External Costs of Opencast Brown Coal Mining in Agriculture and Agri-Food Industry (on the Example of Wielkopolska)

The aim of the work was to analyse the external costs for agriculture and agri-food industry related to the possible launch of lignite deposits in Wielkopolska, that is, on the Ościsłowo, Dęby Szlacheckie and Oczkowice deposits. The duration of the mine’s impact on the environment includes the period of drainage of the deposit, its exploitation and the time necessary for the reconstruction of water relations around the open pit. The level of losses in agricultural production was estimated based on the production results achieved by agriculture threatened by the occurrence of external costs based on the Central Statistical Office (CSO) data. The studies adopted two variants of the impact of open pitches on agriculture, including: the area of the estimated depression hopper, that is, the area in which the water table lowered by at least one meter and the entire impact area of the outcrop. In total, the external costs in agricultural production and processing, which may arise as a result of the launch of extraction from the three analysed deposits, were estimated at PLN 7.7–32.3 bn, losses in non-produced agricultural production at PLN 31.8–113.0 bn, while when the value of lignite is PLN 83.7–111.6 bn. Such high costs mean that the opening of new lignite deposits in Wielkopolska raises economic doubts. This also applies to each deposit separately.