Legal disputes over Heřmanice landfill management

The state-owned enterprise Diamo has engaged in ongoing legal disputes with the Czech Ministry of the Environment regarding the Heřmanice landfill in Ostrava, a site that has been burning for years.

Diamo has filed administrative lawsuits claiming the Ministry’s decision to take over an investigation from the Czech Environmental Inspectorate was illegal and unjustified. The dispute centers on the investigation into over 568,000 tons of waste deposited at the site. While the Inspectorate had identified construction waste and named the company Ridera Bohemia as a primary suspect, the Ministry concluded proceedings in June without identifying a culprit. Diamo argues this lack of accountability leaves the company liable for hundreds of millions of crowns in remediation costs for the 103-hectare site.

In a separate matter, the Prague Municipal Court rejected a lawsuit filed by Diamo concerning the construction of an air separation wall designed to prevent the landfill from igniting toward a chemical waste site. Diamo had alleged the wall’s material was flammable and failed to meet standards, but the court dismissed the case on procedural grounds, noting that previous misdemeanor proceedings against the contractor, Ridera Bohemia, had already been terminated.

Following the court's decision, Diamo submitted a motion to the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office to investigate the Ministry's actions. Spokesperson Tomáš Indrei stated that the organization intends to use all available legal remedies to determine if the Ministry's conduct complied with the law regarding the withdrawal of the case from the Inspectorate.