U.N. to assess cyanide spill
BUCHAREST: Contamination levels of cyanide and heavy metals in the Danube
measured three times acceptable European Union standards today, more than
two weeks after a spill at a gold mine sent the poison streaming through
several European rivers.
The United Nations plans to send a team of experts to assess the damage to
the Tisza and Danube rivers in Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia, and the EU
has called for an international commission to help with the cleanup.
The EU is considering tighter regulations on the mining industry following
the spill, which environmentalists have called Europe's worst river disaster
in a decade.
``Maybe we need much stricter rules to control the waste from mining
activities,'' EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstroem told a news
conference today in Brussels, Belgium, after flying back from Romania and
Hungary.
Australian Environment Minister Robert Hill said today that his country
would help clean up the rivers, as the Australian mining company Esmeralda
Exploration is a major partner in the Baia Mare gold mine, where the spill
originated. The cyanide had been used to process ore there.
On Jan. 30, a containment dam broke at the mine, sending an estimated 100
tons of cyanide and tons of toxic heavy metals pouring into streams, passing
through Hungary and Yugoslavia on the Szamos and Tisza rivers before
returning to Romania on the Danube.
Tests taken this morning at a dam near the city of Drobeta Turnu-Severin,
170 miles west of Bucharest, showed cyanide levels three times the
acceptable EU standard and 14 times the Romanian norms, said Gheorghe
Constantin, of the Romanian Ministry of Environment.
The 116,000 people of Drobeta Turnu-Severin were relying on wells for their
drinking water, and dialysis patients and expectant mothers have been
temporarily moved out of the city.
Romanian environmentalists found high concentrations of copper, chrome, zinc
and iron in the Danube farther upriver Thursday.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization expressed concern about toxic
metals in the water, and called for a review of environment and health
regulatory standards related to precious metal mining in Europe.
A team of 10 to 12 U.N. environmental experts and engineers are to be
dispatched starting next week to make a complete assessment of the
situation, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs.
Serbia's Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery lifted its ban on
using the water from the Tisza and Danube in Yugoslavia, saying
concentrations of cyanide and heavy metals had dropped to safe levels. The
pollution passed through Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, earlier this
week.
Wallstroem, the EU health commissioner, said in Budapest on Thursday that
she wanted a task force set up ``within a few weeks'' to assess and control
damage and prevent future similar accidents. The EU would consider helping
fund the task force, she added. (AP)
For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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