Baia Mare Cyanide Spill
Legislation Changes/ Regulations (cont.)
Follow-up
- International effort (cont.)
- Tisza River Basin Integrated Sustainable Development Program
- UN/ECE Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents: Eg. Hungary
- Article 8: States shall take appropriate measures to establish and maintain adequate preparedness to respond to industrial accidents
- The researchers made 11 recommendations
- Information
- Communications
- Health
- Assessments
- Sediment analysis
- Drinking water
- Biodiversity
- Regional industries
- Local economies
- Regional plans
- International objectives
- Follow-up epidemiological studies
- ““Lead poisoning in children, Baia Mare, Romania”
- Cross-sectional study in young children
- Assessing the effects of lead body burden of long term exposure to lead in the environment
- Possible study expansions
- Test adults
- Follow a group of children a longer period
- Test children and adults for effects of other toxic chemicals involved in the spill
Follow-up (cont.)
•United Nations conducted an asssessment of the Baia Mare region from February 23rd to March 6, 2000
•The researchers identified chemical hotspot locations in areas affected by the spill in surface water, sediments, drinking water
- They tested for cyanide, cadmium, copper, arsenic, and lead
•The assessment of the impact of the spill on the environment is taken from three main sources:
- Background reports by the affected countries
- Monitoring of impacts by the affected countries, as the cyanide wave traveled downstream
- Information collected by the UNEP/OCHA mission
By: Kweku Bentum, Daniel Dibaba, Tenisha Dickinson, Terri Lee, & Nicole Hearon
Legislation Changes/ Regulations (cont.)
- International effort (cont.)
- Institutional reforms include:
- Protection of high risk sites & ponds by Romanian Ministry of Waters and Environmental Protection
- Tisza/Sazmos Government Commission by Hungarian Government to aid fishermen, compensation/liability/ harm prevention
- EU amended Seveso II Directive to regulate chemical plants & storage facilities containing dangerous chemicals in quantities above certain thresholds/ mining operations
- Intensive lobbying for funds at World Wide Nature at the EU level
References
- http://www.lenntech.com/environmental-disasters.htm#ixzz2Covh4tNs
- http://reliefweb.int/report/hungary/baia-mare-gold-mine-cyanide-spill-causes-impacts-and-liability
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Baia_Mare_cyanide_spill
- http://news.in.msn.com/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=3460600&page=7
- http://reliefweb.int/report/hungary/baia-mare-gold-mine-cyanide-spill-causes-impacts-and-liability
- http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/rsl27&div=37&g_sent=1&collection=journals
- http://www.unece.org/press/pr2000/00env1e.html
- http://www.grida.no/publications/et/ep3/page/2589.aspx
- http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_freshwater/freshwater_news/?18173/Baia-Mare-Five-Years-After-the-Cyanide-Spill
History/Cause
Environment & Human Health Effects (cont.)
Legislation Changes/ Regulations
- No comprehensive legislative changes (efforts being made)
- Mining waste directive to ensure safe management of mining
- International effort
- EU focused on hazardous mining initiatives under Seveso II Directive
- How to include mine residues in EU Waste Directive
- UNEP spent their attention on improving mining performance
- Noted that procedures within regulatory agencies for mine permitting/monitoring do not usually include much emphasis on emergency preparedness, compared with on site mine safety
•Cyanide in gold production
•1998: Dam built
•1999: The Romanian environmental authorities alert management of the Baia Mare mine of potential risk associated with the dam
•Autumn 1999: Five cows in the nearby village of Zazar die
•December 1999: Deputy Ilie Mihut reported that the dam's wall was leaking
•January 30, 2000: Baia Mare Cyanide spill
•Cause: thought to be caused by unusual meteorological conditions
- After cyanide entered the Danube, large volume of river's water diluted cyanide, but in some sections it still remained as high as 20 - 50 times the allowed concentration.
- Ecosystem began to recover 2 years later, but was still far from initial state
- Hungarian fishermen claim that their catches are only a fifth of their original levels.
- Some fish survived cyanide spill
Environment & Human Health Effects (cont.)
- Up to 100 people, mostly children, were treated after eating contaminated fish
Someş
(Romania)
Tisza
(Hungary)
Danube
(Central Europe)
Toxicants Involved
•~100 tons of cyanide-contaminated water spilled over farmland & Someş River
•Heavy metals also washed into river
Environment & Human Health Effects
Environment & Human Health Effects (cont.)
Who was affected?
- Dam in Bozinta Mare, Romania was most affected, with completely poisoned drinking water and soil
- Wildlife was particularly affected in the Tisza river (most killed), & further south in the Serbian section, 80% of aquatic life killed
- 62 species of fish affected by cyanide toxicity in water (20 were protected species)
- In Hungary, other animals (foxes, otters, ospreys) died from eating contaminated fish
- >1,400 tons of fish died
- Destroyed life basis for some hundred fishermen along the Tisza in Hungary
- In some Romanian and Hungarian towns, drinking water supply was shut down for days
- Contaminated drinking supplies of > 2.5 million Hungarians
- 62 species of fish in the Tisza River: Over 1000 tons of fish killed by 70 tons of cyanide est.
- Phytoplankton, zooplantkton
- Local fishermen primarily
- Bozinta Mare Village, drinking water and soil completely affected