Abstract

The paper presents the waste management of tailing dam facilities from Baia Mare area, Romania, an old mining region where the extraction and the processing of gold-silver ore and the complex ore is a tradition. The main characteristic of tailing dam facilities from that area is that they are in the final phase of their life cycle, respectively in the closure, post-closure or conservation phase. This is one of the reasons why implementing the suitable management for those mining facilities represents a challenge, in terms of enhancing the environmental performances and providing economical benefits. In order to adopt the adequate management techniques, the paper analyses the chemical contents of tailings from the studied facilities, the geological particularities of rocks in that area and the characteristics of the drainage collected in the ditches from the base of tailings dam facilities. The purpose of mine waste management proposed for the tailing dams of Baia Mare region is to reduce the environmental impact generated by tailing dam facilities and maximize the environmental performances in the region.

Assessing risks related to urban soil contamination represents a key part of pollution management. The current research proposes a quantitative method that defines and highlights unacceptable risks. The applicability of the method is presented in a case study on several urban recreational areas from the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Concentrations of As, Cu, Cd, Zn, Pb, Hg, Co, Ni and Mg were identified in a number of 48 soil samples from 12 intensively used recreational areas in Cluj-Napoca. The proposed risk assessment method is applied, and potential risks are calculated for all locations.