‘Toxic sludge’ in Hungary makes way to Danube

Have you seen the image in the news of the sea of bright red ‘toxic sludge’ that flooded parts of Hungary, claiming the lives of four people?

The ‘red mud’ flooded several towns and villages in western Hungary on October 4th after a wall collapsed, allowing several open air ponds of the goo, a by-product of chemical processing, to escape. More than 100 people were hospitalized for chemical burns after the flood. The substance has now breached the Danube, although Hungarian environmental officials have stated that the damage is, for now, minimal:

(Hungarian rescue agency spokesman Tibor Dobson) did not address concerns that the caustic slurry might contain toxic metals, but said its pH content had been reduced to the point where it was unlikely to cause further damage to the environment.

Dobson said the pH content, which officials earlier said was at a highly alkaline 13 on a scale of zero to 14, was now under 10 and no dead fish had been spotted where the slurry was entering the Danube.

The National Disaster Management Directorate, in a separate statement, said the pH value was at 9.3 and constantly decreasing. Normal ph levels for surface water range from 6.5 to 8.5.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that much of the area flooded by the sludge is not rebuildable, and that had the “unprecedented ecological catastrophe” occurred at night, that “everybody would be dead.” Orban added that he believed the disaster was down to “human error.”

[MSNBC]