Huge toxic flood in Hungary

[Phantasee]

Hungary battles to stem torrent of toxic sludge

5 October 2010 Last updated at 15:54 ET Share this pageFacebookTwitterShareEmailPrint
Hungary battles to stem torrent of toxic sludge

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The spill flooded homes, roads and fields with toxic waste
Emergency services in Hungary are trying to stop a torrent of toxic red sludge flowing into major waterways, including the River Danube.

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In pictures: Hungary's toxic spill
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A state of emergency has been declared in three western counties after the chemical waste burst from a reservoir at an alumina plant.

Four people are known to have died, with 120 injured. Six more are missing.

At least seven villages and towns are affected including Devecser, where the torrent was 2m (6.5ft) deep.

The flood swept cars from roads and damaged bridges and houses, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents.

The sludge - a mixture of water and mining waste containing heavy metals - is considered hazardous, according to Hungary's National Directorate General for Disaster Management (NDGDM).

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, 160km (100 miles) from the capital, Budapest.

With 7,000 people affected directly by the disaster, a state of emergency was declared in the county of Veszprem where the spill occurred, and Gyor-Moson-Sopron and Vas, where the sludge appeared to be heading.

At least 390 residents have been relocated and 110 rescued from flooded areas, the NDGDM said.

Nearly 500 police officers and soldiers, including six 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.

Dr Attila Nyikos, of the NDGDM, told the BBC News website that a police investigation had been opened and tests were still being carried out to determine the environmental impact of the leak.

Burn injuries
Zoltan Illes, state secretary for the environment ministry, visited Kolontar on Tuesday and described the flood as the worst chemical accident in Hungary's history.

An alert has been declared on both the Marcal and Torna rivers, and Mr Illes said workers were "desperately" trying to stop contamination of the Raba and Danube rivers.

The clean-up operation could take up to 18 months, the minister told the BBC, and would require a "really vast amount of money" that would probably require an application for financial or technical support from the EU.


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

Dr Nyikos said the victims had probably been drowned by the sludge, which had flowed out with the speed of water.

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

Peter Jakabos, a doctor 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, Robert Kis, 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.

'Not hazardous'
Weeks of heavy rain are likely to have played a role in the accident, the BBC's Nick Thorpe reports from Budapest.

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.

MAL Rt, the Hungarian company which owns the plant, earlier said that by EU standards the sludge had not been considered hazardous.

There had been no sign of the impending disaster and the last examination of the reservoir pond on Monday had shown nothing untoward, it added.

It said it believed the company management "could not have noticed the signs of the natural catastrophe nor done anything to prevent it even while carefully respecting technological procedures".

The sludge flooded 19 streets in Devecser and two in Kolontar, where at least three of the four deaths occurred. Five other areas were under threat.

Rescue workers used an axe to cut through the living room door of Mr Kis's house in Devecser, 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, Tunde Erdelyi.

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

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Holy fucking shit. The video on BBC was wild. Floods are bad enough without being toxic waste.

[folti78]

Thanks, but the flooding angle has been covered by the May-June floods already ... It's more like the cyanide poisoning of the Tisza river by the Romanian Aurul company back in 2000 with loss of lives. The MAL management says the exact same excuses too (hey Mr CEO! If it's not poisonous, why don't you go to have a bath in the reservoir? [/toughguy]).

Anyway, this flood knocked out the Veszprém-Ajka-Devecser-Boba railway which serves midwestern Hungary too.

Photo galleries from Index.hu:
Devecser: day of the flood, aftermath
Kolontár: aftermath 1, 2

Airborne photos of the reservoir and the affected settlements.

[Zixinus]

This is a rather unlucky year for many rural Hungarians. First the floods, then this. I heard on the radio, but I didn't imagine just how large the damage is.

The photos show why its called "red ooze" in the local media.

[LaCroix]

It's about 70 km away from me. I had calls all day from friends if I am hit by this as well.
Much too close for comfort...

And yeah - this year has been bad. It rained about as much as it usually does in ten years combined in my region... We usually don't have a drop of rain from mid May to end of September, and we had continuous rain in may, in July and on-off every second day for the rest. No wonder everything is flowing over...

News coverage in local radio told that the sludge is caustic, injured people having serious 'acid burns'. And the icing of the cake is that the sludge contains heavy metals, which will probably poison the soil for a long time...

Map cooordinates : 47.09599,17.470465

The flood is said to have reached Somlovasarhely, off to the west ( I will not go there and check myself) - just so you can imagine how large an area is contaminated

[CaptainChewbacca]

Actually, when you're dealing with a fast-moving contaminant like this you only get it in the top 6-10 inches of topsoil, which can easily be cleared and disposed of. I wouldn't want to be around that stuff, some mining companies actually use waste like this to clean their own equipment- they just submerge the drill bits in and watch the mess bubble off.

I know it is a tragedy, but the nerd in me thinks 'There's gonna be a LOT of new Hungarian superheroes'.

Yeah. I'll just be going to hell now.

[Phantasee]

I've noticed that there has been a lot more rain around here, and after the Iceland volcano I'm wondering how much of it is due to "Year Without Summer" type effects.

Last year was a recession with no work, this year there is work bu too much rain.

[Broomstick]

Actually, when you're dealing with a fast-moving contaminant like this you only get it in the top 6-10 inches of topsoil, which can easily be cleared and disposed of.

Maybe so, but if you scrape that much soil off a farm you've taken away what part of the soil is fertile. The farm is destroyed.

[folti78]

Actually, when you're dealing with a fast-moving contaminant like this you only get it in the top 6-10 inches of topsoil, which can easily be cleared and disposed of.

Maybe so, but if you scrape that much soil off a farm you've taken away what part of the soil is fertile. The farm is destroyed.

On top of the fact, that crops has been destroyed or had reduced yields due to adverse weather in this year. Not just in Hungary, Slovakia lost crops on 1/5th of their arable land back in the May-June floods.

Some other funny news:
- MAL's insurance covered damages up to 10 million HUF (~50000 USD) and only for limited causes.
- The cost of recovery now estimated to be around 10 billion HUF. Surveying of property damage has yet to begin.

[LaCroix]

Broomstick beat me to it with the soil...

@folti What? only a 10 million insurance? Hell, my home insurance covers that much if someone tumbles on my parking lot!
I would love to know who 'waived' them the requirement to have proper insurance.

@Phant Yeah, we are also speculating about how much of this is freak event, global warming/climate change (as it got steadily worse for years) and the volcano (as the increase this year was sudden)
We hope it was the volcano, for this will only last for another year or so and then go back to normal...

edit: badder is worse

[folti78]

@folti What? only a 10 million insurance? Hell, my home insurance covers that much if someone tumbles on my parking lot!
I would love to know who 'waived' them the requirement to have proper insurance.

Well, if you want some conspiracy theory, previous PM Gyurcsány had a stake in MAL sometimes in the recent past and neither him and his party(, nor the current bunch) are above the practice of skirting laws and regulations to give companies in their sphere of interest some benefits. Also MAL is the biggest employer in the immediate region so it can pull some strings at the local authorities.

[folti78]

Ghetto edit: on a less conspiracy note, having proper insurance for a company is not as mandatory in Hungary as in Western Europe, neither it's part of the general business culture. Some insurance industry talking head mentioned the need to revamp the relevant laws in light of the current events. (now you can prepare for the ensuing political soap opera)

[Broomstick]

I found this on the BBC:

Julian Siddle Science reporter, BBC News

The muddy red sludge is waste from the early stages of aluminium production.

Aluminium-containing ore, bauxite, is washed at high temperatures in sodium hydroxide. This dissolves the aluminium, which can then be processed further, but the red sludge is left behind as a waste product. It is this which has leaked from the Hungarian storage reservoirs.

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.

One of the rivers affected has been treated with chemicals - calcium and magnesium nitrates - to try to counter the alkaline effects.

I'm wondering if there is a cost-effective way to extract the iron and other metals from the sludge, turning an industrial waste into a potential resource (yes, that's recycling). Aside from extracting further value, perhaps it would reduce the volume of such sludge and thus reduce the two problems of storing the crap and the risk of disastrous spills.

[RedImperator]

I imagine it could be easily done technically, but not economically. It's not like scrap iron is rare or hard to come by.

[aieeegrunt]

If it were possible to profit from that, the corp would be jealously guarding it's precious ooze. As it's considered an expense and a nuisance, it's allowed to pile up somewhere till the inevitable happens. But it's always poor people who suffer, so nobody gives a shit and nothing changes.

[Broomstick]

Or it could be the corporation isn't aware of a recovery method that's out there, but perhaps so new as to not be well known. It would be a good thing to develop a cost-effective materials recovery technique for that sort of waste. I seem to recall that during the 20th Century techniques advanced to the point that it became economical to "mine" the tailings of some older mining operations to recover more stuff.

Also, sort of like how restaurants used to have to pay to get old grease hauled away, but now with biodiesel it's become a resource, they have to lock it up to keep people from stealing it, and they now sell it. As needs and technology change what used to be garbage becomes "gold".

[CaptainChewbacca]

For me this is especially terrifying, because I have an aluminum allergy. I would literally burst into flames with if I had that stuff in contact with my skin.

[Chaotic Neutral]

I would literally burst into flames with if I had that stuff in contact with my skin.

Why can't my allergies be that awesome?

[atg]

I would literally burst into flames with if I had that stuff in contact with my skin.

Why can't my allergies be that awesome?

'cause being set on fire is really that awesome

[ShadowDragon8685]

For me this is especially terrifying, because I have an aluminum allergy. I would literally burst into flames with if I had that stuff in contact with my skin.

Is this hyperbole, as in you'd just suffer very severe chemical burns, or would you literally literally undergo an aluminothermic reaction and genuinely catch flame?

I would literally burst into flames with if I had that stuff in contact with my skin.

Why can't my allergies be that awesome?

'cause being set on fire is really that awesome

Well, yeah, it is. That doesn't mean it's good, but as allergies go it's a hell of a lot more hardcore than, say, just going into anaphlyactic shock if stung by a wasp.

[folti78]

Or it could be the corporation isn't aware of a recovery method that's out there, but perhaps so new as to not be well known. It would be a good thing to develop a cost-effective materials recovery technique for that sort of waste. I seem to recall that during the 20th Century techniques advanced to the point that it became economical to "mine" the tailings of some older mining operations to recover more stuff.

Also, sort of like how restaurants used to have to pay to get old grease hauled away, but now with biodiesel it's become a resource, they have to lock it up to keep people from stealing it, and they now sell it. As needs and technology change what used to be garbage becomes "gold".

Going on gut feeling and wild guesses, it's probably economical reason, combined with the people in charge not bothering with something that doesn't recognized as a problem at least in the near future.

Economically, you have to burn money to build the reprocessing plant, man it and find a buyer for the product and transport it to them. Which could be the problem because you have to make it cheaper than the scrap metal collectors (who have their established networks, and business connections). Also it only works when times are good and the potential customers willing to pay it. When the economy is in the shitter, even the scrap people have problems selling their stuff to the steel mills.

Not to mention, that MAL had to make some hard cuts to remain afloat in the depression.

[Broomstick]

Economically, you have to burn money to build the reprocessing plant, man it and find a buyer for the product and transport it to them. Which could be the problem because you have to make it cheaper than the scrap metal collectors (who have their established networks, and business connections). Also it only works when times are good and the potential customers willing to pay it. When the economy is in the shitter, even the scrap people have problems selling their stuff to the steel mills.

Hmm.... except that in my area scrap steel has gone from $120/ton to $185/ton in the past year...

Of course, that will vary from place to place and over time.

Unfortunately, the company never considered the cost of recycling vs. the cost of disaster clean-up. If they had, then recycling might suddenly become economic for them over the long run... but then, companies often don't consider the long run, Hungarian regulations may be lax compared to other places, and the company has gotten away with it until now.

[Imperial528]

Just read about the spill in the paper, apparently this stuff has a pH level of 13. It's infuriating that the waste isn't considered a hazard by the EU, when it's caustic enough to cause 2nd-3rd degree burns and is toxic if ingested.

I hope that they get this spill cleaned up soon, since the faster its gone, the faster recovery will take, and the world has enough problems already.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Unfortunately, the company never considered the cost of recycling vs. the cost of disaster clean-up. If they had, then recycling might suddenly become economic for them over the long run... but then, companies often don't consider the long run, Hungarian regulations may be lax compared to other places, and the company has gotten away with it until now.

Cost of a clean-up: Some gazillion hojillion ridiculous amount of money.
Cost of recycling: A lot of money, even if it can be turned into an almost-profitable venture when it's up and running.
Cost of dumping the shit behind a dam and sticking your head in the sand and hoping it doesn't break: Almost free.

Factor in the fact that the cost of the clean-up almost certainly won't fall in whole or in large part upon the parties responsible, and the least responsible option from all perspectives of human decency is the most responsible option from the perspective of "my only goal is to make the shareholders money and spend as little of the shareholders' money as possible."

[Broomstick]

Yeah, yeah, yeah - I know all that.

However, I still do not find it acceptable. The idealist in me (still not dead yet) would like to think of a way so that the most responsible thing to do is also the economically most sensible thing to do. Companies in the US recycle because either regulation has made the cost of NOT recycling prohibitive or else someone has found a way to profit off it.

Saying that it is uneconomical to recycle the waste now does not mean it would be impossible in the future. The iron and aluminum oxide are both useful resources for industry. A lot of the alkalinity in the sludge is due to sodium hydroxide or lye - another useful industrial chemical. Find a reasonable way to recover any 1 of those 3 you've gone a long way to improving the situation, find a way to recover all 3 and the resulting residue will be much lower in volume and easier to dispose of.

Frankly, I'm not convinced that recycling the sludge has even been looked at - if they've been getting away with just dumping it in the backyard, so to speak, why would they even look for a way to make money off it? People are lazy. Someone might be missing out on a profitable enterprise here.

[CaptainChewbacca]

To clarify, since apparently you all want to know, if I get reactive aluminum on my skin (aka not aluminum oxide) then the skin inflames painfully and can form stinging welts and blisters if contact is prolonged. If this ever happened in my esophagus or lungs I would die a painful, breathless death.