A former senior Irish EU official, Mr Tom Garvey, has been appointed to lead the International Taskforce on Danube Pollution. It will investigate the disastrous spillage of cyanide into the confluence of the Tisza River in Romania on January 30th.
Mr Garvey, a former An Post chief executive and board member, was the Commission's deputy director general for the environment when he retired in 1998. Yesterday he said his challenge was to produce an agreed damage assessment and costing based on scientific evidence, and recommendations on what will be needed to clear the pollution and prevent a recurrence. The task force will have representation from the EU, Hungary and Romania, the UN Environment Programme, the Worldwide Fund for Nature and the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube.
The accident, at a gold-mining complex run jointly by an Australian firm and the Romanian state, spilled over 100,000 cubic metres of cyanide-tainted water into a river which flows eventually into the Danube.
Hungary said over 100 tonnes of dead fish were found in the Tisza River, which runs for 500 km through eastern Hungary before flowing into the Danube in Serbia. The cyanide first entered rivers in northern Romania near the Hungarian border.
Romania said yesterday it had been told by the EU Commission that there will be no EU ban on its fish following tests by the Union's veterinary committee.
