European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 02, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse A poisoned town gets a new lease on life by Mary Neth staff writer Champagne corks were popping in the tiny City Hall of Mol Bis and mayor Dietmar Haym was beaming. Quot you be arrived on a Happy Day Quot he said Quot we be just received official notice that our building sanitation program can two years ago Mol Bis a drab rundown Village in the area that was once East Germany was slated to be abandoned. The locals had no Choice but to pack up and move on a to stay was to be continually poisoned. Mol Bis was a town that wore Black. A thick film of Greasy chemical soot covered the houses and streets even the ducks and chickens stayed a sooty Gray the polluting gases etched into the Metal of automobiles housewives rarely dared hang laundry out to dry there Wasny to a More morbid Village on the continent this Small Sachsen Village termed the most polluted place in a polluted East Germany was a receptacle for the gases and chemical fallout from the Brown Coal refineries of nearby Espenhain. When the wind was particularly Strong leaves fell off the Trees overnight and cultivated crops curled up and died when that happened a government assessor arrived estimated the damage and handed out free Plant replacements. Damage to the health of the local population Wasny to part of the estimates however and private citizens risked prison for possessing any Type of pollution measuring instruments said the Rev. Karl Heinz Dallmann a lutheran minister. It was widely known even under the communists he said that each Day the nearby refineries pumped out 20 tons of Fulfur dioxide four tons of tar More than four tons of Hydrogen sulfite a the stuff that stinks like Rotten eggs a almost two tons of ammonia two tons of me Captan Ethyl Hydro sulfite and a Small amount of deadly dioxin since the end of world War ii the population of Mol Bis has shrunk from 1,200 to just 345. The symptoms of life in the Village included headaches skin rashes chronic bronchitis and other breathing difficulties an East German government study found a higher rate of cancer in the Espenhain Region but officials attributed the finding not to the refineries but to local cigarette consumption mayor Haym who has held his Post for seven years remains sensitive to questions about cancer and birth defects i Don t intend to refer to any health problems Here Fiat Sis Dav Klio tha Brown Coal refineries have polluted my lbs for decade. But mayor Dietmar Haym left and planner Carton Iwan now Toast a new Era. Arentt specifically proved As coming from the Espenhain refineries Quot he said and frowned. Taking part in the morning s Champagne Celebration was Carsten Iwan director of the Mol Bis sanitation project which will install new water and sewer lines Quot some of the polluting refineries have been closed others Are partially shutdown. There is new Hope Quot Fie said. Quot the air is already the government in Bonn plans to Cut Espenhain Coal refining by 50 percent by 1992 and bring it to a halt by 1994, Iwan said Bonn plans to reduce the Reliance on Brown Coal known As Lignite by shifting to natural Gas Brown Coal had been the Energy basis of the East German Economy the 36 Brown Coal areas refined 320 million tons a year a More than any there else in the world. The necessary mining created an additional 7,500 to 10,000 acres of ruined cratered landscape each year More than 30,000 citizens were forced to relocate because their villages 75 in All a stood in the path of the giant Earth movers Iwan works As a project Engineer for the government planning department in Leipzig the same office in which he worked before unification. Quot every function of the Bureau has changed now Quot he said. Quot for Mol Bis a corporation has been founded to put the sanitation work into effect it includes the Community and county government and Church membership Quot my Job now is to coordinate Between this corporation and the state government Quot under the East German government plan the people of Mol Bis were to be moved to a site in Distant Mecklenburg Vor Pommert about 220 Miles away a the Money involved was from a Lund that had been set up specifically Lor the purpose Quot he noted Quot then came reunification and the town s late was in the frauds. Of the Community Quot we worked out concepts for the two alternatives relocation of the town or its restoration and presented them at a town meeting the villagers voted to stay Here last year a Small Linden tree was planted across Itom the minister s Home As a Symbol of Hope for the survival of the Village and a brighter future on thursday it will be the scene of a Small Celebration ceremony nearby the White laundry Happing trom Hei k Yard clothesline s is evidence of better times wednesday october 2, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 3
