Director for Economic Administration of Constructions and Engineering Activity. "Last year, the Company decided to change its construction strategyand combined the second and the third stages in a single implementation. This solution, eliminating the separation barrier installation between the stockpile structures, has enabled us to obtain additional space for waste storage. After approval of all necessary permits, the construction work started in April 2015."
Completion of construction work on the combined second and third stages of the new hazardous waste stockpile are planned by Engineering in cooperation with the contractor EDEMI, s.r.o. Rešica in October this year. After successful commissioning, the new hazardous waste storage and disposal stockpile could be put into operation in February 2016. The area together with the containers, completed within the first stage, is able to store 677,000m3 of hazardous waste. According to the calculation, this limit should be reached in July 2029.
With respect to this construction, a similar solution has been used by the Company for the non-hazardous waste stockpile. "Also in this case, three stages of construction have been planned," Mr. I. Bazár said. "The first stage was completed in 2008 and the first stockpile has been in operation since January 2009, and the second one since 2012 with the estimation that the stockpile will be filled in 2017. The third stage, scheduled for 2015, should provide a solution for non-hazardous waste disposal till the end of 2023. In the effort to utilize the area better, we have modified the project and in this way an additional area has been obtained for storage of approx. 1 million cubic meters of waste, i.e. approx. four years of storage. In this way, the originally proposed third stage of the stockpile can be extended into the fourth and fifth stages," added the Director for Economic Administration of Construction and Engineering Activity. All the above changes have been approved by the Ministry for Environment of the Slovak Republic and the other authorities concerned.