Toxic red sludge - Hungarian Metals Plant Restarts, Residents Return

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Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

Hungary declares a state of emergency as 1m cubic metres of sludge leaks from an alumina factory killing four and injuring 120

guardian.co.uk, <TIME datetime="2010-10-05T19:27BST" pubdate>Tuesday 5 October 2010 19.27 BST</TIME>

<FIGURE>

<FIGCAPTION>Hungary has declared a state of emergency after huge toxic waste spill. Photograph: Zsolt Szigetvary/EPA</FIGCAPTION> </FIGURE>

Hungary today declared a state of emergency in three western counties after a dam holding back a vast reservoir of toxic red sludge, from an alumina plant, burst, killing four people and injuring 120 others in what officials said was an "ecological catastrophe".

An elderly woman, a young man and a three-year-old child died in the deluge and six others were reported missing. Two of the injured were in a serious condition.

The sludge, which is waste produced during aluminium manufacture, swept cars off roads and damaged bridges and homes, forcing the evacuation of 400 residents. About 7,000 people are thought to have been directly affected by the spill.

.../
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/05/hungary-toxic-sludge-spill

 

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Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

Hungary toxic sludge could cause long-term environmental damage

Clean-up crews are trying to limit damage from 35 million cubic feet of Hungary toxic sludge, which spilled onto a town Monday and killed at least four people.

A Hungarian man pushes his bicycle through a street flooded by toxic mud in Devecser, Hungary, Oct. 6.
Bela Szandelszky/AP

By Phil Cain, Contributor / October 6, 2010

Kolont?r, Hungary
Workers with red-stained hands covered this town and others in southwest Hungary on Wednesday, cleaning the toxic sludge that remains from the wave of red mud that poured out of a nearby alumina refinery's reservoir Monday.

The heavy rains, which pushed the dam at one of the Ajkai Aluminia Refinery's 10 containment pools beyond its limits, have subsided. Now, clean-up crews are trying to limit the damage from the 35 million cubic feet of spilled toxic muck, which is the byproduct of the alumina refining process, that has left a thick, rust-red icing for miles around.

Officials worry that the highly caustic spill, which has already been blamed for four deaths and scores of injuries, will contaminate drinking water supplies, rivers, crops, and ecosystems throughout southwest Hungary. Officials are also searching for at least three people who remain missing.

.../

Read more:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Euro...ge-could-cause-long-term-environmental-damage

 

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Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

As Sludge Oozed Into Hungary Towns, Residents Raced to Take Refuge</NYT_HEADLINE>

Balazs Gardi for The New York Times
A man tried to clean up his house in the flooded village of Kolontar, Hungary, on Wednesday.

<NYT_BYLINE>By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

</NYT_BYLINE>Published: October 6, 2010

KOLONTAR, Hungary ? Just before he raced for refuge in the attic of his family?s home here on Monday at lunchtime, Krisztian Holczer called his mother at her job at a school near here.

?You won?t believe what is happening,? Mr. Holczer said.

A wave of toxic red sludge had just poured in over the back fence and was descending rapidly over the backyard, smothering chickens and hares as well as an elaborately tended garden of flowers, peppers, grapes and tomatoes. The muddy red ooze rose up until it covered the tiled front porch, leached in through the front door, dying the pristine white lace curtains red. Mr. Holczer, 34, escaped with burns on his feet from the caustic ooze...

.../

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/world/europe/07hungary.html

 

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Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

EU to Hungary: Don't let toxic sludge hit Danube

<!-- end photoProvider --><CITE id=photoTimestamp>Tue Oct 5, 10:14 AM ET</CITE>

By PABLO GORONDI and BELA SZANDELSZKY, Associated Press Writers Pablo Gorondi And Bela Szandelszky, Associated Press Writers ? <ABBR class=recenttimedate title=2010-10-06T09:54:51-0700>2 hrs 1 min ago</ABBR>

Excerpts:

The huge reservoir, more than 1,000 feet (300 meters) long and 500 yards (450 meters) wide, was no longer leaking Wednesday but a triple-tiered protective wall was being built around its damaged area. Interior Minister Sandor Pinter said guards have been posted at the site to give an early warning in case of any new emergency.

The red torrent has already reached the Marcal River but it was not clear Wednesday how far down the river it had spread. Emergency workers were pouring 1,000 tons of plaster into the water to try to bind the sludge and keep it from flowing into the Danube, 45 miles (72 kilometers) away.

The Hungarian Water Regulation Authority estimated Tuesday it would take the sludge about five days to reach the Danube, one of Europe's key waterways. South of Hungary, the Danube flows through Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova before emptying into the Black Sea.

Hungary's National Rescue Service said engineers considered diverting the Marcal into nearby fields but decided not to, fearing the damage from the diversion would be too great...
...

The European Union said it feared the toxic flood could turn into an ecological disaster for several nations and urged Hungarian authorities to focus all efforts on keeping the sludge from the Danube...

Full text:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101006/ap_on_he_me/eu_hungary_sludge_flood

 

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Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

6 October 2010 Last updated at 08:44 ET
<!-- Social media icons by Paul Annet | http://nicepaul.com/icons --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript> <!--$render("page-bookmark-links","page-bookmark-links-head",{ position:"top", site:'News', headline:'BBC News - \'One year\' to clean toxic spill in Hungary', storyId:'11481740', sectionId:'99123', url:'http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11481740', edition:'US' }); --></SCRIPT>
'One year' to clean toxic spill in Hungary

Hungary says it will cost tens of millions of dollars and take at least a year to clean up the damage caused by a spill of toxic, red industrial sludge.

Emergency workers are trying to stop the spill, from an alumina plant, from flowing into major waterways, including the River Danube
...

Some 600,000-700,000 cubic metres (21m-24m cubic feet) of sludge escaped from the plant, 160km (100 miles) from the capital, Budapest, affecting an area of 40 sq km (15.4 sq miles).
...

Analysis

<!-- pullout-items-->Julian Siddle Science reporter, BBC News

...

The sludge waste contains a mixture of metal oxides. According to MAL Hungarian Aluminium - the company which produced the waste - between 40% and 45% is iron oxide. This gives the mud its characteristic red colour. Between 10% and 15% is aluminium oxide, a further 10% to 15% silicon oxide and there are smaller quantities of calcium oxide, titanium dioxide and oxygen-bonded sodium oxide.

The sludge is a strong alkali, meaning it will cause burns when it comes into contact with the skin, and can damage lungs and the digestive system if it is ingested. This may cause death...

Full text:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11481740

 

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Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

The aftermath of the toxic flood [Photos]


<SMALL class=date-header>Wednesday, October 6, 2010</SMALL>
Photos: index.hu








More photos here:
http://www.hungarianambiance.com/2010/10/aftermath-of-toxic-flood-photos.html

 

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Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

Re: Hungary toxic sludge spill an 'ecological catastrophe' says government

<TABLE id=apex_layout_271110100662109808 class=formlayout border=0 summary=""><TBODY><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Archive Number</TD><TD noWrap align=left>20101007.3634</TD></TR><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Published Date</TD><TD noWrap align=left>07-OCT-2010</TD></TR><TR><TD noWrap align=right>Subject</TD><TD noWrap align=left>PRO/EDR> Toxic spill - Hungary: fatal, water contamination</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


TOXIC SPILL - HUNGARY: FATAL, WATER CONTAMINATION*************************************************A ProMED-mail post<http://www.promedmail.org>ProMED-mail is a program of theInternational Society for Infectious Diseases<http://www.isid.org>[1]Date: Wed 6 Oct 2010Source: Standart News [edited]<http://paper.standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2010-10-06&article=34365>
</PRE>
The poisonous substance from Hungary spilled into the waters of the
Danube. The dam of a huge tailing pond broke and nearly 1 million
cubic meters of dangerous red sludge poured into rivers. The drama
which took place in western Hungary has taken 4 lives and another 120
people have been injured. The disaster is expected to spread. Budapest
has declared emergency situation due to the burning poison, which is
more hazardous than melted lava. Even the dust of the so-called red
sludge causes lung cancer immediately if inhaled. The hellish mixture
of silicon, iron, lead, and other heavy metals are slowly but
unavoidably moving towards Bulgaria.

Bulgaria's ministry of environment announced yesterday [5 Oct 2010]
that the toxic mixture, which is also radioactive, may reach Bulgaria
within a week. The only hope is that poison will dissolve and its
concentration will not be so harmful when it reaches Bulgaria.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

******
[2]
Date: Tue 5 Oct 2010
Source: Reuters [summ., edited]
<http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69415O20101005>


Hungary declared a state of emergency in 3 western counties on Tuesday
[5 Oct 2010], the day after a torrent of toxic red sludge from an
alumina factory tore through local villages, killing 3 people and
injuring 100 more.

The red mud, waste generated during bauxite refining, poured through
Kolontar and 2 other villages on Monday [4 Oct 2010] after bursting
out of an open containment pond at the nearby Ajkai Timfoldgyar Zrt
plant, owned by MAL Zrt.

The flood threw cars off roads and damaged bridges and homes, forcing
the evacuation of local residents.

"We have declared a state of emergency in Veszprem, Gyor-Moson-Sopron,
and Vas counties," government spokeswoman Anna Nagy told Reuters.

[Byline: Gergely Szakacs]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

******
[3]
Date: Tue 5 Oct 2010
Source: BBC News [edited]
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11475361>


Hungary has declared a state of emergency in 3 western counties after
sludge from an alumina plant killed 3 people and injured 120.

The red chemical sludge flooded out of a burst dam, affecting at least
7 villages and towns including Devecser, where it stood 2 m (6.5 ft)
deep.

The sludge is said to contain caustic material and to be toxic if ingested.

While the cause of the deaths has not been established officially, it
is believed the victims probably drowned.

Some 600 000-700 000 cubic metres (21m-24m cubic feet) of sludge
escaped from the plant, 160 km (100 miles) from the capital, Budapest.

With 7000 people affected directly by the disaster, a state of
emergency was declared in the counties of Veszprem, Gyor-Moson-Sopron,
and Vas.

At least 390 residents have been relocated and 110 rescued from
flooded localities, Hungary's National Directorate General for
Disaster Management (NDGDM) said.

Nearly 500 police officers and soldiers, including 6 emergency
detection teams, have been deployed.

Plaster has been poured into the Marcal river in a bid to bind the
sludge and stop further flooding.

So far 6 people have been reported missing in the disaster, described
as the worst chemical accident in Hungary's history by Zoltan Illes,
state secretary for the environment ministry, who visited Kolontar on
Tuesday [5 Oct 2010].

Tamas Toldi, mayor of Devecser, told MTI news agency that between 80
and 90 people had been taken to hospital with chemical burns.

Dr Attila Nyikos, an NDGDM [official, told the BBC News website the
victims had probably been drowned by the sludge, which had flowed out
with the speed of water.

The sludge, he explained, triggers an alkaline reaction on the skin
but the effect can be neutralised by washing with plenty of fresh water.

Peter Jakabos, a doctor on duty at a hospital in Gyor where several of
the injured were taken, said on state TV that some burns could take
days to reveal themselves and what might seem like superficial
injuries could later cause damage to deeper tissue.

One eyewitness in Devecser said his uncle had been taken to Budapest
by helicopter after the sludge "burnt him to the bone."

Alumina, a synthetically produced aluminium oxide, is a white or
nearly colourless crystalline substance that is used as a starting
material for the smelting of aluminium metal.

It also serves as the raw material for a broad range of advanced
ceramic products and as an active agent in chemical processing.

There has been no official explanation of the cause of the disaster,
but weeks of heavy rain are likely to have played a role. The sludge
escaped from a reservoir at the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in the town of
Ajka. Police say they have confiscated documents from the company's
headquarters.

The sludge flooded 19 streets in Devecser and 2 in Kolontar, where the
3 deaths occurred. 5 other localities were under threat.

Rescue workers used an axe to cut through the living room door of [the
Devecser resident], to let the red liquid flow out, the Associated
Press news agency reports.

"When I heard the rumble of the flood, all the time I had was to jump
out the window and run to higher ground," said his wife.

[Environment secretary] Illes said there were fears that the sludge
could reach the Raba and Danube rivers.

The Hungarian government said it was not seeking any international
assistance for the time being.

--
Communicated by:
Kunihiko Iizuka

[This is an enormous spill.

Bauxite is a naturally occurring, heterogeneous material composed
primarily of one or more aluminum hydroxide minerals. Bauxite is
usually strip mined as it is most often near the surface of the ground.

In the processing of bauxite it is mixed with sodium hydroxide, a
chemical capable of causing chemical burns, and placed under pressure.
Temperatures are raised to as high as 200 deg C [392 deg F]. This is
where the aluminate, which is dissolved aluminum, is found. A process
of filtering the ferruginous residue, also known as red mud or red
sludge is removed and pure gibbsite precipitates when the solution is
cooled. Gibbsite can be purified and then heated to form aluminum oxide.

This red mud or red sludge has high concentrations of sodium
hydroxide, titanium, and silicon. Concentrations of these components
may be quite high and as they are molten, are more like lava than mud.
The heat, the chemicals, and the sheer force of the amount of this
substance could be overwhelming. The fumes are likely to be equally
hard on people. - Mod.TG]

[The HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of Hungary is available at
<http://healthmap.org/r/0c2o>. - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]
...................................tg/mj/dk

...

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/apex/..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,85193

 

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Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

Hungarian sludge spill reaches Danube river

By Marton Dunai
GYOR, Hungary | Thu Oct 7, 2010 10:59am EDT

GYOR, Hungary (Reuters) - A toxic red sludge spill from an alumina plant in western Hungary reached the Danube river on Thursday and crews were trying to dilute it to protect the major European waterway.

Tibor Dobson, a spokesman for Hungarian disaster crews, told Reuters at 1600 GMT that there were reports of sporadic fish death in the Raba and the Mosoni-Danube rivers, affected by the spill earlier. He said all fish had died in the smaller Marcal River, which was hit first.

Crews were working to reduce the alkalinity of the spill, which poured from the containment reservoir of an alumina plant on Monday and tore through local villages, killing four people and injuring over 150. Three people were still reported missing.

The spill's alkaline content when it reached the Raba, the Mosoni-Danube and the Danube itself, was still around pH 9 -- above the normal, harmless level of between 6 and 8, Dobson said...


Much more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69415O20101007

 

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Re: Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

Re: Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

Toxic red sludge reaches the Danube River

By GEORGE JAHN (AP) ? 30 minutes ago

KOLONTAR, Hungary ? Red sludge flowed into the Danube River on Thursday, threatening a half-dozen nations along one of Europe's key waterways. Monitors took samples every few hour to measure damage from the toxic spill and emergency officials declared one Hungarian tributary dead.

As cleanup crews gathered deer carcasses and other wildlife from the villages in southwestern Hungary flooded by the industrial waste, environmental groups warned of long-term damage to the farming region's topsoil.
...

Hungary's environment minister, Zoltan Illes, said the henna-colored sludge covering a 16-square-mile swathe of countryside does have "a high content of heavy metals," some of which can cause cancer. He warned of possible environmental hazards, particularly if it were to enter the groundwater system.

With rain giving way to dry, warmer weather over the past two days, the caustic mud is increasingly turning to airborne dust, which can cause respiratory problems, Illes added.

"If that would dry out then ... wind can blow ... that heavy metal contamination through the respiratory system," he said.
...

The red sludge, a waste product of aluminum production, reached the western branch of the Danube early Thursday and was flowing into its broad main stretch by noon. By evening, it was moving southward toward Serbia and Romania.

At monitoring stations in Croatia, Serbia and Romania, officials were taking river samples every few hours, though experts hoped the river's huge water volume would blunt the impact of the spill.
.../
Read more:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...ZE_s_KFS4yy36WTlrv3AD9IN4L080?docId=D9IN4L080


Sandor H. Szabo / AP


Excavators working at the broken dyke of the reservoir that contained red mud of an alumina factory near Ajka on Wednesday.




Tamas Kovacs / EPA


Sunflowers stand in poisonous red mud in a field in Somlovasarhely, 105 miles southwest of Budapest, on Wednesday.






Much more photos here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39514793

 

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Re: Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

Re: Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

Toxic sludge fails to damage Danube

Hungarian officials say alkaline levels in river remain normal so far, as fifth death reported

Mark Tran and agencies
guardian.co.uk, <TIME pubdate datetime="2010-10-08T10:46BST">Friday 8 October 2010 10.46 BST</TIME>

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One of the people injured in Hungary's sludge spill has died in hospital, Hungarian media reported today, as new evidence of environmental damage emerged.

The fifth victim was an 81-year-old man who died in a hospital in Veszpr?m, western Hungary, from serious injuries early this morning, the MTI news agency said. The first victims were a 35-year-old man, an elderly woman, a three-year-old girl and her younger sister. Three others are still missing since Monday, when toxic red sludge inundated several villages after a reservoir wall broke.

Several more people are being treated for critical or serious injuries, mainly chemical burns.

The death toll rose as Hungarian officials reported no serious damage so far to the Danube, easing fears of an environmental disaster in one of Europe's most important waterways.

Hungarian disaster officials said alkaline levels in the Danube were normal after emergency crews poured plaster and acetic acid (vinegar) into rivers that flowed into it.

"These data give us hope ? and we have not experienced any damage on the main Danube so far," Tibor Dobson, a Hungarian disaster spokesman, told Reuters.

Full text and video:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/08/toxic-sludge-fails-damage-danube

 

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Re: Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

Re: Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

Greenpeace Says Hungary Toxic Sludge Highly-toxic; EU Experts To Inspect

10/8/2010 9:45 AM ET

(RTTNews) - With the death toll from the outflow of toxic sludge from an alumina plant in Hungary mounting to five on Friday, a leading environmental group warned that the spill that contaminated the mighty Danube contains dangerously high levels of arsenic and mercury that pose a long-term risk to the ecosystem and drinkable water.

At a news conference in Austrian capital Vienna on Friday, Greenpeace International accused Budapest of concealing the toxicity of the red slurry despite having access to analyze the potential threat the hazardous material poses.

Herwig Schuster, a chemist and campaigner for Greenpeace, told reporters that it was quite strange that the government and the responsible authorities refrained from alerting the public about the real amounts of toxic substances contained in the chemical residue.

.../
http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1440789&SM=1

 

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Re: Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

Re: Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

<CITE class=vcard>2 more bodies found in Hungary's red sludge</CITE>
<CITE class=vcard></CITE>
<CITE class=vcard>By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer Pablo Gorondi, Associated Press Writer </CITE>? <ABBR class=recenttimedate title=2010-10-08T11:44:38-0700>29 mins ago</ABBR>
<!-- end .byline -->
KOLONTAR, Hungary ? The mighty Danube apparently absorbed Hungary's massive red sludge spill with little immediate damage Friday but laboratory tests heightened concerns about possible longer-term harm caused bytoxic heavy metals in the slurry.

Government officials lowered their estimate of the size of Monday's catastrophic spill ? but even those figures were mind-boggling. They said the reservoir break at an alumina plants dumped up to 700,000 cubic meters (184 million gallons) of sludge onto three villages ? not much less in a few hours than the 200 million gallons the blown-out BP oil well gushed into the Gulf of Mexico over several months beginning in April.

The disaster's confirmed death toll rose from four to seven. An 81-year-old man died Friday from injuries sustained in the torrent and two bodies were found on the outskirts of Devecser. The unidentified victims were likely two of the three Kolontar residents still missing, rescue agency spokesman Tibor Dobson said.

.../

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101008/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_hungary_sludge_flood

 

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Re: Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

Re: Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river

Toxic waste floods three settlements ? lots of animal victims
2010.10.07.





The volunteers of the Noah's Ark Animal Shelter experienced chaos, fear and hopelessness as they arrived at Kolont?r, one of the three villages in the Hungarian countryside that were devasteted when one million cubic meter of highly toxic industrial waste (the so-called ?red mud?, a substance rich in iron oxide, with a low level of radioactivity) was released due to a reservoir burst in an alumina plant. The flood of sludge destroyed houses, killed people including children; the death toll rose to five on Friday as one person died in hospital. When we heard the first news about what happened, we started to organize the rescue operation immediately.

Several animal rescue organizations worked together and on Wednesday we started rescuing the animals that survived. A high number of farm animals were living there, so we had no time to chill. Unfortunately, as expected, most of them couldn't make it, but there are still a lot of terrified, injured, lost animals among the ruins, many in mortal peril...

Full text, photos and video:
http://www.noeallatotthon.hu/index.php?pid=2&cid=919&lang=en

 

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Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river - Reservoir at risk of collapse

Hungarian toxic red sludge spill reaches Danube river - Reservoir at risk of collapse

Hungary sludge reservoir at risk of collapse

Published: Saturday, 9 Oct 2010 | 8:49 PM ET

DEVECSER, Hungary - The cracking wall of an industrial plant reservoir appeared on the verge of collapse late Saturday, and engineers were working to blunt a possible second wave of the caustic red sludge that has already deluged several towns in western Hungary and killed seven.

Residents of one nearby town were evacuated, others were ordered to be ready to evacuate, and everyone was bracing for a new onslaught of toxic material. Engineers feared a second wave could be even more toxic than the first because the sludge remaining in the reservoir was more concentrated.

snip

Zoltan Bakonyi, the CEO of MAL Rt., the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company that owns the plant told Hungarian news website Index.hu that the walls are "medium-hard concrete." Authorities have not speculated about why they are cracking.

According to MAL, at least 95 percent of the sludge is still in the reservoir...

Read more:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/39595700

 

[Pathfinder]

Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat

10 Oct 2010 16:42:32 GMT
<!-- 10 Oct 2010 16:42:32 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove -->Source: Reuters

<!-- AN5.0 article title end --><SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="/bin/js/article.js"></SCRIPT></SPAN>
By Gergely Szakacs

Excerpt:

Late on Sunday the Veszprem county disaster unit advised crews and residents in the area affected by Monday's spill to wear protective masks and glasses as dust levels in some places had exceeded the health limit as the sludge was drying out.

It said the dust can irritate airways due to its alkalinity.

News agency MTI quoted environment state secretary Zoltan Illes as saying a 25-metre-long crack in the weakened wall of the sludge reservoir had widened slightly further by Sunday and the wall now looked beyond repair.

Illes said the northern wall of the reservoir could collapse "within one day or a week" and crews at the scene were scrambling to complete a new dam to protect Kolontar and the nearby town of Devecser, home to 5,400 people.

Illes said authorities had amassed plaster and various types of acids along 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the river Marcal to neutralise the high alkaline content of any new spill before it reaches the Danube, a major European waterway.

.../
Full text:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE69909C.htm

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

Re: Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

UPDATE 5-Hungary says to take control of toxic spill firm

Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:58pm EDT

Excerpt:

BUDAPEST, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Hungary's prime minister on Monday blamed "human negligence" for a spill of toxic red sludge that killed eight people last week, and said the government would take control of the company responsible.
...

Government spokeswoman Anna Nagy said Zoltan Bakonyi, the head of MAL, had been taken into 72-hour custody on Monday. He was being questioned by police on suspicion of endangering public safety and causing damage to the environment.
...

Disaster crews were racing to finish an emergency dam to protect the village of Kolontar in case the weakened wall of the damaged reservoir fell.
"We hope to have the dam finished by Tuesday," the prime minister's spokesman told TV2.


Full text:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE69A0Y820101011

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

Re: Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

Factbox: Hungarian firm MAL, owner of burst red mud reservoir

BUDAPEST | Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:21am EDT

Excerpt:

* MAL owns subsidiaries in Germany, Romania, Bosnia and Slovenia. It exports 80 percent of its output, most of it to the European Union, according to a statement by the company. MAL has a market share of 12 percent in alumina products in Europe and 4 percent globally, the company says.

* The company's 2008 net sales were about 42 billion forints ($213.4 million) with a pre-tax profit of about 195 million forints, according to local news reports. MAL employs 1,100 people, making it the key employer in the Ajka area.


[...]
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69A2YO20101011

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

Re: Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

EU response to Hungarian sludge danger (VIDEO)

11/10 19:42 CET

Five EU environmental experts are in Hungary to help cope with the sludge from the Ajka alumina factory spill. The national authorities want to know how the pollution could affect people, plant and animal life. The President of the European Commission is also expected in Hungary this Tuesday.
...

The European Commission said response to Budapest?s appeal for help had been swift: more than 40 specialists were offered by 10 EU Member States. The five deployed are from France, Belgium, Sweden, Austria and Germany.

http://www.euronews.net/2010/10/11/eu-response-to-hungarian-sludge-danger/

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

Re: Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

Hungary's sludge spill but one the ecological horrors lurking in post-communist Eastern Europe


Hungary's sludge spill but one the ecological horrors lurking in post-communist Eastern Europe


<DL class=author><DD class="date published">Associated Press writers Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Serbia, Karel Janicek in the Czech Republic and Alina Wolfe Murray in Bucharest, Romania, contributed to this report. Jahn reported from Vienna.
?

<DD class="date published">Published on October 11th, 2010 <DD class="date display_none"></DD></DL>BUCHAREST, Romania - Abandoned mines in Romania leech heavy-metal contaminated waters into rivers. A Hungarian chemical plant produces more than 100,000 tons of environmental toxins a year. Soil in eastern Slovakia is contaminated with cancer-producing PCBs.

The flood of toxic sludge in Hungary is but one of the ecological horrors that lurk in eastern Europe 20 years after the collapse of the Iron Curtain. While the end of communism came with a widespread cleanup, the massive spill of caustic muck serves as a wakeup call for a region dotted with disasters waiting to happen.

Today, much of Eastern Europe is free of many of its worst environmental sins with the help of a massive infusion of Western funds and the conditions imposed on Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech republic in exchange for EU membership.

Still, the sludge flood has focused attention on less visible dangers ? the toxic time bombs that survived the cleanup.

The caustic spill ? Hungary's worst ecological disaster ? has also raised questions about whether investors who took over old Soviet factories from the state 20 years ago are at fault for not spending enough on safety features.

[...]

Much more:

http://www.journalpioneer.com/Canad...rs-lurking-in-post-communist-Eastern-Europe/1

 

[LaMenchos]

Re: Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

Re: Hungary races to build dam amid new sludge threat - The wall now looked beyond repair

[SIZE=+1]Eight Dead in Hungarian Sludge Spill, Company Boss Arrested[/SIZE]

<form>BUDAPEST, Hungary, October 11, 2010 (ENS) - The eighth person killed by the red toxic sludge that spilled from a aluminum plant in western Hungary has been found near the village of Devecser, disaster control spokesman Tibor Dobson said today </form> The body was found a week after the waste impoundment reservoir of the Magyar Aluminium ZRt plant in the town of Ajka broke on October 4, triggering Hungary's worst ecological disaster.
<table width="350" align="left" border="0"> <tbody><tr> <td>

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>An aerial view of part of the caustic sludge spill [SIZE=-2](Photo by MTI courtesy Hungary State Secretary for Government Communication)[/SIZE]

</td> </tr> </tbody></table> The broken reservoir released about one million cubic metres of caustic red sludge that rolled through three nearby villages in a two-meter (six-foot) high wave, killing eight people, injuring more than 150 others and damaging at least 280 homes.
The pollution reached some tributaries of the Danube, Europe's second largest waterway, but pollution of the Danube itself has been contained as crews poured cement into tributary waters to hold back the sludge....

<table width="300" align="right" border="0"> <tbody><tr> <td>

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Another wall of the Magyar Aluminium reservoir is cracked. [SIZE=-2](Photo by Varga Gyorgy/MTI courtesy Government of Hungary)[/SIZE]

</td> </tr> </tbody></table>...
Experts say a second spill could be even more toxic than the first because much of what has already spilled was water, leaving the remaining waste more concentrated.
...

But officials said today there had been no widening of the cracks overnight. The National Disaster Management Directorate said that measurements taken in the past 24 hours showed no further movement of cracks on the northern reservoir wall.
...

Officials reprt that the entire aquatic life in the River Marcal has been wiped out by the caustic spill, which contains heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and chromium.
Crews are still pouring gypsum into the Marcal River to bind the red sludge and keep it from flowing towards the Danube. The National Disaster Management General Directorate says it is prepared for dealing with another spill. Gypsum supply is logistically secured, acetic acid is available and airborne intervention units are on standby. Neither the Raba River, nor the Mosoni-Danube or the Great Danube have been affected by pollution.
...

<table width="300" align="right" border="0"> <tbody><tr> <td>

</td> </tr> <tr> <td>A leak from the Magyar Aluminium ZRt can be seen in this aerial photo, June 2010 [SIZE=-2](Photo ? Interspect courtesy WWF-Hungary)[/SIZE]

</td> </tr> </tbody></table> WWF-Hungary says an aerial photograph taken in June showing a damaged and leaking sludge pond wall indicates that the toxic mud disaster and pollution of rivers could have been avoided.
The photograph was taken by a team from the company Interspect, who taking photographs of sludge pools, open-cast mining, and other potentially dangerous, unhealthy industrial sites.
"This new evidence of the degraded state of the walls and significant leakage more than three months before the incident should be cause for an urgent investigation, not just of this disaster but of the state of Hungary's other toxic sludge ponds," said Gabor Figeczky, acting director of WWF-Hungary.
"This points to neglect and a failure of regulation as a prime contributing factor to this disaster," said Figeczky.
[SIZE=-1]Copyright Environment News Service (ENS)

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2010/2010-10-11-01.html
[/SIZE]