Krupa (Lahinja)

Krupaquelle

Dam directly on the Krupaquelle

The short river Krupa in the south- Slovenian Bela Krajina ("white mark") is, among other things because of its picturesque turquoise karst spring since 1997 under nature protection; the river also includes linking Natura 2000 network., it is the most water-rich source of Bela Krajina, the springs below the village of Krupa. Since the Bela Krajina is a karst landscape, which generally suffers from lack of water, they wanted to use in the 1980s, this source of drinking water supply. The entire length of the river is about 2.5 km, the average water flow about 1000 l / s The Krupa opens below Gradac in the Lahinja. The Lahinja flows a few kilometers further, at Primostek, in the Kolpa, which is also a nature reserve. The Kolpa in turn flows into the Sava and it empties into the Danube at Belgrade.

Contamination by PCBs

In 1984 years was discovered by scientists at the Health Department in Maribor and later in Ljubljana that Krupa has been contaminated by improperly stored waste from the company Iskra Kondenzatorji from Semič with PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls ). The source water should be used for drinking water for the Bela Krajina. Particularly problematic is the fact that this is a karst landscape. Even today, the burden of PCBs is high and can be detected in soil samples, fish in the water, in domestic animals and humans.