Cyanide Spill Eliminates Marine Life in Europe’s Tisa River
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BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — In what may be Europe’s worst environmental disaster since the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, a cyanide spill contaminating a major river has moved into Yugoslavia, destroying all life in the water, local officials said Saturday.
The spill originated in northwest Romania, near the border town of Oradea, where a dam at a gold mine overflowed Jan. 30, pouring cyanide into streams. From there, the polluted water flowed west into the Tisa River in neighboring Hungary and then into Yugoslavia.
“Enormous quantities of dead fish are floating on the surface, and the spill continues to spread,” Senta Mayor Atila Juhas said in a telephone interview.
The most polluted part of the flow was moving south, and more serious damage was expected when those waters reach the Danube River, probably early today. The spill was moving at about 2 1/2 mph.
“The Tisa is a dead river. All life in it, from algae to trout, has been destroyed,” said Istvan Backulin, the mayor of an affected town in the north. “The spill is leaving nothing alive.”
Juhas said drinking water is safe because supplies come from wells far enough from the river.
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