Notable case, Mitrovica / Zvečan, Mitrovica, Kosovo

Mitrovica (Trepča mining and smelting complex)

Trepça / Трепча

The largest lead-zinc complex in the former Yugoslavia. After the 1999 war hundreds of displaced Roma were housed in camps beside the smelter and its tailings: their children had some of the highest blood lead levels ever documented in Europe.

Lead

Status: Not addressed
Activity: 1930–2000
People affected: 800 (2008)¹
Media: soil, air, living organisms
Kind of site: mining, smelter

People affected. Approximate sum of camp residents in 2008 according to Human Rights Watch: about 170 at Česmin Lug, 500 at Osterode and 130 at Leposavić. It does not include the rest of Mitrovica's population.

Contaminants

Metals

Lead

Status

Not addressed

The Zvečan smelter has been shut since August 2000. In 2017 only the Kopaonik mines and the Leposavić flotation plant were still working (Wikipedia). We found no recent source on clean-up of the soils and tailings.

Story

Modern working of Trepča began in 1930 with the Stari Trg mine and the Zvečan flotation plant; the lead smelter and refinery started up in 1939 and a new smelter, then the world's fourth largest, opened in 1967. In the 1980s the complex employed about 20,000 people and produced over 80% of Yugoslavia's refined lead. The stack released some 25,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide a year.

In October 1999, after the Roma quarter of Mitrovica was destroyed, UNHCR set up the Česmin Lug and Žitkovac camps near the works; other displaced people occupied barracks at Kablare and Leposavić. A report commissioned by UNMIK in November 2000 found lead in soil at up to 122 times the norm and up to 4,630 mg/kg in dust. UNMIK closed the smelter in August 2000, after finding raised blood lead in international troops.

The camps stayed open for years. Žitkovac and Kablare were closed in 2006 and residents moved to the former Osterode barracks; in 2008 about 170 people were still living at Česmin Lug.

Timeline

1930The Stari Trg mine and the Zvečan flotation plant open.
1939The lead smelter starts up.
1967The new lead smelter opens.
1999October: camps for displaced Roma are set up beside the works.
2000August: UNMIK closes the smelter.
2006The Žitkovac and Kablare camps close; Osterode opens.

Health

In April 2008 the Mitrovica Institute of Public Health tested 53 children from the camps and the Roma quarter: 21 were above 65 µg/dl of lead in blood, the highest the equipment could read, 18 were at about 45 µg/dl and only 2 were below 10 µg/dl. Oral chelation therapy was given to about 40 children in 2006 and stopped in 2007 (Human Rights Watch 2009).

Remediation

2000closure of the sourceClosure of the Zvečan smelter by UNMIK.

From the literature

Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.