(Environmental Compliance) a Catastrophe of Europe

A Catastrophe of Europe

Kyereme Blanding

Embry Riddle

Environmental Compliance and Safety

SFTY345

Professor Mary Gorman

April 08, 2013

Abstract

Today our planet is in a state of influx as chemicals, pollution and oils spills have ravaged the earth’s eco systems and biodiversity, shrinking the numbers of species, making the environment uninhabitable and the water unsafe to consume. Is it safe to say what lies for the future of the earth, as profit margins still outstretch the concern for environment problems? Compared to an individual or small group direct effect on the environment, corporations have caused the majority of unstable economical shifts on a large scale with the introduction of toxic materials. February 2000 the Baia Mare cyanide spill was considered one the most troublesome disasters in Europe, weighing the same affect Chernobyl disaster has. Considered as a catastrophe of Europe, the Baia Mare cyanide spill threatened the water supplies of 2.5 million people in Central Europe by exposing the environment to 100,000 cubic meters of cyanide and other toxic materials. This examination will look at the background and the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the Aurul, a joint-venture of the Australian company Esmeralda Exploration and the Romanian government, the causation of the spill, the effects and impacts on the environment, reactions from the public and the state of the environment today.

Esmeralda Exploration Incident Background

In 1998, Aurul, a joint-venture of the Australian company Esmeralda Exploration (a mining company) and the Romanian government started their gold mining operations in Baia Mare, Romania. In order for the Aurul to extract the precious metal they had to separate the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of the ore, causing tailings, or leach residue. The tailings from the Esmeralda Exploration’s operations created a deadly cyanide compound in which the leaching agent in extreme diluted...