TOXIC SPILL - HUNGARY (02): FATAL, WATER CONTAMINATION
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A ProMED-mail post
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International Society for Infectious Diseases <http://www.isid.org>
Date: 7 Oct 2010
Source: DW World. De [edited]
<http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6088210,00.html>
Disaster relief officials in Hungary say a toxic spill has reached the Danube River, one of Europe's key waterways, after killing all water life in the smaller Marcal River.
According to the head of Hungary's local disaster relief service, a toxic sludge spill has reached the Danube River, the 2nd longest in Europe, and killed all life in a smaller river called the Marcal.
"I can confirm that we have seen sporadic losses of fish in the main branch of the Danube," regional chief for the disaster relief services Tibor Dobson told news agency Agence France-Presse.
"The fish have been sighted at the confluence of the Raba with the Danube," where water samples had shown a pH value of 9.1, he said.
"Fish cannot survive at pH 9.1," the official added.
Dobson added that "the entire ecosystem of the Marcal River has been destroyed ... the very high alkaline levels have killed everything.
All the fish are dead, and we haven't been able to save the vegetation either."
He added that water alkalinity, a measure of river contamination, was already above normal in the major waterway.
"[Thu 7 Oct 2010 ] morning, the pH level stood at 9.3. The experts are still measuring the pollution levels..." Dobson said, adding that pH levels of around 8.0 are considered normal at the Gyor section of the river.
The spill resulted in the deaths of 4 people as well as over 100 injuries.
Gabor Figeczky, acting head of environmental group WWF in Hungary, told Deutsche Welle the spill threatens to kill off still more of the Danube's ecosystem.
"Now the spill has gotten through to the Raba River and then to the Danube, and it still has a much higher alkaline concentration than we saw before. So it's much worse than we expected [Wednesday (6 Oct 2010)]," he said.
The area around Ajka, in western Hungary, was inundated with the sludge after the walls of the Ajkai aluminia refinery's residue reservoir, about 160 km southwest of Budapest, broke on Monday [4 Oct 2010]. The plant 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. It is slightly radioactive, highly corrosive and contains toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and chromium. It destroyed all vegetation other than trees and seeped into hundreds of houses in 7 villages, leaving residents unsure of when they would be able to return to their homes.
Environment State Secretary Zoltan 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 that its walls had displayed stress fractures prior to the spill.
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Communicated by:
ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
[While the spill is serious and is damaging to waterway life of the majority of species, it is unlikely that life in the river is completely gone. The water is running and will eventually flush itself out. How long that process takes is a product of the environment itself. How much rain comes, what temperatures are, etc.
are all factors that will influence the return of life and the cycle of the waterways cleaning themselves.
The difficulty is that nothing here tells us just how radioactive the substance really is. If there is some accurate measurement of it, ProMED-mail would appreciate an authoritative response regarding this question. - Mod.TG]
[see also:
Toxic spill - Hungary: fatal, water contamination 20101007.3634] .....................................................tg/msp/dk/ll
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