| The environmental conditions in the Idrija Mercury Mine and its broader surroundings were strongly affected in the first half of the 19th century by two disastrous pit fires. The fire could only be extinguished by flooding of the pit. The consequences of such flooding was extensive poisoning with mercury vapours, not only among those miners who participated in the fire extinguishing effort and later in the rehabilitation of the pit, but also among the inhabitants of Idrija. During rehabilitation works, the highly polluted water was discharged directly into the Idrijca River, killing all the fish species thriving there. After 1835 the Mine gradually intensified its production. The dumping of increasingly larger quantities of smelting wastes directly into... |
