The landscape of Geamăna is a reminder of the impact mining has on local communities and environments. A nearby copper mine, Rosia Poieni, continues to leak its contaminated deposits further into the water sources of surrounding areas.
Geamana church flooded with toxic waste, Flickr.com, CC BY NC-ND-2.0
Geamăna, Romania was once a quaint village nestled in the Sesii Valley of the Apuseni Mountains, a range in Transylvania, Romania. In the late 1970s, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu made way for a new copper mining project called Rosia Poieni. Work began in less than a year and the 400 families who lived in Geamăna were evacuated. Their village was replaced by an artificial lake used as a catch basin for the large quantities of toxic waste the mining project produced.
Before displacing the villagers in Geamăna, the government promised the residents they would be relocated to a new village five miles away. They ended up being moved more than 60 miles away, receiving land and a small amount of money. Locals were upset because the government didn’t fulfill their promise to relocate the community’s gravesite, which still remains around the flooded church.
Rosia Poieni is Romania’s largest copper mine and the second-largest copper mine in Europe. The mine is owned by the state company, CupruMin. In its prime, the copper pit produced 11,000 tons of copper a year, representing 65% of the total copper reserves in Romania. Before 1993, the discharge into the lake contained very few metals. When they could no longer sell the iron sulfate, CupruMin began discharging it into the water.
Ever since, the metals released and the acidity of the water have increased significantly. As of 2016, more than 130 million tons of tailings containing metals such as copper, iron and zinc, have been discharged into the settling basin, an act referred to as “acid mine drainage.” Despite measures to counteract the phenomenon, a 2000 report by the French Geological Survey found the water to be very acidic, with a pH of 2.7.
Recurring incidents of contaminated water leaking from the basin have spread pollution as far as Turda, a city more than 50 miles downstream. In 2008, millions of fish were found floating in the Aries river, a distributary of the Valea Șesii that connects to the artificial lake, as a result of CupruMin’s failure to charge the electric pumps that protect the area from biohazards. In 2011, a broken pipe led to 100 tons of waste poured into another nearby river, the Curmătura, and eventually into the Aries. Another incident occurred in 2012 when a few mineshafts flooded, spilling more of the contaminated water into the Aries.
CupruMin receives fines from the local authorities every year for their actions, but these reprimands don’t seem to have much of an effect. The deposit of the Rosia Poieni copper mine is estimated at 900,000 tons, allowing the company to continue its exploitation for at least 20 years. As production continues, the contaminated lake will only expand and increase the range of its environmental impact. All that’s left to be seen of the old village of Geamăna today is the spire of what was once the town’s church, engulfed in toxic water: a surreal landscape that serves as a striking image of what could become of nearby towns if CupruMin isn’t held accountable.
Claire Redden
Claire Redden is a freelance journalist from Chicago, where she received her Bachelor’s of Communications from the University of Illinois. While living and studying in Paris, Claire wrote for the magazine, Toute La Culture. As a freelancer she contributes to travel guides for the up and coming brand, Thalby. She plans to take her skills to London, where she’ll pursue her Master’s of Arts and Lifestyle Journalism at the University of Arts, London College of Communication.