05 Nov 2002,
Sarospatak, Alexandra Kalsner
Heavy metal and nitrate pollution in private wells
 
It is snowing again. Sarospatak, pretty little touristy village. Our infoday had two “highlights”: the positive one was: we got about 150 signatures (!!) against the goldmining Project in Rosia Montana. The opposition to the Rosia Montana gold project is strong in Hungary, as hungarian rivers would be directly affected from any incident such as a cyanid spill.
 
The second “highlight”, was scandalous: a man brought us a sample from his private well, which had  0,13 mg/l lead (which is 13 times higher than the standard) and 5,7 mg/l of iron (30 times higher than the standard). Drinking this water would cause lead and iron poisoning. In high concentration, lead and iron can cause stomach pains, diarrhea, as well as affecting the nervous sistem, kidneys, red blood cells and brain. It is also especially dangerous for children. The cause of this high concentration of metal could be either industrial activities or groundwater pollution from a landfill site. We are considering informing the local authorities.
 
In 9 out of the 13 water samples, we found a minimum contamination of 25 mg/l nitrate, (one sample even showed 350 mg!! the highest we have ever had). Nitrate at this level can lead to headache, difficulty in breathing, blue hands and lips as well as causing cancer. High concentrations of Nitrate in water maybe a result of fertilizers used in agriculture, and are not recommendable as drinking water

 

 
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