UNEP News Release
For information only
Not an official record


Jointly issued by UNEP and OCHA

United Nations experts begin scientific assessment
of cyanide spill damage
 
UNEP/OCHA team begin sampling at Baia Mare mine site
in Romania

BUCHAREST, 25 February 2000 - A team of international experts from the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP) and Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) start work here today on a scientific assessment of the environmental damage caused by the recent cyanide spill and other waste products from the Baia Mare gold mine in northwestern Romania.   

In a response to a request for emergency assistance from Romania, Hungary and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the team, made-up of 13 scientists from Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Sweden,Switzerland and the United Kingdom will carry-out a rapid two-week assessment of the environmental impact of the spill in the countries affected.  Experts from the World Health Organisation and the UN Economic Commission for Europe are also working with the team. The European Commission will also be represented in Romania and Hungary.  

The emergency assistance by the United Nations team is being carried out with the support of a number of international organisations including the Vienna-based International Convention on the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), and follows last week's announcement by European Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstroem that a task force would be set-up to ascertain the extent of the pollution caused by the cyanide spill into the Danube and other rivers.   

After meetings with authorities in Bucharest today (including Romanian scientists from relevant ministries and institutes), the team will travel to the Baia Mare dam site on Saturday and work in the region until Monday.  In Baia Mare, the experts will also meet with representatives from the Esmeralda mining company.  Also, today, part of the UN team will travel to the Danube delta (where it its estimated that the cyanide plume is now) and take water samples over the weekend. 

In Hungary next week, the scientists will divide into two sampling teams working at different locations on the Tisza and Samos rivers.  From 2 to 4 March, the scientists plan to take samples from the Tisza and Danube rivers in Yugoslavia. The scientists will have at their disposal three mobile laboratories from the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland.  

During the rapid assessment and fact-finding mission, the UNEP/OCHA team will also meet with relevant national authorities, experts and other representatives (from non-governmental organisations and affected local communities) in each of the three countries.  A report, outlining the conclusions and recommendations of the mission, will be made available to the national authorities of the affected countries, and as a contribution to the coordinated international response to the spill advocated by the European Commission to all relevant parties.  

Note to journalists. For more information contact Anders Renlund, mission press officer on mobile: +41-79-629-0236, email: anders.renlund@unep.ch or Robert Bisset, UNEP Office of the Spokesman on tel: +254-2-623084, mobile +41-79-20603726 (until 27 February), email: robert.bisset@unep.org   In OCHA, contact Donato Kiniger-Passigli on +41-22-917-2653, email: kiniger-passigli@un.org