Watches Hungary detains sludge company head

Hungary detains sludge company head


Police in Hungary have detained a senior official of the company that owns the metals plant responsible for a reservoir which recently burst, flooding several towns with red toxic waste in an environmental disaster that left seven people dead.

Zoltan Bakonyi, head of aluminium producer MAL Zrt, has been detained for 72 hours, Anna Nagy, government spokeswoman, said on Monday.

At least seven people died and 150 others were injured in what officials quickly termed Hungary's worst-ever chemical accident which polluted an area of 40sq km as well as tributaries of the Danube river.

Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, said the company should be brought under state control because of its role in the disaster that has spoiled large areas the country's west and polluted rivers.

"We need to hold the company responsible for the red sludge spill under state control and its assets under state closure until all of these four tasks are handled," Orban told parliament on Monday.

He said a state commissioner would be appointed to take over control over MAL Zrt and manage its assets.

'War of Words'

Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught, reporting from Ajka, 160km west of the capital, Budapest, said the arrest "comes as no surprise".

"The war of words between the government and the company had been intensifying over the last couple of days," she said.

MAl Zrt has apologised for the disaster and said it will pay compensation "in proportion to its responsibility".

In Depth


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Our correspondent said: "The government freely admits that it could have been tougher on private business and it has not been.

"The breach of safety regulations, the lack of enforcement, the way these [company] people have been able to make money clearly at the expense of public-safety interests ... all of these things have to be pinned at the door of the Hungarian government."

According to the latest estimates, some 600,000 cubic metres of toxic sludge spilled from the reservoir at the alumina plant in Ajka last Monday.

The reservoir still holds 2.5 million tonnes of the waste.

Engineers now expect to finish new barriers to contain the sludge by Tuesday, as hundreds of volunteers, disaster relief teams and engineers race against time to erect a new dam.

"We still don't know for now whether the company overloaded the reservoirs or not. But if that is the case, it's illegal storage of waste and that constitutes a crime," Zoltan Illes, environment state secretary, said.

The environmental disaster occurred when the walls of the reservoir burst a week ago, sending a tidal wave of sludge through surrounding villages.
Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/10/20101011104817179833.html

Watch Hungary detains sludge company head

Hungary detains sludge company head

olice in Hungary have detained a senior official of the company that owns the metals plant responsible for a reservoir which recently burst, flooding several towns with red toxic waste in an environmental disaster that left seven people dead.

Zoltan Bakonyi, head of aluminium producer MAL Zrt, has been detained for 72 hours, Anna Nagy, government spokeswoman, said on Monday.

At least seven people died and 150 others were injured in what officials quickly termed Hungary's worst-ever chemical accident which polluted an area of 40sq km as well as tributaries of the Danube river.

Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, said the company should be brought under state control because of its role in the disaster that has spoiled large areas the country's west and polluted rivers.

"We need to hold the company responsible for the red sludge spill under state control and its assets under state closure until all of these four tasks are handled," Orban told parliament on Monday.

He said a state commissioner would be appointed to take over control over MAL Zrt and manage its assets.

'War of Words'

Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught, reporting from Ajka, 160km west of the capital, Budapest, said the arrest "comes as no surprise".

"The war of words between the government and the company had been intensifying over the last couple of days," she said.

MAl Zrt has apologised for the disaster and said it will pay compensation "in proportion to its responsibility".

In Depth


What is in the red sludge?
Gallery: Hungary's toxic disaster
Videos:
Dam showed 'weakness'
Hungarians see red over sludge
Hungary battles toxic spill
Our correspondent said: "The government freely admits that it could have been tougher on private business and it has not been.

"The breach of safety regulations, the lack of enforcement, the way these [company] people have been able to make money clearly at the expense of public-safety interests ... all of these things have to be pinned at the door of the Hungarian government."

According to the latest estimates, some 600,000 cubic metres of toxic sludge spilled from the reservoir at the alumina plant in Ajka last Monday.

The reservoir still holds 2.5 million tonnes of the waste.
Coppied by http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/10/20101011104817179833.html

Watches this New threat from Hungary reservoir

New threat from Hungary reservoir


Rescue workers have evacuated a Hungarian village due to a heightened threat of a second flood of toxic red sludge from a broken reservoir at an alumina plant.

A weakened wall in the reservoir from which one million cubic metres of sludge flooded several nearby villages, fields and waterways skirting the Danube river earlier this week is in danger to collapse.

Authorities evacuated 800 inhabitants from the village of Kolontar to the town of Ajka, Hungarian disaster agency spokesman Tibor Dobson confirmed and Kolontar has been sealed off.

Hungary declared a state of emergency in three counties after sludge from the alumina plant flooded three villages on Monday about 160 km (100 miles) west of Budapest, killing seven people and injuring around 150.

"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," Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a news conference.

"Thank God, we have managed to rescue the large majority of people after the dam burst on Monday, but the region has been practically destroyed," Mr Orban said.

Speaking in Ajka, he said another 500,000 cubic metres of sludge could escape the reservoir but this substance would be thicker than the initial tide of the corrosive, caustic waste material.

The spill from the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant could have been avoided and there will be "the toughest possible consequences" to ensure such a disaster does not recur, Mr Orban said.

In remarks carried by private broadcaster HirTV, he said a decision on whether to allow the plant to resume bauxite refining would not be made before Monday.

Mr Orban said the government was ready to foot the entire bill of the rescue and recovery effort, but it was too early at this stage to make precise estimates about the size of the damage.

Earlier today, Gyorgy Bakondi, head of the National Disaster Unit, told the daily Magyar Nemzet in an interview the final bill could top 10 billion forints (€36.25 million).

He said checks were made of all similar reservoirs in Hungary. Mr Orban said Hungary had launched a disaster relief fund, which accepted contributions from Hungarians across the world.

Mr Orban, who called the spill Hungary's worst ecological disaster to date, said there was now a high risk of up to 500,000 cubic metres of even thicker sludge escaping the reservoir due to a deterioration of a wall in the stricken part.
coppied by http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1009/breaking2.html

Watched Toxic sludge no longer poses threat to Danube, says Hungary

Toxic sludge no longer poses threat to Danube, says Hungary


DANIEL McLAUGHLIN

SLUDGE RELEASED by a deadly industrial accident is no longer a danger to the river Danube, according to Hungary.

However, environmental groups have challenged that claim and questioned whether the disaster could have been prevented.

Some 700,000 cubic metres of toxic mud burst from a waste pool at an alumina plant in southwest Hungary on Monday, devastating nearby villages and about 40sq km and killing all life in the river Marcal, which flows into the Danube.

One of about 120 people injured by the wave of caustic filth died yesterday and two bodies were found, bringing the death toll to seven. One person is still missing.

Workers poured tonnes of neutralising agents into the Marcal to reduce the acidity before it reached Europe’s second longest river. Although dead fish were spotted in the Danube on Thursday, officials said yesterday that the emergency was easing.

“The good news is that we have succeeded in bringing it under control and very probably waters threatening the environment will not enter the Danube, even on Hungarian territory,” said prime minister Viktor Orban.

The government said drinking water supplies had not been affected and that the acidity level of the Danube near the site of the spill was almost neutral.
Coppied by http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1009/1224280699449.html

Watch Hungary says clean-up of toxic spill could take a year

Hungary says clean-up of toxic spill could take a year


Budapest: A damburst of toxic sludge that killed at least four people and left scores needing treatment for chemical burns and other injuries could take up to a year to clean up, officials said on Wednesday.

"The clean-up and reconstruction could take months, even a year," Environment Secretary Zoltan Illes said.

On Monday, the retaining walls of a reservoir at an aluminium plant in Ajka in western Hungary collapsed, sending a toxic soup of industrial waste cascading through seven villages.

The devastation spread across an area of 40 square kilometres (15.4 square miles) in what officials say is Hungary's worst-ever chemical accident.



Three adults and one child were killed and 123 people were injured, while three people are still missing.

Karoly Tily, the mayor of Kolontar, the village where all four victims died, declared on Wednesday a day of mourning, and the company which owned the reservoir, the Hungarian Aluminium Production and Trade Company (MAL), said it would foot the costs of the funerals.

Illes told online publication Langlovak in an interview that the overall costs of the clean-up and reconstruction "could reach tens of millions of euros (dollars)”.

If MAL was unable to drum up the funds, "the sum will be borne by the Hungarian government, or it might be necessary to ask the European Union for aid”, he said.

The tidal wave of sludge overturned cars, swept away possessions and raised fears that pollution leeching from it could reach the Danube River, which courses through Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine before flowing into the Black Sea.


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Hungary toxic sludge spill reaches Danube
Late Wednesday, officials said they were confident the contamination would not reach Europe's second longest river

"If our calculations are right then by the time the sludge reaches the Danube contamination will be under the acceptable levels," Emil Jenak, president of Northern Transdanubian Water Management, said.

A pollution expert, quoted by the Hungarian news agency MTI, said rain and neutralising agents used so far had already led to a drop in alkaline levels in the Marcal river "and the connecting Raba will suffer much less damage" than feared.

But environmental organisation Greenpeace detected lead, chrome and arsenic in samples taken from a tributary of the Marcal, the river Torma.
Coppied by http://www.zeenews.com/news660066.html

Exited Hungary toxic sludge spill reaches Danube

Hungary toxic sludge spill reaches Danube


HUNGARY'S toxic sludge spill, which has killed four people, reached the Danube river today, threatening to contaminate the waterway's ecosystem, a water authority official said.

Water alkalinity, a measure of river contamination, was already above normal in the major waterway, the official said.

Samples taken at the confluence of the Raab river and the Danube showed "alkalinity slightly above nornal, around 8.96 per cent to 9.07 per cent'', against a normal tally of eight per cent, the source said.

A wave of toxic mud was unleashed on Monday from the reservoir of an aluminium plant at Ajka, 160km west of Budapest.

The red mud travelled down the Raab river and reached the Danube waters at around 0630 GMT (1730 AEDT) at Gyor.

The industrial accident triggered by the collapse of walls at the factory reservoir on Monday has been described as an ecological disaster and is now threatening the entire ecosystem of the Danube, Europe's second longest river.
Coppied by http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/hungary-toxic-sludge-spill-reaches-danube/story-e6freuyi-1225935614622

Watches this Hungary toxic sludge spill reaches Danube

Hungary toxic sludge spill reaches Danube
HUNGARY'S toxic sludge spill, which has killed four people, reached the Danube river today, threatening to contaminate the waterway's ecosystem, a water authority official said.


Water alkalinity, a measure of river contamination, was already above normal in the major waterway, the official said.

Samples taken at the confluence of the Raab river and the Danube showed "alkalinity slightly above nornal, around 8.96 per cent to 9.07 per cent'', against a normal tally of eight per cent, the source said.

A wave of toxic mud was unleashed on Monday from the reservoir of an aluminium plant at Ajka, 160km west of Budapest.

The red mud travelled down the Raab river and reached the Danube waters at around 0630 GMT (1730 AEDT) at Gyor.

The industrial accident triggered by the collapse of walls at the factory reservoir on Monday has been described as an ecological disaster and is now threatening the entire ecosystem of the Danube, Europe's second longest river.
coppied by http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/hungary-toxic-sludge-spill-reaches-danube/story-e6freuyi-1225935614622

Flood affected Hungary scrambles to contain toxic mud spill

Hungary scrambles to contain toxic mud spill


AFP – A man wades through his mud-soaked garden in Devecser. Hungary is scrambling to contain a toxic mud spill
BUDAPEST (AFP) – Hungary scrambled Wednesday to contain a toxic mud spill that left four people dead and more than 100 injured in what is being described as an "ecological catastrophe" for the region around the Danube river.
"We've been working to neutralise the rivers since yesterday and we're already getting good results showing that alkaline levels in the water are falling," a spokewoman for the disaster relief services Timea Petroczi told AFP.
"We've got 500 people involved in the clean-up today. We're using high-pressure water jets to clean roads and houses."
Two adults and two young children were killed on Monday when the walls of a reservoir of residue at an aluminium plant in Ajka in western Hungary broke, sending a tidal wave of slightly radioactive, highly corrosive sludge through seven nearby villages.
While the death toll has not risen so far, out of 123 injured, eight people are in serious condition in hospital suffering from burns and another 53 also remain hospitalised.
Originally, six people had been feared missing, but that number has been revised downwards to three, Petroczi said.

The stinking red sludge left a path of devastation across 40 square kilometres (15.4 square miles), leading the interior ministry to declare a state of emergency in three counties.
The two-metre (six-and-a-half-foot) tide of mud overturned cars, swept away possessions and has raised fears that pollution leeching from it could reach the Danube River, which courses through Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine before flowing into the Black Sea.
The mud destroyed all vegetation other than trees and seeped into hundreds of houses in seven villages, leaving residents asking when they could return.
In Kolontar, one of the villages affected, the army had to build a temporary bridge to replace one that was swept away by the flood.
Petroczi confirmed the drinking water system had not been affected so far, but "as a precautionary measure, people are not allowed to use the water wells," she said.
Residents were also banned from eating any home-grown produce or from hunting or fishing in the region, she said.
Environment state secretary Zoltan Illes, who visited the area on Tuesday, described the accident as "an ecological catastrophe" and the worst chemical accident in the country's history.
The red mud is a toxic residue left over from aluminium production. It is slightly radioactive, highly corrosive and contains toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and chromium.
Coppied by http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101006/wl_afp/hungaryaccidentchemical