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Purple is a nice color too...
Whoopsies! So much for the Beautiful Blue Danube...
KOLONTAR, Hungary – The toxic red sludge that burst out of a Hungarian factory's reservoir reached the mighty Danube on Thursday after wreaking havoc on smaller rivers and creeks, and downstream nations rushed to test their waters.
The European Union and environmental officials both fear an environmental catastrophe affecting half a dozen nations if the red sludge, a waste product of making aluminum, contaminates the Danube, Europe's second-longest river.
Officials from Croatia, Serbia and Romania were taking river samples every few hours Thursday but hoping that the Danube's huge water volume would blunt the impact of the spill.
The reservoir break Monday disgorged a toxic torrent through three villages and creeks that flow into waterways connected to the Danube. Creeks in Kolontar, the western Hungarian village closest to the spill site, were still swollen and ochre red days later and villagers said they were devoid of fish.
The red sludge reached the western branch of the Danube early Thursday and its broad, main stretch by noon, Hungarian rescue agency spokesman Tibor Dobson told the state MTI news agency.
Dobson said the pH content of the red sludge entering the Danube had been reduced to the point where it was unlikely to cause further environmental damage. It had been tested earlier at a pH level of 13 and now was down under 10, and no dead fish had been spotted where the slurry was entering the Danube, he said.
A neutral pH level for water is 7, with normal readings ranging from 6.5 to 8.5. Each pH number is 10 times the previous level, so a pH of 13 is 1,000 times more alkaline than a pH of 10.
The Hungarian Academy of Science said sludge samples taken two days ago showed that the muck's heavy metal concentrations do "not come close" to levels considered dangerous to the environment. But the academy said Thursday it still considered the sludge dangerous — apparently due to its caustic characteristics.
The sludge has devastated local waterways.
"Life in the Marcal River has been extinguished," Dobson told The Associated Press, referring to the 25-mile (40-kilometer) stretch of the river that carried the red waste from Kolontar into the Raba River, which then flows into the Danube.
He said emergency crews were pouring plaster and acetic acid — vinegar — into the Raba-Danube meeting point to lower the slurry's pH value.
"The main effort is now being concentrated on the Raba and the Danube," he said. "That's what has to be saved."
Dobson said the lack of immediate environmental damage to the Danube or Raba was "by no means a victory declaration," cautioning that dead fish could still turn up shortly.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban, stopping at dawn in Kolontar, described the reservoir break as a disaster unprecedented in Hungary.
"If this had happened at night then everyone here would have died," the MTI news agency quoted him as telling villagers.
Orban suggested someone was clearly to blame, angrily exclaiming: "This is so irresponsible that it is impossible to find words!"
Local officials said 34 homes in Kolontar were unlivable but furious residents said the disaster had destroyed the whole village of 800 by making their land worthless. The prime minister called the worst-hit area a total write-off, saying he sees "no sense" in rebuilding in the same location.
Soldiers, emergency workers and volunteers dressed in a range of mud-splattered protective gear kept shoveling out the muck Thursday, a process that one official said could take months.
It is still not known why part of the reservoir collapsed and allowed the toxic torrent estimated at 35 million cubic feet (1 million cubic meters) of waste to sweep through the villages, killing at least four people and leaving three people missing. Disaster officials said over 150 people had been treated at hospitals, and 11 were still in serious condition Thursday.
Hungary's top investigative agency, the National Investigation Office, took over the probe into the spill and planned to look into whether on-the-job carelessness was a factor.
MAL Rt., the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company, which owns the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant where the spill occurred, insists the sludge is not considered hazardous waste according to EU standards. It has also rejected criticism that it should have taken more precautions at the reservoir.
South of Hungary, the 1,775-mile (2,850-kilometer) long Danube flows through Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova before emptying into the Black Sea.
At the Croatian village of Batina, the first site after the Danube leaves Hungary, experts were taking water samples Thursday which they will repeat daily for the next week, the state-run news agency HINAS reported.
In Romania, water levels were reported safe Thursday, with testing being carried out every three hours. Romanian Waters spokeswoman Ana Maria Tanase said the Danube water had a pH of 8.5, within normal levels, but tests were checking for heavy metals.
The huge reservoir, more than 1,000 feet (300 meters) long and 1,500 feet (450 meters) wide, was no longer leaking and a triple-tiered protective wall was being built around its damaged section. Guards have been posted to give an early warning in case of any new emergency.
Still, Kolontar Mayor Karoly Tili noted that the disaster occurred only a week after Hungarian environmental authorities had declared the reservoir safe.
"People are scared," he told the AP. "People no longer trust or believe what is said about the reservoir."
Etel Stampf, 76, was in her backyard in Kolontar when the first waves of the flood hit. She climbed on the roof of her pigsty to survive, but the flooding was so high that one of her legs dangled in the cold red water for an hour and was left badly burned.
"If I don't die now, I never will," Stampf said she thought while clinging to the pigsty's main beam.
"We worked so hard for years to have something for ourselves and now it's all gone," Stampf said. "I don't want to stay here. Ten years from now there will be nothing left of this town."
Herwit Schuster, a spokesman for Greenpeace International, described the spill as "one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years."
The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube, which manages the river and its tributaries, said the sludge spill could trigger long-term damaging effects for both wildlife and humans.
Red sludge is a byproduct of the refining of bauxite into alumina, the basic material for manufacturing aluminum. Treated sludge is often stored in ponds where the water eventually evaporates, leaving behind a dried red clay-like soil.
Alumina plants are scattered around the world, with the 12 largest concentrated in Australia, Brazil and China.
Purple is a nice color too...
Pfft it's not like it's fluoride or anything....
Eh, I doubt it'd even fill the Superdome.
I loled.
That was a great thread...
Hippo............potamus.I loled.
So, it's mostly the dirt after the ore is removed...Red sludge is a byproduct of the refining of bauxite into alumina, the basic material for manufacturing aluminum. Treated sludge is often stored in ponds where the water eventually evaporates, leaving behind a dried red clay-like soil.
The sludge contains a variety of chemicals and is not simply "dirt" and is the result of chemical reactions to precipitate alumina out of a solution.
It sounds as if the main problem is the fact that is severely alters the PH level of the water.
Yes, I know. I'll guess that they aren't anything too toxic except for their PH level. Still, it depends on their refining process. I hate articles that give you the scare, without any meaningful facts.
is "dirt" a scientific term? Sounds way too sophisticated for the Bible-thumpers and tea baggers here.
MIG, the sludge is highly alkaline, even caustic.
"Red mud is the waste produced during the digestion of the bauxite with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for the production of alumina (Al2O3), which is primary used as a feedstock for the aluminium industry. In the case of Hungary, bauxite is mined at the open pits of Bicske, Obarok and Halimba III underground mines. Bauxite is processed in the alumina plant of Ajka.
Bayer (Karl Bayer 1888) is the main process for the production of alumina. The digestion of bauxite with the addition of sodium hydroxide is performed at temperatures from 140 to 260 °C under high pressure around 35 atm. The process generally follows five steps: bauxite preparation (beneficiation), digestion, clarification/settling, precipitation and calcination. Red mud is produced in the third step of clarification/settling.
Red mud is a high alkaline, ionic slurry containing around 300 to 500 g/L solid. Its pH varies from 9.5 to 12.5. Its alkalinity is imposed from the production process as described roughly above. It is a complex material whose chemical and mineralogical composition varies widely, depending upon the source of bauxite and the technological process parameters. It contains mainly Fe2O3 (20 to 50%), Al2O3 (20 to 30%), SiO2 (10 to 20%), CaO (10 to 30%), Na2O (10 to 20%) and TiO2 (3 to 10%) and small quan ies of numerous minor/trace elements as oxides mainly, such as V, Ga, Cr, P, Mn, Cu, Cd, Ni, Zn, Pb, Mg, Zr, Hf, Nb, U, Th, K, Ba, Sr, rare earth elements, etc. Moreover it may contain about 7 radionuclides such as U, Ra, Th, K, Cs, etc and about 5 anions, fluoride, phosphate, chloride, nitrate and sulphate."
http://cenblog.org/the-safety-zone/2...of-red-sludge/
Aquatic life is extremely susceptible to PH changes. Its PH level is more than enough to do a lot of damage to the ecosystems in that river.
Very similar to the composition of red clay, isn't it! Besides, the radioactive elements were already there. Extracting the bauxite increased the percentage slightly, but nothing to be concerned about.
I see the only damaging concern being the PH.
Human serum is also extremely sensitive to changes in pH. The body works VERY HARD to maintain homeostasis around pH 7.4 +/- 0.2 max, just as it works very hard to maintain the brain's temperature.
Acidosis and alkalosis are very serious, possibly fatal conditions.
Before the HATED US GOVT forced US coal plants to clean up somewhat and stop creating acid rain, lakes and rivers became too acidic, aquatic life went s up, as did many forests.
Most people would agree. However, today's EPA now has political agenda's pushing global warming prevention rather than using real science.
Give me a break.
CO2 as a pollutant.
I was never so pissed of at one of the few good government programs we do have until then.
.......
I remember taking a summer science course as a kid, and testing the acidity level of Coke. It was a ph 2, IIRC. Which is kinda scary.
Hungary’s Premier Warns of New Spill of Sludge
Hungarian officials on Saturday ordered the evacuation of a village in the shadow of the industrial reservoir that spilled caustic red sludge into the surrounding countryside last Monday, after discovering that cracks in the reservoir’s northern wall had widened overnight, raising the possibility of a second spill.
Speaking at a fire station in the affected area Saturday morning, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, said it was “likely that the entire wall will collapse.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/wo...gewanted=print
CO2 is harmless until it reaches higher concentrations.
As a shill for Koch Industries/carbon comapnies, You Lie, no break from me.
Yep. That's above something like 2% though. What do we have now? Somewhere just below 0.04% in the atmosphere, right?
Did you know you can die from drinking water?
WC does not know about chemistry either. The hydroxide in NaOH disassociates effortlessly in solution. This stuff is like big lakes and streams of draino with the added bonus of toxic trace elements.
The hydroxide is the reducing agent used in the smelting process, thats why its free.
Unless red clay involves a bunch of hydroxides in solution --it does not-- then its not the same in any significant way, shape or form.
Its like WC sees a topic, goes and sees what Limbaugh or someone like that will say on the topic, then goes to wikipedia to try and sound like he knows what he is talking about and then just preaches like a good minion.
Its a caraciature.
Something of that ph is going to kill any plant that sits in it, kill any fish that swims in it and kill any animal that drinks it. The river will dilute it hopefully but anyone between the spill and the river downstream is screwed at the very least.
You would not know real science if it punched you in the face. You do not even understand the physics of the stuff you do at work and you want to sit and blather like this, parts-changer?
Welcome to the IGNORE list. You are pitifully wrong about me, so you and bye.
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