In Hungary, the devastation is almost unbelievable. 715 people were evacuated from the village of Kolontar: "All the lower parts of Kolontar are completely lost. That part of Kolontar doesn't exist." - Then, a tsunami of toxic sludge reaches the Danube; Europe's second-largest river.
NOTE: This Page Is Still Under Construction
UPDATE: 10-10-2010
This video shows an astounding overview of this event
This "river of sludge" is radioactive & has inundated 7 villages so far.
The Water was Cold ... but what was in that water ... BURNED.
HUNGARIAN DATA
DATE: 4 October 2010
TIME: 12:25 CEST (10:25 UTC)
LOCATION: 4.9 km ESE of Devecser, 5.7 km WSW of Ajka, 19.7 km NE of Sümeg, 23.0 km NxNE of Tapolca
Latitude: 47° N 05' 09" Longitude: 17º E 29' 40" Kolontar: Lat: 47º N 05' 04" / Long: 17º E 28' 30"
Devecser: Lat: N 06' 23" / Long: 17º E 26' 14"
Ajka: Lat: 47º N 06' 00" / Long: 17º E 34'
Sludge Innundated Town: Click Image To Enlarge
Map of Hungary: Click Image To Enlarge
Chemical Content of Sudge: Click Image To Enlarge
Nasty ... Really, Really, NASTY!
Close Up Map off Affected Area (click image to Enlarge)
What Happened? [as of 10 Oct 2010]
The volume of muck that escaped from a burst reservoir was almost as high as the blown-out BP oil well spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. Government officials (as of 0ct. 8th) said 600,000 to 700,000 cubic meters (158 million to 184 million gallons)of sludge escaped and inundated three villages before entering the Danube.
The Hungarian government is ready to foot the entire bill of the rescue and recovery effort, but said it was too early at this stage to make precise estimates about the size of the damage. So far estimates say close to 50 Billion dollars.
Other reservoirs are being inspected. Hungary alone has two other sludge ponds storing similarly toxic and highly alkaline red muds which arise from bauxite processing, such as The Almasfuzito facility; 80 kilometres from Budapest.
Work crews were building a new 4- to 5-meter (13- to 16.5-foot)-high dam in Kolontar to ward off any fresh sludge inundation.
Environment State Secretary Illes said there was suspicion that The Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company (MAL), which owns the Ajka reservoir, had stored more red sludge in the reservoir than was allowed, and thought that its walls had displayed stress fractures prior to the spill. BUT: the disaster occurred only a week after Hungarian environmental authorities had declared the reservoir safe!
"People are scared, said one man; "People no longer trust or believe what is said about the reservoir."
MAL chief Zoltan Bakonyi insisted, however, that the company had done nothing wrong, saying the company would suspend all production for the time being.
MAL Rt., the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company, which owns the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant where the spill occurred, insists the sludge is not considered hazardous waste according to EU standards. Alumina plants are scattered around the world, with the 12 largest concentrated in Australia, Brazil and China.
Red sludge is a byproduct of the refining of bauxite into alumina, the basic material for manufacturing aluminum. Treated sludge is often stored in ponds where the water eventually evaporates, leaving behind a dried red clay-like soil.
Ajkai Aluminia Refinery's residue reservoir, about 100 miles southwest of Budapest, (the one that broke on Monday) produces alumina, which is used in the smelting of aluminum.
The red mud is a toxic residue left over from the plant's aluminum production. Red sludge is a byproduct of the refining of bauxite into alumina, the
basic material for manufacturing aluminum. It is slightly radioactive, highly corrosive and contains toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and chromium. Thus, the sludge itself is a hazardous mixture of water and mining waste containing heavy metals.
Hungarian environmentalist Gergely Simon said the sludge involved in
the disaster had been accumulating in the reservoir for decades and was
extremely alkaline, with a pH value of about 13 — nearly equivalent to
lye — and that is what caused the burns.
It destroyed all vegetation other than trees and seeped into hundreds of houses in seven villages, It will probably be necessary to clear a new area for the villages and pull down the destroyed parts for good.
It will be impossible for people to live there. The broken reservoir released a toxic tsunami that ran through three villages and creeks that flow into
waterways connected to the Danube.
Creeks in Kolontar, the western
village closest to the spill site, were still swollen and ochre red days
later and villagers said they were devoid of fish. The red sludge reached the western branch of the Danube early Thursday and its broad, main stretch by noon on that Monday.
"Life in the Marcal River has been extinguished," Dobson told The Associated Press, referring to the river's 25-mile stretch that contained the sludge & carried it from Kolontar into the Raba River and onto the Danube. Dead fish have been spotted in both the Danube & the Raba.
Emergency crews poured plaster and acetic acid — vinegar — into the Raba-Danube meeting point in an effort to lower the sludge's pH value.
South of Hungary, the 1,775-mile long Danube flows
through Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova before emptying into the Black Sea.
At the Croatian village of Batina, the first site after the Danube leaves Hungary ... dead fish have been spotted in the main branch of the Danube. Tests
have shown contamination of the water.
Tests are being carried out downstream in Serbia, Coatia, and
Romania; where rescue teams were
using planes to drop acid and gypsum into the Danube and its tributaries to neutralise the alkaline effects of the toxic sludge in order to try to prevent heavy metals alkali from traveling further downriver.
All life in at least one small river, a Marcal tributary, has beed extinguished.
Water alkalinityis a measure of river contamination and on a scale of
1-14, pH values of 1-6 are acid, between 6 and 8 are neutral, and
readings of 8-14 are alkaline ... pH levels must be reduced to 8 from about the "9"
recently recorded at the joining of the Raba with the Danube.
On a scale of 1-14, pH values of 1-6 are acid,
6-8 is neutral, and readings of 8-14 are alkaline. In order to save the
river's ecosystem, the pH level must be brought down to below 8.
Authorities have been pouring a mixture of clay and acid to reduce alkalinity. It had been tested earlier at a pH level of 13 and now was down
under 10, and no more dead fish had been spotted in the Danube so far.
A neutral pH level for water is 7, with normal readings ranging from 6.5 to 8.5. Each pH number is 10 times the previous level, so a pH of 13 is 1,000 times more alkaline than a pH of 10.
When the spill first occurred on Monday afternoon, readings of 13.5 were taken in the nearby Torna river.
The tiny Torna stream flows into the Marcal, which is a tributary of the Raba, which in turn flows into the Danube. Readings earlier on Thursday showed pH levels of around 10 in the Torna.
Again, water alkalinity is a measure of river contamination and on a scale of 1-14, pH values of 1-6 are acid, between 6 and 8 are neutral, and readings of 8-14 are alkaline.
In Vienna, Greenpeace said it had found “surprisingly high levels” of arsenic and mercury in the caustic, foul-smelling red sludge that escaped from the reservoir in Ajka, 160 kilometres west of Budapest. “We found levels of arsenic, mercury and chrome and the arsenic level especially was double what we expected, double what is usually contained in such red sludge,” said a campaigner and chemist for the organisation, Herwig Schuster.
He warned that excessive levels of mercury could be absorbed by fish and therefore enter the food chain. If arsenic, in particular, were to get into the ground water and
drinking water, “this might cause a serious problem for the region. Arsenic is very toxic and causes damage to the nervous system,” he said.
Herwit Schuster, a spokesman for Greenpeace International, described the spill as "one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years". The land has been "polluted and destroyed for a long time", he told AP. "If there are substances like arsenic and mercury, that would affect
river systems and ground water on long-term basis," he added.
The human victims of this disaster, are believed to have drowned, due to the depth of the fast-moving flood which reached 6.5ft in places. Many of those injured suffered chemical burns. Disaster officials said over 150 people had been treated at hospitals and 11 were still in serious condition Thursday.
Water alkalinity is a measure of river contamination and on a scale of 1-14, pH values of 1-6 are acid, between 6 and 8 are neutral, and readings of 8-14 are alkaline.
In Vienna, Greenpeace said it had found “surprisingly high levels” of arsenic and mercury in the caustic, foul-smelling red sludge that escaped from the reservoir in Ajka, 160 kilometres west of Budapest.
“We found levels of arsenic, mercury and chrome and the arsenic level especially was double what we expected, double what is usually contained in such red sludge,” said a campaigner and chemist for the organisation, Herwig Schuster. He warned that excessive levels of mercury could be absorbed by fish and therefore enter the food chain.
Arsenic is very toxic and causes damage to the nervous system,” he said. If arsenic, in particular, were to get into the ground water and
drinking water, “this might cause a serious problem for the region.
Herwit Schuster, a spokesman for Greenpeace International, described the spill as "one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years".Land had been "polluted and destroyed for a long time", he told AP. "If there are substances like arsenic and mercury, that would affect river systems and ground water on long-term basis," he added.
Initial Reports
Chart Data from
WikiPedia & Hungarian Newsites
Red sludge floods towns in western Hungary, 1 dead
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - The reservoir of an alumina plant in western Hungary burst on Monday (Oct 4th, 2010), flooding several towns with towering waves of red sludge. One person died, three were missing and several dozen were injured, rescue services said.
The spill of an estimated 600,000-700,000 cubic meters (yards) of sludge affected several localities such as Kolontar and Devecser near the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in the town of Ajka, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Budapest, the capital.
In Devecser, the sludge flooded some 400 homes, and 40 people had to be rescued in the neighboring town of Somlovasarhely. In Kolontar, the rushing sludge reached a height of two meters (6.5 feet).
The sludge, a waste product in aluminum production, contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested, the National Disaster Management Directorate said.
Fifty-one people, including seven who were seriously hurt, were being treated by medical staff. The most common injuries caused by the caustic sludge were burns on the skin and eyes, said Jozsef Czirner, the regional rescue service director.
Army vehicles, two helicopters and some 40 soldiers were sent to assist with rescue efforts, state news wire MTI reported citing the defense ministry.
Police were also investigating the cause of the incident, MTI said.
U P D A T E: 10-06-2010
KOLONTAR, Hungary — A lethal torrent of toxic red sludge from a metal refinery engulfed towns in Hungary, burning villagers through their clothes and threatening an ecological disaster Tuesday as it swept toward the Danube River.
The flood of caustic red mud triggered a state of emergency declaration by Hungarian officials. At least four people were killed, six were missing and 120 injured, many with burns.
Hundreds were evacuated in the aftermath of the disaster Monday, when a gigantic sludge reservoir burst its banks at an alumina plant in Ajka, a town 100 miles southwest of Budapest, the capital. The torrent of sludge inundated homes, swept cars off roads and damaged bridges.
Red sludge is a by-product of the refining of bauxite into alumina, the basic material for manufacturing aluminum. Representatives from industry organizations in the U.S. and London could not explain why the Hungarian victims were burned by the material, saying if it is properly treated it is not hazardous.
It is common to store treated sludge in ponds where the water eventually evaporates, leaving behind a dried red clay-like soil, the officials said.
However, Hungarian environmentalist Gergely Simon said the sludge involved in the disaster had been accumulating in the reservoir for decades and was extremely alkaline, with a pH value of about 13 — nearly equivalent to lye — and that is what caused the burns.
MAL Rt., the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company that owns the Ajka plant, said that according to European Union standards, red sludge is not considered hazardous waste. The company also denied that it should have taken more precautions to shore up the reservoir, a huge structure more than 1,000 feet long and 500 yards wide, and high enough to dwarf trees that survived the torrent. (See Photo below)
Clearly angered by the company's suggestions that the substance was not hazardous, Interior Minister Sandor Pinter, snapped: "They should take a swim in it and then they'll see."
This week's spill threatened to eclipse the environmental damage caused 10 years ago, when huge amounts of cyanide poured from a gold mine reservoir in a Romanian town near the Hungarian border into the Danube and four smaller rivers, destroying plant and animal life. Romania, what was then Yugoslavia and Ukraine also were affected.
