Toxic sludge no longer poses threat to Danube, says Hungary

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.

Environmental groups remained worried about the long-term impact of Hungary’s worst chemical spill, however, and questioned the country’s Academy of Sciences over its claim that the sludge did not contain dangerously high levels of heavy metals.

“We don’t know when they conducted the tests and how. Our data are very different. That is all that we know,” said the director of Greenpeace Hungary, Zsolt Szegfalvi, who cited particularly high levels of arsenic, mercury and chromium at the village of Kolontar.

“This contamination poses a long-term risk to both the water base and the ecosystem,” a Greenpeace statement said. “As long as the environment is alkaline, these materials are bound in the mud. As soon as the alkalinity is reduced . . . these heavy metals are gradually released to the environment.”

The private company that runs the alumina plant where the slurry pool burst insists that the sludge is not considered to be hazardous waste by the European Union.

But Marton Vay, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said the concentration of some toxins in the sludge that escaped in Hungary was much higher than expected.

“This represents a big threat for the drinking-water network,” he warned. “The sludge that was spilled appears to be different from red sludge as described in textbooks.”

Environmental group WWF publicised photographs taken in June showing streaks of red mud in drains around the waste pool and apparent damage to surrounding vegetation, suggesting that the facility may have been leaking for months.

“That is an unambiguous sign of seepage, which should have been stopped and handled,” the WWF said.

The alumina company has insisted that all checks suggested that the waste reservoir was safe.