Mine Spill Sparks Romania Warning

Romania’s environment minister Saturday threatened to close mining companies that do not respect the government’s safety regulations, a day after 20,000 tons of heavy metal escaped from a zinc and lead mine in northwestern Romania.

The latest accident, which came six weeks after a deadly cyanide spill, occurred Friday when melting snow and torrential rains cracked a dam at the state-owned Baia Borsa mine, 235 miles northwest of Bucharest, sending a wave of zinc- and lead-laden waters into the Vaser River.

There were no immediate reports of dead fish, and water samples were being measured every two hours, Romanian state radio reported. The worst floods in 30 years inundated the northwestern region, making work difficult.

“The mining companies didn’t take into account the regulations we made,” said Romica Tomescu, the environment minister. “We will move to close companies which do not comply with [our] regulations for safe exploitation.”

At the mine, about 50 workers were mending the 75-foot-wide, 35-foot-high hole that formed in the dam. The governor of Maramures county, Gheorghe Barlea, said the 2,400 employees at the zinc and lead mine could lose their jobs if the company cannot come up with another containment dam.

The government reported that waters in the Vaser, Viseu and the Romanian section of the Tisza rivers had dangerous levels of zinc, iron and lead.

Tomescu said midday Saturday that heavy-metal levels in the Romanian section of the Tisza had substantially decreased. Earlier, the zinc level was nine times higher than allowable, and lead was almost double the acceptable limit, he said.

The Tisza forms a short section of the Romanian-Ukrainian border and then enters Hungary and Yugoslavia before flowing into the Danube River, a major European waterway.

The pollutants reached Hungarian territory early Saturday evening, Hungarian state radio reported.

Hinting that his nation might sue Romania, Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban said: “Hungary will have to resort to legal action” if similar damage cannot be avoided in future.

The spill came after tons of cyanide-laden waters spilled into a creek from the Aurul gold mine, 60 miles west of Baia Borsa, in late January.

The cyanide flowed into three Balkan rivers and the Danube, killing fish and other wildlife and temporarily poisoning water supplies for river communities.

Janos Goenczy, a Hungarian government official, said the latest pollution was especially worrisome because parts of the Tisza that had not been tainted by the cyanide pollution were now under threat of heavy-metal contamination.

“The presence of heavy metals means it is a very insidious sort of pollution, which can cause serious organic changes,” Goenczy said.

Andrei Svoronos, head of Romania’s Danube Delta natural reserve, said he believes that the ore would not flow as far as the cyanide because it would settle into riverbeds.