The Krupa is a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) river in

White Carniola White Carniola ( sl, Bela krajina; german: Weißkrain or ''Weiße Mark'') is a traditional region in southeastern Slovenia on the border with Croatia. Due to its smallness, it is often considered a subunit of the broader Lower Carniola region, alt ...

, southeastern

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

. Its source is a

karst spring A karst spring or karstic spring is a spring (outflow of groundwater) that is part of a karst hydrological system. Description Because of their often conical or inverted bowl shape, karst springs are also known in German-speaking lands as a ''To ...

in the village of Krupa below a rock wall. The bed has

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cu ...

characteristics in some places. At Gradac, the river joins the

Lahinja The Lahinja is a river in White Carniola, the extreme southeastern part of Slovenia. It is long and originates from several karst springs at the end of a steephead valley between the villages of Knežina, Belčji Vrh, and Mali Nerajec. In it ...

from the left side. Its drop from the source to the outflow is only . The river is protected as a natural monument and has been included in the

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respecti ...

ecological network. It is the main feature of the Lebica–Krupa Karst Nature Trail ( sl, Kraška učna pot od Lebice do Krupe). Its source lake is the only habitat of the cave mollusk '' Congeria kusceri'' in Slovenia, found in Cave Mussel Spring (''Izvir Jamske školjke''). It is also home to some cave snails and the

olm The olm or proteus (''Proteus anguinus'') is an aquatic salamander in the family Proteidae, the only exclusively cave-dwelling chordate species found in Europe. In contrast to most amphibians, it is entirely aquatic, eating, sleeping, and br ...

. The Krupa River is infamous because of its extremely high pollution with

PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by t ...

due to improper handling of PCB waste material, which has been used for decades by the

capacitor A capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy in an electric field by virtue of accumulating electric charges on two close surfaces insulated from each other. It is a passive electronic component with two terminals. The effect of ...

manufacturing company Iskra Kondenzatorji in nearby

Semič Semič (; german: Semitsch,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna. formerly also Semenič) is a settlement in southeastern Slovenia. It is the ad ...

References

External links

* Rivers of White Carniola Natura 2000 in Slovenia {{Slovenia-river-stub