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Consequences of the Baia Mare Disaster

  • >1,400 tons of fish have died
  • Life basis for some hundred fishermen along the Tisza in Hungary destroyed
  • Rumanian and Hungarian had to shut down drinking water supply
  • Village Bozinta Mare near the dam had completely poisoned drinking water and soil
  • Operation restarted some months after the accident
  • Still under heavy criticism from environmentalists, especially because it continued to use cyanide
  • Transgold (formerly Aurul) still has not paid compensation except for some compensation for the directly affected village of Bozinta Mare
  • No additional accidents in recent years - the river Tisza could slowly recover
  • Some fish survived the cyanide spill in river tributaries.
  • Today the number of fish is close to number before the accident, but still fewer species and commercial fishing is not possible

Effects of Cyanide on Wildlife

Although cyanide reacts readily in the environment and degrades or forms complexes and salts of varying stabilities, it is toxic to many living organisms even at very low concentrations.

Aquatic Organisms

Mammals

Birds

Symptoms of acute poisoning usually occur within ten minutes of ingestion, and include initial excitability with muscle tremors, salivation, lacrimation, defecation, urination, and labored breathing, followed by gasping and convulsions.

Symptoms including panting, eye blinking, salivation, and lethargy appear within one-half to five minutes after ingestion in more sensitive species, and up to ten minutes after ingestion by more resistant species. Exposures to high doses resulted in deep, labored breathing followed by gasping and shallow intermittent breathing in all species, whereas mortality typically occurred in 15 to 30 minutes.

Fish and aquatic invertebrates are particularly sensitive to cyanide exposure and that sensitivity is highly species specific. Toxicity of cyanides is also affected by water, pH, temperature and oxygen content as well as the life stage and condition of the organism. Adverse effects include reduced swimming performance, inhibited reproduction, delayed mortality, pathology, susceptibility to predation, disrupted respiration, osmoregulatory disturbances, altered growth patterns, and the death of many species. Algae, macrophytes, and aquatic plants can tolerate much higher environmental concentrations of free cyanide than fish and invertebrates.

Causes of Baia Mare Environmental Disaster

  • Poor dam design and unusual weather conditions
  • High amount of precipitation during the winter of 1999 to 2000 - large amounts of water accumulated in pools.
  • Sunny and warm days before disaster , resulting in snow and ice melting
  • high amounts of water subsequently applied great pressure to the poorly built dam, and dam experienced a fissure
  • spill entered the Sasar River -> Somes River ->Hungary -> Tisa River and the Danube -> Hungary -> Yugoslavia (Serbia) -> Danube -> Romania ->Black Sea.

Source

Use of Cyanide in Gold Extraction

  • allows the extraction of gold from sources that contain only faint traces of gold
  • cyanide bonds extremely well with gold and forms a soluble complex
  • mining companies argue that it is safe, and that the safeguards they set in place such as dams that hold back water are infallible

Overview

  • January 30, 2000, Bozinta Mare, Romania
  • 100,000 cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated water spilled from dam
  • Gold mining company, Aurul, was a joint venture of Australian company Esmeralda Exploration and the Romanian government.
  • The Tisza and then the Danube
  • "Worst environmental disaster in Europe since Chernobyl"

2000 Baia Mare cyanide spill

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