2000 Baia Mare cyanide spill
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In Baia Mare ( Mrs. Bach ), in Romania, on the evening of 30 January 2000, a dam break a tailings pond, which had a serious environmental disaster consequence occurred.
The dam break
After heavy rains broke out on January 30, 2000 probably around 23 clock in the city of Baia Mare in northwest Romania, the dam of a gold ore processing plant. 100,000 m³, according to other information at least 300,000 m³ mixed with heavy metals Natriumcyanidlauge flooded the adjoining area and came across the Sasar -Bach and the rivers Lapus and Somes (Hungarian Somes ) in the Tisza and the Danube. On the afternoon of 1 February 2000, loaded with 100 tonnes of cyanide pollution wave reached the border with Hungary, after two weeks, they flowed into the Danube. On 28 February 2000, after four weeks, she came to a total of 2000 kilometers of flow path in the Danube Delta in Tulcea in Romania.
The breach in the dam was closed until 2 February 2000.
Data of the dam
The facility was 51 percent owned by the Australian company Aurul / Esmeralda and 49 percent owned by the Romanian state company Remin.
- Maximum storage capacity: 1.6 million m³
- Area: 94 ha
- Dam length: 4000 m
Follow
A massive fish kill was the result. More than 1,400 tons of fish were killed. It was the largest environmental disaster in Eastern Europe since the reactor accident at Chernobyl in 1986 and had serious consequences for the environment in Romania. The livelihoods of several hundred fishermen along the Tisza River in Hungary was destroyed. In some Hungarian cities, the water supply was interrupted for several days. In Romania, the poison flowed via ditches in the village Bozânta Mare and poisoned drinking water and soil located at the dam. As a countermeasure, sodium hypochlorite was added to oxidize the toxic to Zyanidverbindung acceptable salts immediately.
Causes
The causes of the accident were a mixture of design flaws, lack of control, insufficient risk management and extreme weather conditions. According to research by the inspection probably caused a local heave an overflow of the dam, followed by a 25 m wide and about 2.5 m deep breach arose. So it could be an uncontrolled break, as there was no permanent security controls over the pipes, deposits and the settling tank. The exact date and the actual amount of water has flowed could only be estimated because there were no permanent measurements.
Aftermath
Security measures at the gold processing in Baia Mare have now been improved. An additional catch basin was built. The pipes and the dam are now committed every two hours and checked so that leaks can be quickly identified and corrected. The cyanide concentration is also measured regularly.
Artistic processing
Published in 2009 the German NDH band Rammstein on their album "Love is there for everyone " a song called " Danube children ", which deals with the disaster.