One of the priorities in the field of environmental protection at U. S. Steel Košice is the care of the dry heap. Its result is the return of several species of animals, from lizards, voles, snakes, through hares, foxes, to roe deer and wild boars.  "We are glad that after years of investment in the greening of the landfill, animals have found their place to live here. We can see that nature came there even without an invitation," says Miloš Fodor, general manager for the environment (pictured at the annual activity of ecologists – cleaning the factory)

A special category of inhabitants of the heap consists of birds.  T wo years ago, ecologists monitored them. They counted 77 species of birds on the heap, including storage tanks, and 51 species of birds in the vicinity of the Sokoľany WWTP. They also included several rare species such as the imperial eagle, saker falcon, marsh kite, hawk hawk, eagle owl, or rare species in Slovakia: the northern snowdrop, the northern buzzard, the rusty buzzard and the red-throated buzzard.

An inspection day with ornithologists will be this week

They do not plan to monitor the birds this year, they decided that they would rather do something for them, together with ornithologists.  "Each bird needs different conditions for life and we want to help them improve them. Some species do not like, for example, grassy areas, so we leave part of the heap covered with slag. We will take specific steps and nesting sites only after consultations with experts from the Slovak Ornithological Society," said Miloš Fodor.   An inspection day with the participation of ornithologists will take place on the heap this week.

Last year, ecologists installed two falcon boxes at the regeneration station and on the main building. This year, a booth on the oxygen apparatus was added, where there were several incidents last year when falcon chicks fell out of the nest. Therefore, they put the booth in a different place, higher than their original nest. "Falcons are very welcome helpers for us, because they scare away pigeons. Pigeons are an unwanted companion in production areas because they can pollute our products, which would have a negative impact on the quality of the products we supply, especially for the food industry."

Currently, we have greened more than 51 percent of the total volume of 150 hectares of the landfill, where there are more than 9 million cubic meters of materials. Of course, we will continue to cover the heap with a green carpet, as well as planting trees on the heap to eliminate the spread of dust and return the inactive parts of the heap back to nature.