Mine Tailings Storage: Safety Is No Accident

Case study: Romania

SLOVAKIA

UKRAINE

Tisa

Tisa

HUNGARY

Somes

Borsa

Baia Mare

ROMANIA

Locations of tailings spills Affected by Borsa spill

Affected by Baia Mare spill Affected by both spills Protected areas intersected by polluted rivers* Other protected areas *Some protected areas are multi-part sites

L ÓPEZ , 2017 20 km

Progress of the spill plume

SLOVAKIA

UKRAINE

30 January Cyanide spill occurs at Baia Mare, Romania 1 February Spill plume reaches Romanian-Hungarian border 5 February Cyanide registers in tests at Tiszalök 9 February Spill plume reaches Szolnok 11 February It crosses the Hungarian-Yugoslavian border 13 February It reaches Belgrade (Perlez), Yugoslavia 15 February It meets the Romanian border again, at Ram 17 February Cyanide registres in tests at Iron Gate, Romania 25-28 February The plume reaches the Danube Delta

Miskolc

9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

3

HUNGARY

2

MOLDOVA

Baia Mare

1

Budapest

Tisza

4

Szeged

5

ROMANIA

Danube

Timisoara

9

6

Belgrade

8

7

Bucharest

BlackSea

YUGOSLAVIA

Danube

BULGARIA

Sources: UNEP/OCHA, 2000, The Cyanide Spill at Baia Mare, Romania. Before, During and After.

Figure 18. The location of the Baia Mare and Borsa tailings disasters in Romania and the affected rivers

45