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The Third Spill: Baia Borsa Again
15 March, 16:15 CET
Last night a third wave of pollution reached the Hungarian section of river Tisza. Ukrainian authorities notified Hungary in advance and according to their information the source of third pollution is the same Romanian mine, the Novat settling pond of the Baia Borsa heavy metal mine. The dam failure happed on 14 March around 15:00 p.m. and lasted for 2-3 hours. Hungary did not receive any advance notification from Romania.
According to visual observation the pollution seems smaller than the previous one as it does not cover the whole surface of river Tisza. However, it length is reported as 30 kms. As the source of pollution is the same as before, it is anticipated that the main pollutants are the same: lead, zinc, copper, aluminium.
The lower water level in the water system indicates that the weater conditions and melting does not cause as severe circumstances in Romania as it was in the case of previous incident. However, the spill happened.
Hungarian authorities ordered disaster defence alert along the upper part of river Tisza. All water usage of the river is forbidden. It impacts the population around 25 thousand at the moment.
The UNEP experts taking samples in order to document the previous spill downstream will move up to document this spill on site.
At 10 am the pollution was in the segment of the river Tisza between Tiszabesz and Vasarosnameny.
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