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Biodun@bbcnews.com

Friday, 15 October 2010

Waltzing with disaster
Topic: hungary, maria ogryzlo

Hungary's toxic sludge

by Maria Ogrzylo, BBC News, for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

The Danube basin is littered with accidents waiting to happen

Oct 14th 2010 | BUDAPEST | From The Economist print edition

FOR now, at least, the Danube glints just about blue in the autumn sun. A rapidly built network of dams and weirs, and massive amounts of gypsum and acetic acid, have stemmed or at least neutralised the tide of toxic waste that hit the river after a reservoir wall gave way at the MAL Zrt aluminium plant at Ajka, in western Hungary, on October 4th. Nine people were killed and 150 injured when a torrent of highly caustic red liquid gushed over nearby villages, fouling waterways and sweeping away people, livestock and possessions. Now tests in Hungary, as well as in neighbouring Serbia, Croatia and Slovakia, have shown that the water’s pH level has been reduced to slightly over eight, around normal for this time of year, says Philip Weller of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River.

Yet although short-term catastrophe may have been avoided, the river and its basin are dotted with a worrying number of potential disasters in the making (see map). Many factories and storage facilities date back to communist times, when environmental and safety standards were laxer than today. Even modernised sites pose huge risks: a cyanide spill at a gold-extraction plant in Baia Mare in Romania poisoned the Tisza river in 2000.

Predicting further leakages is extremely difficult, says Gabor Figeczky of the World Wildlife Fund’s Hungarian arm. Until last week MAL’s plant was not considered particularly risky, at least in comparison with the red sludge stored at Almasfuzito, 80 kilometres north-west of Budapest. There, says the WWF, 40 hectares of unlined pools pollute the groundwater and seep into the Danube. Alarmingly, the reservoir walls also serve as flood dykes for the Danube. If one gave way it would release the toxic mud directly into the river and poison Budapest’s drinking-water supply.

The government has taken MAL Zrt under temporary state control and frozen its assets. Zoltan Bakonyi, the company’s managing director, was detained for questioning on suspicion of criminal negligence, although later released without charge. Viktor Orban, the prime minister, thinks he knows where culpability lies. On October 11th he said there were reasons to believe that some people at MAL were “driven by their private interests” to avoid repairing the reservoir’s dodgy walls. Mr Orban has long promised action against what he calls Hungary’s “oligarchs”, businessmen whose political connections helped them to become immensely wealthy in the post-communist years. There is certainly little public sympathy for MAL’s rich bosses. The company’s initial offer of 100,000 forints ($510) compensation to each affected family caused fury.

MAL denies any negligence and says the reservoir met the required standards when inspected. The European Commission, which has sent a team of five environment and toxicology experts to help the clean-up, will be examining the Hungarian authorities’ oversight of the plant before the spill, says a spokesman. If it appears that Hungary failed properly to implement the relevant EU laws, Brussels may open an investigation.

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Posted by biginla at 12:04 PM BST

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Saturday, 9 October 2010

Threat of second sludge spill leads to evacuation
Topic: hungary, maria ogryzlo

Krisztina Than and Gergely Szakacs

Budapest—Maria Ogrylzo for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

Published Saturday, Oct. 09, 2010 8:09AM EDT

Last updated Saturday, Oct. 09, 2010 8:10AM EDT

6 comments

Hungary’s premier warned on Saturday that the wall of a damaged industrial reservoir was likely to collapse, threatening a second spill of toxic red sludge, and a nearby village was evacuated as a precaution.

About one million cubic metres of the waste material leaked out of the alumina plant reservoir into several villages and waterways earlier this week, killing seven people, injuring 123 and fouling some rivers including a local branch of the Danube.

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Video

Race to save Danube ecosystem

Infographic

Toxic Torrent

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said there was now a high risk of another up to 500,000 cubic metres of even thicker sludge escaping the reservoir due to a deterioration of a wall in the stricken part of the reservoir.

“Last night the interior minister informed us that cracks have appeared in the northern wall of the reservoir, whose corner collapsed, which make it likely that the entire wall will collapse,” Mr. Orban told a news conference.

“The detached parts of the dam are growing apart, the distance between them widened by 7 cm from late last night until this morning ... so it is very likely that we have to reckon on this wall collapsing,” he said.

“We have amassed protective and neutralising material needed to stop any new contamination from reaching the Danube via the rivers,” said Mr. Orban, in remarks carried by private broadcaster HirTV from the town of Ajka near the disaster zone.

Mr. Orban said 715 people were evacuated from the village of Kolontar, hard-hit by Monday’s spill, to Ajka as a precaution.

The national news agency MTI said crews were building a new 4- to 5-metre-high dam in Kolontar to ward off any fresh sludge inundation.

Crisis

Hungary declared a state of emergency in three counties on Tuesday after sludge from the bauxite refining plant flooded three villages about 160 km west of Budapest.

MTI said disaster crews were also poised to evacuate the town of Devecser, with 5,400 people, if necessary.

Mr. Orban said the military had deployed 319 soldiers and 127 transport vehicles into the town and there were also five trains at the ready should an evacuation become necessary.

“There is certainly sadness and unease (in Devecser) but there are no signs at all of panic,” Mr. Orban said.

Mr. Orban said he would inform parliament about the findings of an investigation on Monday and reiterated his view that the disaster was likely the result of human error.

“We all are astonished because we are not aware of any information that could reduce (the likelihood of) human responsibility. My point is that behind this tragedy, there must have been some human errors and mistakes.”

There will be “the toughest possible consequences” to ensure such a disaster does not recur, Mr. Orban said.

He added that a decision on whether to allow the plant to resume bauxite refining would not be made before Monday.

Many people suffered from burns and eye ailments caused by caustic and corrosive elements in the sludge.

There were still no estimates of the financial damage caused by the sludge and the cause of the accident remains unknown.

All life died in the Marcal River, the first to be struck by the sludge. There was sporadic fish death in other rivers. There were no reports of serious damage to the main branch of the Danube, which passes through many European countries.

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Hungary declares emergency after toxic red sludge spill

Posted by biginla at 4:08 PM BST

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