18 February, 2000


Gland, Switzerland - Following a visit to the site yesterday with European Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom, experts from WWF, the conservation organisation, have warned that the tailing lagoon at the Romanian mine, the scene of a deadly toxic spill nearly three weeks ago, may still not have been fully secured. It could be a further threat to people and waterways in the region.

"Preventing further damage should be one of the first priorities," said Guido Schmidt, a WWF Freshwater specialist who visited the mine and surrounding areas. "International experts should assess the tailings pond and ensure that sufficient repair measures are undertaken immediately. The effect of the heavy metals in the toxic sludge is of immense concern to us at the moment."

The toxic spill was the result of a dam of a tailing lagoon breaking at the Australian-Romanian owned gold mine in Baia Mare, north-western Romania, on 30 January 2000. 100,000m3 of toxic sludge contaminated with cyanide and heavy metals flowed into Romania's Lapus and Somes rivers, then into Hungary's Tisza river and the Danube in Yugoslavia. Virtually all aquatic life in the Hungary's upper Tisza river died as a result.

According to WWF the most immediate threat was to people living in the areas closest to the scene of the spill - for example, in Bozinta Mare, a town of two to three thousand people that lies on the Lapus river within 2km of the tailing lagoon dam.

"Most of the people in this town draw their water from wells in their backyards - but many of the town's wells are contaminated; official laboratory tests show that the level of cyanide in some of them is over 60 times the limit for drinking water," added Guido Schmidt. "The people of Bozinta Mare must be offered an alternative water source."

WWF has however welcomed and supported the initiatives taken jointly by the European Commission and governments of Romania and Hungary to:
· immediately assess in detail what has happened at the mine in Baia Mare;
· assess the extent of damage to the environment, and to people and their livelihoods along all the affected rivers;
· assess what can be done to repair the damage and rehabilitate the environment.

Cooperation between Romania and Hungary has been good but international support and expertise is needed. WWF is prepared to help with expertise in river restoration. WWF also believes that the "polluter pays" principle should be upheld, as stated by Romanian environment minister, Mr Romica Tomescu . This is an established legal principle in Romanian law.


For further information: Guido Schmidt: mobile +34 670 601 893; Philip Weller: tel +43 1 488 17 271, mobile +41 79 238 9652, email Philip.Weller@wwf.at; Laszlo Harasthy: tel +36 1 375 4780.


Notes: One threat to local populations is from oxidised particles of heavy metals from mining waste ore, which can easily be inhaled by both people and animals. During the normal production process, mining waste ore is milled into extremely fine stone ore dust, which is dissolved in water before cyanide is applied to the mix. The chemical reaction makes the gold and silver metal float, enabling collection. The rest - the tailings - goes into a tailing lagoon, where the fine stone dust must be covered with water to prevent it from oxidising.

"WWF demands immediate government action on toxic spill "

14 February, 2000


Gland, Switzerland - WWF, the conservation organization, today urged the Romanian and Hungarian governments not to underestimate the seriousness of the catastrophic toxic spill into rivers in both countries two weeks ago, and to provide full access and support to specialists in both countries to enable them to assess the environmental impact.

The spill, which reached the Danube in Yugoslavia yesterday, originated in Baia Mare, north-western Romania on 30 January after a dam broke at a tailing lagoon at a Australian-Romanian owned gold mine. Around 100,000m3 of toxic sludge contaminated with cyanides and heavy metals spilled into the Lapus and Somes (Hungarian: Szamo) rivers, and reached the Hungarian border several days later. It killed virtually all aquatic life in the Hungary's upper Tisza river. It now seems clear that despite the danger to people living on the rivers' banks and wildlife living in the river or depending on it, news of the spill was not immediately made public by the governments of either country.

"We've experienced enough delays already," said WWF Hungary Conservation Director György Gado. "The time for the two Governments to act is now - not next week, and not next month. We first need to move quickly to properly assess the level of the damage, secondly implement a recovery plan, and thirdly start looking at what needs to be done to prevent similar accidents in future1."

The upper Tisza is an extremely diverse freshwater ecosystem - of the 29 species of protected fish in Hungary, 19 of them can be found in this stretch of the river. So far more 100 tonnes of dead fish have been collected from the river's surface - but many more are believed to be lying on the river bottom. In addition to those species directly affected by the toxic spill, there is a secondary danger to all species which feed on anything living in the river, including birds - for example the white-tailed sea eagle.

"This spill has, in practical terms, eradicated all life from a stretch of up to 400km of the Tisza river," added György Gado. "We won't know the real extent of the damage until an evaluation can be carried out in spring - but we know already that the rehabilitation of the river will take decades. The sooner we can fully assess the impact of the spill, the sooner we will know what it will take to recover what has been lost."

For further information:

Visit the Crisis: Rivers of Cyanide site.

György Gado, WWF Hungary, tel +36 1 375 4780;
Jasmine Bachmann, WWF International Danube Carpathian Programme Office, tel +43 1 488 17 253;
Shaleen Russell, WWF International: tel +41 22 364 9571 or +41 79 477 3553.

Notes

1. WWF last week called on the European Commission to follow-up recommendations for preventing similar accidents within the EU, including compiling an inventory of toxic waste lagoons. The recommendations came out of a report released last year pinpointing hotspot areas throughout Europe, in the wake of the ecological disaster affecting the Guadiamar river and the Doñana wetland in Southern Spain in April 1998.