Tailings ponds · Romania
Romania’s 152 tailings ponds: where they are, which villages lie below them, and the risk score they were given
On the night of 30 January 2000 water overtopped and breached the dam of a gold-processing pond at Baia Mare, in north-western Romania. About 100,000 cubic metres of cyanide-laced water ran into the Lăpuș and the Someș and on into the Tisza and the Danube, killing fish in Hungary and Serbia. On 4 October 2010 the red-mud reservoir of the alumina plant at Ajka, in Hungary, burst: almost a million cubic metres of caustic sludge reached seven villages and killed ten people.
A 2020 inventory of tailings ponds in the Danube basin, written by experts of the Danube river commission (ICPDR) and Germany’s environment agency, opens with those two accidents. Its list of past failures has one Romanian entry with deaths: at Certej in 1971 a tailings dam gave way and 89 people died. It lists 343 ponds; 152 of them are in Romania, holding about 469 million cubic metres of mine waste, power-station ash, red mud, sludge and oil residues. 1,754 of Romania’s 13,411 villages and towns have one within 10 km.
The inventory scores each pond on its condition: 0 if rehabilitated, 1 if closed, 3 if abandoned or still in use. The Tăuții de Sus pond outside Baia Mare and the ponds at Teliuc scored 0. In March 2020, the year of the report, a Romanian government decision allocated funding for closure works at those same ponds, works that “remain to be done”. The deadlines are now the end of 2027 for Tăuții de Sus and the end of 2028 for Teliuc and Certej.
#Which tailings pond is near your town?
Type a village or town. The page shows the nearest pond, whether the place lies down the valley from it, how much it holds and the score it got. You can also pick on the map: a click on a circle opens that pond, a click anywhere else picks the nearest town.
13,411 villages and towns, with their commune and county.
All 152 ponds in the inventory, at the coordinates of the map published with the report.
If you see muddy water or sludge coming from under a pond’s dam, or the dam slumping, call 112, Romania’s emergency number.
#What score did the ponds of mines the state calls abandoned get?
The report, UBA TEXTE 185/2020, written by experts of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) and Germany’s environment agency, gives every pond a risk index. One component is its condition (the report’s Table 4): 0 for a rehabilitated pond, 1 for a closed one, 3 for one that is abandoned or active. The method explains why: closed ponds “might still miss necessary safety measures”, and abandoned ones may be as hazardous as active ones because nobody watches them.
Across all 343 ponds in the basin, none got a 1. Romania has 125 ponds scored 0 and 27 scored 3. No pond received the separate score for “closed”, and the report does not say why; it says only that many inactive ponds “were already rehabilitated or are currently under rehabilitation”. For Romania it says the data were “revised and approved by national experts”; it does not say what a 0 meant for each pond. For several ponds, the Romanian state’s own documents say plainly that they have not been closed.
What the Romanian state’s own documents say
The final closure of the Baia Sprie, Certej and Teliuc mines was approved by Government Decision 644/2007. Works on their ponds were funded under Decision 1034/2010, then under Decision 181/2020 of 10 March 2020, which allocated funding for closure works “started” under Decision 1034/2010 that “remain to be done”. In November 2025, Decision 953/2025 moved the deadline to the end of 2027 for Tăuții de Sus and the end of 2028 for Certej and Teliuc. Its annex gives the year activity stopped: 2006 at Tăuții de Sus and Certej, 2005 at Teliuc.
“… making safe and rehabilitating the tailings ponds belonging to mining perimeters abandoned for over three decades: Certej mine, the Valea Mireșului and Valea Mealu ponds […]; Teliuc mine, ponds 1, 2 and 3 […]; and Baia Sprie mine, the Tăuții de Sus pond […].”
Press release of the Romanian economy and environment ministries, 14 November 2025 (translated). “Over three decades” is the release’s phrase; the decision’s annex gives 2005–2006.
On the inventory’s map, the points of these ponds score 0, with one exception: the Certej pond whose dam failed in 1971 scores 3. The decision does not say whether that is Valea Mireșului or Valea Mealu.
| Pond | Code | Volume | Score | What satellite imagery shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| the Tăuții de Sus pond | RO35 | 6.0 million m³ | 0 | Bare tailings beach with erosion rills; north half grassed. No works visible (May 2024). |
| a Teliuc mine pond | RO11 | 5.1 million m³ | 0 | Two flat tailings deposits split by a dam; the southern one bare, the northern half grassed (Sept 2020). |
| a Teliuc mine pond | RO12 | 4.2 million m³ | 0 | Same dam as RO11, 9 m away: the second of the two deposits. |
| a Teliuc mine pond | RO62 | 7.6 million m³ | 0 | Oval deposit covered by scrub and young trees, on the edge of Hunedoara (Sept 2020). |
| the other Certej mine pond | RO7 | 1.2 million m³ | 0 | Water in two arms, a beach partly colonised by plants, forest all round (June 2021). |
| the Certej pond whose dam failed in 1971 | RO5 | 5.8 million m³ | 3 | This is where the dam failed in 1971. Bare tailings cut by gullies on the face towards the village; the north-east part wooded (June 2021). |
Near Teliuc the inventory has two more codes scored 0, RO59 and RO60. RO59’s point falls in woodland at the foot of the RO62 deposit and has exactly the same volume, so it looks like a duplicate; RO60’s point falls in an active dolomite quarry. Neither is named here.
#How the ranking would change if the ponds were scored as closed
The report’s risk index adds a pond’s hazard score (how much it holds, how toxic, its condition, earthquakes, floods, the dam) to a score for the people and waters below it. With a 0, the Tăuții de Sus pond ranks 25th of 343. With a 1, the score for a closed pond, it would rise to 9th, in the top ten. With a 3, the score for an abandoned pond, it would rank 1st in the whole Danube basin.
That is this page’s own calculation: the same formula and data, with the condition score changed according to Table 4 for this pond alone and every other score held fixed. It is not an official ranking; it shows how much one score matters.
#The ponds with the most people in their risk zone
The report counts the people in the settlements down the valley, out to 10 km, and puts them in bands. 33 Romanian ponds are classed by the inventory as having at least 10,000 people in their risk zone; 10 of them at least 100,000. Of the 33, 30 have a condition score of 0. The zones overlap, so the bands cannot be added up into a head count.
| Pond | Material | Volume | People in the 10 km zone | Status score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The pond near Dudu Chiajna, Ilfov county · RO94 | sludge | 955 thousand m³ | at least 100,000 people | 3 |
| The Tăuții de Sus pond Baia Sprie, Maramureș county · RO35 | mineral processing slurry | 6.0 million m³ | at least 100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Șoimuș Șoimuș, Hunedoara county · RO9 | mineral processing slurry | 4.0 million m³ | at least 100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Dudu Chiajna, Ilfov county · RO93 | sludge | 151 thousand m³ | at least 100,000 people | 3 |
| The pond near Dudu Chiajna, Ilfov county · RO92 | sludge | 135 thousand m³ | at least 100,000 people | 3 |
| The pond near Șotânga Șotânga, Dâmbovița county · RO110 | power-station fly ash | 3.5 million m³ | at least 100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Colanu Ulmi, Dâmbovița county · RO86 | mineral processing slurry | 32 thousand m³ | at least 100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Doicești Doicești, Dâmbovița county · RO109 | power-station fly ash | 1.2 million m³ | at least 100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Petrila Petrila, Hunedoara county · RO51 | power-station fly ash | 813 thousand m³ | at least 100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Teliucu Inferior Teliucu Inferior, Hunedoara county · RO60 · the map point falls on no pond | mineral processing slurry | 8.1 million m³ | at least 100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Țărățel Brad, Hunedoara county · RO10 | mineral processing slurry | 11 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Fundu Moldovei Fundu Moldovei, Suceava county · RO147 | mineral processing slurry | 912 thousand m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Bocșa Bocșa, Caraș-Severin county · RO25 | other material (the inventory does not say which) | 1.7 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Ostra Ostra, Suceava county · RO145 | mineral processing slurry | 501 thousand m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Fânațe Câmpani, Bihor county · RO47 | mineral processing slurry | 2.7 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Suseni Zlatna, Alba county · RO15 | mineral processing slurry | 1.7 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Doman Reșița, Caraș-Severin county · RO40 | mineral processing slurry | 158 thousand m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Bălan Bălan, Harghita county · RO3 | mineral processing slurry | 11 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Cavnic Cavnic, Maramureș county · RO38 | mineral processing slurry | 603 thousand m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Teiș Șotânga, Dâmbovița county · RO112 | power-station fly ash | 4.5 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Șotânga Șotânga, Dâmbovița county · RO111 | power-station fly ash | 4.0 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Băile Borșa Borșa, Maramureș county · RO135 | other material (the inventory does not say which) | 2.3 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Băile Borșa Borșa, Maramureș county · RO137 | other material (the inventory does not say which) | 2.3 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Teliucu Inferior Teliucu Inferior, Hunedoara county · RO59 · the map point falls on no pond | mineral processing slurry | 7.6 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| A Teliuc mine pond Teliucu Inferior, Hunedoara county · RO62 | mineral processing slurry | 7.6 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Băile Borșa Borșa, Maramureș county · RO136 | other material (the inventory does not say which) | 617 thousand m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| A Teliuc mine pond Teliucu Inferior, Hunedoara county · RO11 | mineral processing slurry | 5.1 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| A Teliuc mine pond Teliucu Inferior, Hunedoara county · RO12 | mineral processing slurry | 4.2 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Jiu-Paroșeni Vulcan, Hunedoara county · RO90 | power-station fly ash | 1.2 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Aghireș Meseșenii de Jos, Sălaj county · RO82 | other material (the inventory does not say which) | 6.8 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Ocna Dejului Dej, Cluj county · RO66 | other material (the inventory does not say which) | 302 thousand m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Aghireș Meseșenii de Jos, Sălaj county · RO83 | other material (the inventory does not say which) | 3.0 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
| The pond near Aghireș Meseșenii de Jos, Sălaj county · RO81 | other material (the inventory does not say which) | 1.2 million m³ | 10,000–100,000 people | 0 |
35 ponds carry a score the method does not have
The method’s Table 8 scores the people in a risk zone from 2 (under 100) to 6 (at least 100,000). Yet 35 Romanian ponds have a 1, which is not in the table. The report does not explain what it means. They include two ponds OpenStreetMap names Aurul, near Baia Mare.
For 20 of these 35 ponds the terrain is steep enough to model a drainage path. Along 18 of those paths people live within 500 m. That is a question for the inventory’s authors: what does a 1 mean where there are villages down the valley?
#Where the data come from, and what is not known
The ponds. Annex F of UBA TEXTE 185/2020 gives each pond’s scores under anonymous codes (RO1–RO152). The report links a public Google map; its export gives the coordinates and every score component for all 343 ponds. The map and the annex agree on every score for all 152 Romanian ponds. Volume comes from the capacity score (the logarithm of the volume). The inventory dates from 2020; no newer published version with per-pond scores was found.
Names. The inventory gives none. The ponds named on this page were checked on satellite imagery and OpenStreetMap at the map’s point. The others are named after the nearest settlement.
The valley. From each pond’s point (or from the foot of the dam, for the named ponds) the modelled drainage path follows the steepest descent on the Copernicus terrain model (30 m, averaged to about 60 m), after filling pits, for 10 km. A settlement is “down the valley” if it has residents (GHSL 2020) within 500 m of the path and no more than 15 m above it. The model includes buildings and forest, so on flat ground it cannot tell direction: where the ground falls less than 25 m in 10 km the direction stays unknown and the card gives only the distance. That applies to 21 of the 152 ponds; for two more, satellite imagery and the model disagree (Certej), and two points fall on no pond (Teliuc), so no valley is drawn there either. The path models where water would drain: buildings, forest or a filled saddle can divert it, and it does not show how far waste would travel in a failure. A place missing from a path is not thereby safe.
Towns. 13,411 villages and towns from OpenStreetMap, with commune and county from geo-spatial.org outlines. Distances are straight-line.
The dams. The condition score describes how a pond is managed, not how sound its dam is. On dams the inventory holds no data: the dam score is 1, “≤1.5 or not available”, for all 343 ponds in the basin. Nor is the number of people in a risk zone a number of people in danger. The inventory also covers ponds that are not from mines: ash, red mud, sludge, oil residues. A Romanian environment ministry training course counts a different set (109 mining ponds); the two lists do not cover the same thing.
The EU Court of Justice. In case C-104/15 of 21 July 2016 the Court found that Romania had failed to take adequate measures to prevent dust rising from the Boșneag extension pond at Moldova Nouă, noting that it and the Tăușani pond “have not been closed”; dumping had stopped at the end of 2006. The Commission closed the file in April 2020.
Sources
- UBA TEXTE 185/2020, Safety of the Tailings Management Facilities in the Danube River Basin (Tables 4, 7, 8; Annex F; failure list)
- The inventory’s public map
- HG 181/2020 · HG 953/2025 (Official Gazette no. 1051, 14 Nov 2025) · HG 644/2007
- MEDAT and MMAP press release, 14 November 2025
- CJEU, C-104/15, Commission v Romania
- SAFETY4TMF, module I (Romanian environment ministry, 2026)
- TVR Info on Certej, 1971 (Romanian)
- Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · GHSL GHS-POP 2020 · OpenStreetMap · geo-spatial.org