Copșa Mică

Copșa Mică (Template:Langx; Template:Langx) is a town in Sibiu County, Transylvania, Romania, located north of Sibiu, 33 km east of Blaj, and 12 km southwest of Mediaș. It is on the route of the Via Transilvanica long-distance trail.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Economy

The Copșa Mică gas field

The Copșa Mică gas field is a natural gas field located in the town. Discovered in 1915 and developed by Romgaz, it began production in 1920 and produces natural gas and condensates. On July 13, 1933, the biggest fire in the history of Romania occurred at a gas well here, with the flames reaching a height of Template:Cvt. The fire was put out by the military after 7 years, and completely extinguished only in 1947.<ref name="Pal">Template:Cite news</ref>

The Copșa Mică works

Industrial platform in Copșa Mică

The 1933 fire at the gas field led to the creation of a carbon black factory at Copșa Mică.<ref name="Pal"/> The town is best known for its status (dating to the 1990s) as one of the most polluted in Europe; in fact, at some point it was the second most polluted after Chernobyl.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

This was due to the emissions of two factories in the area:

• Carbosin, open from 1935 to 1993, produced carbon black for dyes; its emissions permeated the area for nearly sixty years, leaving soot on homes, trees, animals, and everything else in the area. The stain from these decades of deposits are still visible.
• The other source of the pollution, less visible but with even more serious effects to the health of the town's residents, was Sometra, a smelter whose emissions have contributed to significantly higher incidence of lung disease and impotence, along with a life expectancy nine years below Romania's average.

Remains of the Carbosin factory

View of the Sometra factory, from local railway tracks

Demographics

The town's population of 5,201 (as of 2011) is significantly lower compared to its previous level in 1989, the year communism collapsed in Romania. At the 2011 census, 78.8% of inhabitants were Romanians, 11.9% Roma, and 8.7% Hungarians. At the 2021 census, Copșa Mică had a population of 4,570, of which 77.13% were Romanians, 4.81% Hungarians, and 4% Roma.<ref name="RPL2021">Template:Cite web</ref>

Administration and local politics

Town council

The town's current local council has the following political composition, according to the results of the 2020 Romanian local elections:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

	Party	Seats	Current Council
Template:Party color cell	National Liberal Party (PNL)	8	Template:Party color cell	Template:Party color cell	Template:Party color cell	Template:Party color cell	Template:Party color cell	Template:Party color cell	Template:Party color cell	Template:Party color cell
Template:Party color cell	Save Romania Union (USR)	3	Template:Party color cell	Template:Party color cell	Template:Party color cell
Template:Party color cell	Social Democratic Party (PSD)	2	Template:Party color cell	Template:Party color cell
Template:Party color cell	Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ)	1	Template:Party color cell
Template:Party color cell	Independent politician (Muntean Vasile-Sorin)	1	Template:Party color cell

Natives

• Template:Ill (born 1975), journalist

External links

• Town's official website (in Romanian)
• 1993 project funded by UNIDO to assist in the establishment of cleaner production practices at Sometra
• Satellite photos of Copșa Mică in 1986 and 2004 Template:Webarchive
• fragilecologies.com: The People and Pollution of Copșa Mică, Romania
• Copșa Mică's Past and Future: Can Europe's Most Polluted Town Go Green?
• Template:Cite web