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ROMANIAN GOLD-MINING COMPANY AGAIN POLLUTES RIVERS
Some 10,000 tons of lead residue has spilled into the Rivers Vaser and
Viseu, tributaries of the Tisa (Tisza) River. The incident was caused by
the Aurul company in Baia Borsa (Borsa Banya) that was responsible for the
cyanide spill in early February. The company failed to notify the
authorities of the spill, which occurred on 27 March during heavy
rainfalls that resulted in the breaking of a five-meter stretch of the
wall of a dam, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau and Reuters reported. Samples of
water from the Tisa show lead is 2.7 times over permitted levels.
Environment Minster Romica Tomescu visited the area on 28 March, together
with World Bank director for Romania Andrew Vorkink, who is currently in
Romania to see how the bank can help that country cope with ecological
problems as well as improve health care and wildlife conservation. MS
New Wave of Pollution Hits Tisza River
hd: Budapest, 28 March (MTI)
The latest wave of pollution, pouring into
a Tisza tributary from the Novat mine in Baia Borsa (Borsa Banya), Romania
on Friday and Saturday, has reached the Hungarian section of the river,
the chief of the Upper Tisza Water Directorate told MTI on Tuesday.
Laszlo Fazekas said that a dark grey substance was observed in the
water at Tiszabecs early Tuesday. Laboratory tests to determine what
the contaminants consist of are expected to be completed before the
end of the day.
The official quoted Romanian authorities as saying that this time
around, sludge from a sewage tank had been washed into the waterways
following major rains and a sudden thaw.
Pollution turns Tisza black
Tuesday, 28 March, 2000, 14:52 GMT 15:52 UK
The authorities in Ukraine have expressed concern about another spillage
of contaminated sludge into the River Tisza, which they say has turned the
water black.
The river flows from Romania into Ukraine and Hungary, and was the site of
an environmental catastrophe two months ago following a cyanide spill in
the area.
Romanian officials say that the latest incident happened when heavy rain
washed away part of a dam, allowing water contaminated with lead to flow
into the river at a rate of about fifty litres per second.
The Romanian environment ministry said the amount of lead in the Tisza
river is double the safe level. A ministry spokesman blamed the mine
operators for not mending the wall properly after an earlier leak.
A World Bank delegation is in Romania at present to assess how to support
the country's efforts to deal with industrial polluters.
Romanian Mine Spill Pollutes Rivers
World Headlines: Tuesday March 28 11:04 AM ET
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Three weeks after thousands of tons of heavy
metals-laden ore flowed down rivers in northern Romania, another spill
occurred over the weekend at the same dam, officials said today.
Late Sunday, heavy rains and melting snow washed away part of the earthen
wall at a dam operated by the Baia Borsa mine, allowing contaminated water
to escape at a rate of 50 liters per second, officials said. That means
some 4.3 tons are being discharged daily from the pond while construction
work to repair the damaged wall is underway.
Today, concentrations of lead in the Tisza River at Sighetu Marmatiei
(Maramaros Sziget), some 260 miles northwest of Bucharest, were double the
European Union's safety norms, said Septimius Mara of the environment
ministry. A day before, lead concentrations were three times the
acceptable level.
Although weather was a contributing factor, Baia Borsa mine operators were
also to blame, a statement from the Environment Ministry said.
It said mine operators did not properly mend the wall after the previous
March 10 spill, which sent some 20,000 tons of heavy metal pollutants down
the Tisza. The mine operators also failed to promptly notify local
authorities about the new spill, the ministry said.
The incidents at the dam are the latest major spills in Romania this year.
A cyanide spill in late January at the Aurul gold mine in the same region
sent 130,000 cubic yards of cyanide-laden waters into a creek.
The pollution flowed into three Balkan rivers and the Danube, killing
wildlife and temporarily poisoning water supplies for river communities.
It devastated the Tisza, leaving behind huge quantities of dead fish and
damaging the tourist trade in Hungary.
Environment Ministry Report on Baia Borsa Retaining Wall Break
hd: Budapest, 28 March (MTI) - A report which arrived via the Danube
river's alert system overnight was made available to MTI on Tuesday
afternoon by Gabor M. Koller, spokesman of the Hungarian Ministry for
Environment. The report says that a five metre-long and two metre-deep
section of retaining wall on a settlement tank at NOVAC in Baia Borsa
(Borsa Banya), Romania, burst early Monday.
The contaminated water reached the Hungarian section of the Tisza river
early on Tuesday.
Water samples collected on Tuesday morning in the vicinity of Tiszabecs
were subjected to laboratory testing, which has indicated that the degree
of dissolved lead, zinc and copper in the water is in the "tolerable"
water quality category, in other words, it is below the level qualifying
as pollution. +++
New Break at Romanian Dam Lets Lead into Tisza
hd: Bucharest, 28 March (MTI) - The Romanian mining company, responsible
for a serious heavy metal pollution of the river Tisza in mid-March failed
to report a new break at its tailings dam on Monday, the Romanian Ministry
of Waters, Forestry and Environmental Protection announced on Tuesday.
The ministry said lead content in the river at Sighet (Maramaros Sziget),
Romania, was 2.7-times higher than the admissible European level,
according to the latest tests.
The recent pollution originated from the same company the dam of which
broke on 10 March letting some 40,000 tonnes of heavy metal-tainted slurry
flow into tributaries of the Tisza.
Days of rainfall and melting snows filled the reservoir as pumps were
unfit to lower the water level. As water overflowed, it broke off a 5mx2m
part from the dam structure, where some 50 litres of water leak every
second.
The ministry acknowledged that measures taken after the 10 March incident
could not ensure safety at the Novat reservoir of the Baia Borsa-based
(Borsa Banya) mining company.
It said on Monday that the most recent contamination of the river is
caused by heavy rains and melting snows are washing tailings into nearby
creeks.
+++
Cyanide Spill - International Danube Protection Committee
hd: Vienna, 30 March (MTI) - The executive body of the International
Committee for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) held a session in
Vienna on Thursday, and reached an agreement on the matter of the cyanide
pollution that hit the east Hungarian Tisza river.
Among other things, the members of a surveying and proposal-drafting
committee which is to hold its first session in Romania in April, will be
named by 3 April, Bela Hajos, deputy State Secretary of the Hungarian
Ministry of Transport, Telecommunications and Water Management in charge
of water affairs, announced in Vienna.
He said the body was unified in its evaluation of the reasons behind the
environmental pollution that originated in Baia Mare, Romania, which
included human negligence, construction deficiencies and the weather.
There was also agreement on the most important task, which is to set up
the above mentioned committee, and to survey possible sources of future
pollution relying on uniform criteria, which is expected to be carried out
on the basis of a similar survey that took place in the catchment area of
the Elba river.
Participants also agreed that the danger posed by pollution sources should
be reduced, and prevention is the solution to this.
It was also agreed that the warning system was working in accordance with
regulations at the time of the Baia Mare pollution, but proved to be too
slow and inaccurate, which made preparations for averting the effects of
the disaster more difficult. The regulations will thus have to be made
more precise.
Hajos also said that Thursday's conference dealt only with professional
issues, which meant that the possibility of future compensation claims was
not discussed. +++
EU official estimates Romanian cleanup
BUCHAREST, Romania, March 30 (UPI) -- The director of the European Union
office in Bucharest says Romania needs more than $20 billion to repair the
damage from a toxic river spill in Romania and elsewhere in Eastern
Europe.
EU Chief Fokion Fotiadis said in an interview with the BBC aired Thursday
that the figure is the estimate of EU environmental experts.
And he said it was an estimate of the amount of money needed to repair
damage caused by toxic mining spills into the Danube River tributary
system stemming from accidents at mines in northern Romania, as well as
what's needed to prevent more of the same.
"If we are to make sure the same never happens again from mining
operations or other industrial facilities," then that is the amount
needed," he said. While Fotiadis did not say where he thought the money
should come from, he noted the World Bank has already pledged a much
smaller amount. Since the start of the year, there have been three serious
river pollution incidents recently in the same northern Romanian mining
area. The worst was the cyanide spill from the mine partly owned by the
Australian Esmeralda Exploration.
That gold mine was the site from which cyanide-laden waste spilled into
river waters Jan. 30, causing enormous damage to hundreds of miles of
rivers -- especially the Tisza and Danube in neighboring Hungary and
Yugoslavia. While heavy metal poisoning from Romania continues to affect
the same rivers, the Hungarian government has vowed to file suit and
demands Romania to fix the situation so it will not be repeated.
According to the chairman of the EU task force established to help Romania
solve the problem: "Our mandate is to investigate the causes of the
accidents and provide an agreed assessment of the damage they caused... We
will propose measures to be taken nationally, internationally and at EU
level to minimize the risk of such accidents in the future," he told the
BBC.
Esmerelda Exploration, based in Perth, owns 50 percent of the Aurul gold
mine at Baia Mare in northern Romania, which discharged initial
cyanide-tainted water in January.
Earlier in March, the Sidney Morning Herald in Australia reported the
Esmeralda owners had gone into receivership because they were unclear
about what liability the company was exposed to as a result of the spill.
Hungarian officials charge the receivership is a "trick on their side to
not pay compensation," adding that if the company refused to compensate
the affected nations from the toxic spills, Hungary would pursue the
matter through international courts, the banks and investors who backed
those responsible.
Hungary Files Suit Against Cyanide Polluter
hd: Bucharest, 31 March (MTI) - The Hungarian government has taken the
first legal steps to receive what is hoped to be full compensation to all
claimants including government and individuals, for the damages caused by
the cyanide that flowed into the Szamos and Tisza rivers from Romania last
February.
Csaba Hende, parliamentary state secretary at the Ministry of Justice told
MTI's Bucharest correspondent that in matters related to Hungary's
national wealth, the Property Management Authority of the Treasury is the
body with jurisdiction, and it has authorized Hungarian attorneys as well
as a law office in Australia to follow up on the case.
Hende pointed out that the Esmeralda Exploration Company, the Australian
part owner of the Aurul mining company, a Romanian-Australian joint
venture located in Baia Mare, Romania, had called for the appointment of
an independent liquidator to head its bankruptcy proceedings. The
Australian law office authorized by the Hungarian government filed the
Hungarian government's claim against Esmeralda. +++
Tisza Countries' Environment Ministers to Meet in Budapest
hd: Budapest, 2 April (MTI) - The environment ministers of Romania,
Slovakia, Ukraine and Hungary, meeting in Budapest on Monday, do not
intend to dwell on the past, on the recent wave of pollution to hit the
Tisza river and its tributaries, and instead will be seeking ways to
prevent future occurrences, said Nandor Zoltai, chief of the international
relations department of the Ministry for the Environment on Sunday, in
response to a query from MTI.
Experts from Hungary, Romania and Ukraine have already resolved to prepare
a complete register of all possible pollution sources in the Tisza
environs, which the national authorities will strictly monitor.
Plans are that on Monday, the resolution will be raised to ministerial
level and Slovakia will join it, said Zoltai.
Following the joint resolution the four countries can act together to
apply for support and loans from the European Union and other
international finance institutes. +++
HUNGARY, NEIGHBORS AGREE ON ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION
The Environmental Ministers of Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Hungary met
in Budapest on 3 April to sign an agreement on preventing future
transnational ecological disasters. The four countries will pinpoint
potential sources of ecological damage, involve international experts in
damage assessment, and form joint monitoring teams. Romanian Environmental
Minister Romica Tomescu, however, rejected a proposal for "integrated
pollution prevention and regional development." His Hungarian counterpart,
Pal Pepo, said the Romanian state's responsibility in the recent cyanide
spill cannot be avoided. "According to our laws, the polluter pays, but
there is nothing about the Romanian state's responsibility in any
bilateral international agreement," Tomescu replied. MSZ
Hungarian Interior Minister Signs Disaster Aid Agreement in
Warsaw
hd: Warsaw, 6 April (MTI) - Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter, and
Polish Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration Marek Biernacki
signed a bilateral agreement on disaster management in Warsaw on Thursday.
The accord regulates cooperation in preventing and managing the
consequences of disasters, natural calamities and other major accidents,
as well as the scheduling of mutual assistance.
The agreement also calls for exchanging experience, the mutual provision
of scientific and technological information to one another, and extension
training and joint exercises in which experts are to be included. The
agreement includes a requirement that both countries brief one another on
hazards occurring in their jurisdictions and on the expected consequences
of them, and calls for an exchange of observation data and forecasts on
these problems.
The agreement simplifies procedures under which borders may be crossed and
activity set up, in case of disasters.
Pinter arrived in Warsaw on Wednesday evening at the head of a delegation.
His talks will tackle cooperation between the two ministries, issues
related to EU accession, a briefing on experience of Poland's public
administration reform and an exchange of ideas on regional (Visegrad)
cooperation.
Following the signing of the accord, the two Ministers held a media
briefing on their ministries fight against organised crime and corruption,
and also on millennium celebrations (this is the thousandth anniversary of
the founding of the Hungarian nation). +++
Hungarian-Romanian Talks on Environment Protection
hd: Bucharest, 13 April (MTI) - Talks between the Romanian and the
Hungarian prime ministers, scheduled to be held in Bucharest on Friday,
will include environmental protection issues that concern both countries,
Romanian Minister for Waters, Forestry and Environmental Protection Romica
Tomescu said on Thursday.
The Romanian minister said accidental pollution cases, and particularly
the prevention of these, as well as floods and their consequences will
most certainly be discussed, as joint solutions must be found for flood
prevention as well.
According to MTI's information, the Hungarian side to the talks on Friday
will raise the issues of preventing the further pollution of border
waters, disaster prevention in general, and issues related to the legal
mechanism of compensation. ++
Romania's recent ecological disasters had at least given rise to
By Roxana Dascalu
BUCHAREST, April 14 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu said on
Friday Romania's recent ecological disasters had at least given rise to
cooperation with neighbouring Hungary on countering pollution.
Both countries are now seeking compensation through the courts for
damage caused by a spill of cyanide-laced water from a Romanian gold mine
into a network of rivers earlier this year.
"One good thing has come out of all the upsets over the past few
months. Romanian and Hungarian authorities have communicated very well and
are working to solve (pollution) problems," Isarescu told a joint news
conference with visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Budapest wants compensation for the damage to wildlife and
fishermen's livelihood caused by the spill which affected the river Tisza,
Hungary's second-largest river, and the Danube.
"The pollution issue is now in lawyers' hands," Orban said. "We will
do whatever possible to get compensation for the damage done."
Isarescu said Bucharest would also resort to the courts under
post-communist legislation which includes the European Union's "polluter
pays" principle.
"Romania's authorities have asked local courts to determine
responsibility for the pollution and to establish the amount of
compensation to be paid by the polluter, which is a local commercial
company," Isarescu said.
The cyanide spill from the Aurul gold mine in northern Romania in
February killed thousands of fish in Hungary and Yugoslavia. The mine is
half-owned by an Australian company.
Water with heavy metal residues spilled into the Tisza again in late
March from a Romanian state-owned mine.
Isarescu said Romania was seeking international financial support for
investments intended to deal with industrial pollution.
"We have discussed the possibility of supplementary environment loans
with the World Bank and the European Union. We have some promises," he
said, declining to elaborate.
Orban, on a one-day visit to Bucharest, invited Romania to follow in
Hungary's footsteps and ratify a bilateral environment protection accord
signed two years ago.
Budapest also wants all its neighbours to draft legislation singling
out potential polluters in their respective countries: "This (regional)
pact should identify potential pollution hotspots and monitor them," Orban
said.
Rumania says no new risk of river pollution
(that is, the old ones still exist. The article adds other loop holes ...)
BUCHAREST, April 13 (Reuters) - Romania's Environment Minister on Thursday
ruled out the risk of further river pollution accidents following a
cyanide spill that caused a major environmental disaster earlier this
year. "There is no major risk of new pollution accidents of the kind of
those which happened two months ago," Romica Tomescu told reporters.
He was referring to the spill of cyanide-laced water from the dam of
a Romanian gold mine, half-owned by an Australian company, that killed
thousands of fish in Hungary and Yugoslavia in February.
Late last month, lead residues from another Romanian mine polluted a
river that flows into the Danube.
Tomescu said that the pollution issue would figure high on the agenda
of talks between Romanian officials and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor
Orban, who will visit Bucharest on Friday.
He said that both Hungary and Romania should cooperate in addressing
problems related to big industrial polluters inherited from the communist
era.
"The assessment of the (river) pollution impact has been seriously
exaggerated," Tomescu added. "Romania is not an ecological time bomb, as
it has sometimes been misrepresented."
Bucharest and Budapest are drawing up their own estimates of the
damage caused by the two pollution incidents, with experts from the U.N.
Environment Programme expected to issue a report later this month.
The Romanian government has allocated the equivalent of $600,000 for
repair works at a dam of the state-owned mine of Borsabanya (Baia Borsa),
the source of the second incident, Tomescu said.
"All candidates for EU membership have many problems to solve, but
cooperation to promote joint environment programmes is the best way to
bolster their membership bids," he said. Romania was invited to start EU
membership talks last December.
Pollution problems bring Rumania, Hungary together
Pollution problems bring Rumania, Hungary together (probably in the same
sense as MS and its competitors during the suit, or when couples go to a
divorce hearing)
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Unfolding environmental disasters: 
The now exterminated tiszavirág (Palingenia longicauda)