Mining legacies and urban dynamics: socio-environmental injustice in Baia Mare

Post-industrial neighbourhoods in Baia Mare, Romania, combine toxic legacies with thin welfare structures, concentrating environmental toxicities in the Roma community of Pirita. This article explains how deindustrialisation and inadequate sealing of mining sites interact with administrative hurdles and racializing narratives to shape exposure and access to services. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with social workers and community medical assistants conducted in 2024, local administrative documents, and local media observations, we identify three mechanisms. First, environmental hazards (arsenic-filled pyrite deposits, contaminated soils, and unsealed industrial complexes) coincide with segregated, improvised housing near the wastewater treatment plant and former gold and copper ore processing facilities. Second, documentation hurdles (temporary IDs, challenging school enrolment, informal hospital links) transform deprivation into service exclusion. And third, local political discourses and administrative decisions legitimize forced evictions and relocations, reproducing the same precarious living conditions. By centreing mechanisms that link governance, local discourses, and material hazards, the paper contributes to environmental-justice debates in post-socialist cities, arguing for participatory and just housing policy. Ultimately, this article acknowledges racialized governance as a sustainability issue, with post-industrial redevelopment risking the reinforcement of socio-environmental injustices.