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COPSA MICA |
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Filthy COPSA MICA (Kleinkopisch), 13km west of Medias, is probably
Romania's most polluted town and if you're unlucky with connections you
may have to change trains for Sibiu here rather than in Medias. A plant
producing carbon black (for dyes) was established here in 1936 and
consistently left everything - plants, laundry, people - covered in soot
until it was finally closed in 1993; white snow was seen in 1994 for the
first time in sixty years. The other industrial plant here, the SOMETRA
lead smelter to the west, is more deadly; for thirty years it has been
spraying a cocktail of twenty heavy metals over the surrounding area (and
up to 50km away). Production has dropped by a third since 1990, which
has helped to reduce emissions, but has left five thousand men
unemployed. Millions of dollars have been spent on filters and pollution
control, dust levels have halved, and other types of pollution are now
just one or two percent of previous levels; even so it will be a long
time before local people's health returns to normal - currently life
expectancy is nine years below the national average and instances of
tuberculosis and other lung diseases are two or three times higher than
normal.
The villages beyond Copsa Mica - Valea Viilor (Wurmloch; 5km south of
the main road and rail routes), Axente Sever (Frauendorf) and Agirbiciu
(Arbegen) - all have good fortified churches. However, there is little
worth stopping for en route to Sibiu other than OCNA SIBIULUI (Salzburg),
a bathing resort with fizzy, salty water which bubbles up in four lakes
formed in abandoned salt-workings. Beyond the spa on the town's central
Piata Traian is a solid walled Romanesque church (Thurs 3-4pm), which,
unusually, now has a Hungarian Evangelical congregation. The nearest
train stop to the spa is Baile Ocna Sibiului, 2km north of Ocna Sibiului
station proper.
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