GENERAL CONCEPT FOR THE ECOLOGICAL REHABILITATION OF TURCOAIA QUARRY (TULCEA COUNTY, ROMANIA).

Environmental legislation and the one ruling the mining industry require the ecological rehabilitation of areas affected by mining activities, which are currently under way, with the cessation of productive activities. From this point of view, one of the most active areas of exploitation, especially of construction and ornamental rocks, is located in Tulcea County (more precisely, there are 50 quarries occupying a total area of approximately 792 ha). We also have to bear in mind that the largest one, Turcoaia (130.58 ha), is located near areas with special protection regime (Danube Delta Biosphere Reservation and Măcin Mountains National Park). In this context, it goes without saying that beyond the limitation of negative environmental impacts for the period during which the exploitation activity will continue according to the license, it is imperative to have a project whereby, at the end of productive activity, the quarry will be ecologically rehabilitated and functionally reintegrated into the general context of the area. For these reasons, we propose, that starting from a brief presentation of the current activities and continuing with the short description of the environmental impact and the necessity of developing an ecological rehabilitation project, to finally set a concept in the general approach, for the ecological rehabilitation of Turcoaia quarry (without, entering into design details or evaluating the costs of its implementation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]