Atia ( bg, Атия) is a village in

Sozopol Municipality Sozopol Municipality ( bg, Община Созопол, ) is located in the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and borders Burgas Municipality and Primorsko Municipality. The coast stretches 51 km of which 17.1 km are excellent beache ...

Burgas Province Burgas Province ( bg, Област Бургас, translit=Oblast Burgas, formerly the Burgas okrug) is a province in southeastern Bulgaria, including the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. The province is named after its administrative and indus ...

, south-eastern

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. As of 2013 it has 825 inhabitants. It hosts Bulgaria's largest

naval base A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that us ...

. The village is located near Cape Atia, thus its name. It is situated at the northern foothills of

Medni Rid Medni Rid ( bg, Медни рид, meaning ''Copper Ridge''), also known as Bakarlak (Бакърлък) until 1942, is a ridge in south-eastern Bulgaria. It forms the north-eastern extreme of the Bosna Ridge in the Strandzha Mountains. Administra ...

Ridge, which is the north-eastern extreme of the Bosna Ridge in the

Strandzha Mountains Strandzha ( bg, Странджа, also transliterated as ''Strandja'', ; tr, Istranca , or ) is a mountain massif in southeastern Bulgaria and the European part of Turkey. It is in the southeastern part of the Balkans between the plains of T ...

Environmental problems

Until 2001

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

mines functioned in the vicinity of the village. Between 1954 and 1977 all the

by-product A by-product or byproduct is a secondary product derived from a production process, manufacturing process or chemical reaction; it is not the primary product or service being produced. A by-product can be useful and marketable or it can be consid ...

s and waste from the mining operations were dumped in the shallow waters near the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

coast. As a result the village's beach was contaminated with

mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

and

radioactive element A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transfer ...

s which give the sand a distinctive dark color.

Decontamination Decontamination (sometimes abbreviated as decon, dcon, or decontam) is the process of removing contaminants on an object or area, including chemicals, micro-organisms or radioactive substances. This may be achieved by chemical reaction, disinfecti ...

operations began in 1997 after it was determined that the

background radiation Background radiation is a measure of the level of ionizing radiation present in the environment at a particular location which is not due to deliberate introduction of radiation sources. Background radiation originates from a variety of sources ...

in the area is twice the normal limit.

Citations

References

* Villages in Burgas Province Populated coastal places in Bulgaria {{Burgas-geo-stub