| 000214 |
| Dead fish in Danube as cyanide flows downriver |
| Romania
says goldmine ignored environment warnings Roxana
Dascalu BUCHAREST, Feb 9 (Reuters) - A Romanian minister on Wednesday accused a local gold smelter, half owned by an Australian gold mining firm, of ignoring warnings that cyanide could spill into a river flowing from Romania into Hungary. But Esmeralda Exploration
Ltd(ESE.AX), which owns 50 percent of the Aurul SA gold project in
Romania, denied the charges.
Officials in both Hungary and Romania say the Tisza river was badly
polluted by cyanide from the plant on January 31. ``We have issued
repeated written warnings over the past year to the (Aurul) plant, asking
them to check again all their technological equipment,'' Virgil Diaconu,
deputy minister in charge of environmental protection, told Reuters.
``We asked them to take all the steps needed to ensure maximum
environmental safety, but it seems that they ignored those warnings,''
Diaconu said.
Speaking from Australia, Esmeralda's media adviser Chris Codrington,
told Reuters in Bucharest on Wednesday that there wad been no ``repeated
warning'' against the Romanian smelter.
``There has been no repeated warning from the EPA (Environmental
Protection Authority),'' Codrington said by phone from Perth.
``There has been only one on-site (EPA) visit last year, which resulted
in a suggestion unrelated to the incident.
``Repairs to the tailing dam wall have been made under the EPA
supervision,'' he added, without elaborating.
Hungary on Tuesday blamed Romania for the cyanide spill in the Tisza
river. Hungarian towns have closed water intakes along the river which
flows from Romania into Hungary, with officials saying there had been
widespread deaths among birds and fish.
Romania said the incident was the worst in the past decade, and has
ordered the closure of the Aurul plant, based in the northeast city of
Baia Mare, pending investigations.
Earlier on Wednesday, Esmeralda played down Hungarian reports of the
damage, saying a cyanide overflow had occurred on Sunday, January 30, from
the Aurul SA project dam, caused by heavy rain and snowfalls at the plant.
``It is important to stress that the incident was an overflow and not a
structural failure or a leak,'' Esmeralda said in a statement issued in
Australia.
The Romanian government is a 45 percent shareholder in Aurul with
private Romanian interests owning the other five percent.
Romania's Deputy Environment Minister Anton Vlad is to meet Hungary's
environment minister in the Romanian city of Oradea on Thursday to discuss
the incident.
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| Dead
fish in Danube as cyanide flows downriver By Ivana Jeremic SLANKAMEN, Yugoslavia, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Hundreds of dead fish floated in the Danube River on Sunday after cyanide from a Romanian gold smelter flowed from a tributary into Europe's largest waterway. But Serbia's Deputy Agriculture Minister Zivka Ilic told state television there was no danger to people in towns along the Danube as the cyanide would be diluted by the river water. "The maximum concentrations we measured are 0.06 milligrams per litre of water and the allowable maximum is 0.1 milligrams," she said. "The danger has passed." Yugoslavia's official Tanjug news agency said the cyanide level was 1.1 milligrams per litre at the Hungarian town of Szeged bordering Yugoslavia on Friday night. The cyanide reached the Danube from the tributary Tisza River on Sunday at the small Serbian village of Slankamen, about 50 km (30 miles) upstream from the Yugoslav capital Belgrade. Ilic said cyanide in lower concentrations was expected to reach the Belgrade suburb of Zemun late on Sunday. Hundreds of dead and dying fish could be seen around the junction of the Danube and the Tisza on Sunday afternoon. Local fisherman Zvonko Joric described the situation as an ecological disaster and the second time in less than a year he had been prevented from working. He said the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia last year had also prevented him from fishing. Hungarian and Romanian officials have said the Tisza was polluted by a cyanide spill from the Aurul SA gold plant based in the northern Romanian city of Baia Mare on January 31. The river flows from northern Romania through Hungary to the Danube. Hungarian towns along the Tisza banned the use of water, fishing and sales of fish. Serbian Environmental Protection Minister Branislav Blazic said dead fish collected from the Tisza would be destroyed. "I will insist on the filing of an international suit against those who are responsible, so they are adequately punished and for our country to be compensated for the damage we suffered," he told Belgrade radio. Australia's Esmeralda Exploration Ltd , which owns 50 percent of the Aural project, has said the spill was an overflow from the tailing dam on January 30 caused by heavy rain and snowfalls in the area. The Romanian government owns 45 percent of Aurul, with private Romanian interests holding the other five percent. |
| WWF renews call for EU action against toxic
waste 02/11/00 BRUSSELS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Environmental group World Wide Fund for Nature urged the European Commission on Friday to take steps to prevent disasters caused by toxic waste. Reacting to a recent
cyanide spill blamed for the widespread destruction of fish and wildlife
in eastern Europe, the organisation warned about other potential
catastrophies and urged the Commission to adopt recommendations made a
year ago.
``WWF considers metal mining activities to be a major threat to
freshwater ecosystems in Europe,'' it said in a statement. It said that
over 300 kmm (200 miles) of rivers had been affected by a spill from the
Aurul gold smelter in Baia Mare, northwest Romania, leaving them
ecologically dead and causing Hungary's worst ecological disaster.
In a report a year ago the group said there was evidence of significant
pollution problems caused by leaks from toxic waste stores associated with
metal mining in several European Union countries and criticised the
absence of regulation.
``The tragic cyanide spill into the Tisza river was a disaster waiting
to happen. The only question is where will the next one strike?'' said
Jane Madgwick, head of WWF's European freshwater programme.
WWF said the EU Commission should draw up an inventory of toxic waste
stores in Europe, develop safer ways of mine waste disposal and revise
European environmental laws.
Countries seeking membership of the 15-nation bloc, which include
Romania and Hungary, ought also to be associated to the EU action, WWF
said.
The Commission, which has responsibility for initiating new laws in the
15-nation bloc, this week adopted a discussion paper proposing that
polluting companies pay for damage caused to nature and not just persons
and goods.
The paper, which is expected to be followed by draft legislation,
proposes that polluters be held liable, for example, for the disappearance
of species of fish or birds from their natural habitats. Current national
laws only force them to clean up contaminated sites.
Hungarian authorities have hauled tonnes of dead fish from the Tisza
which runs through central Hungary and is a water source for many towns
and villages. The two countries are cooperating in seeking restitution for
the destruction caused by the spill at the smelter half owned by
Australia's Esmeralda Ltd.
The EU's environmental liability paper follows several ecological
catastrophies in recent years including the recent oil spill at France's
western coastline caused by the break up the Erika tanker and the
incident, two years ago, near the Donana nature reserve in the South of
Spain. |
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