An industrial plant in Hungary has recently had a toxic spill so bad, it's being compared to the Baia Mare cyanide spill of 2000. Approximately a million cubic meters of red-sludge has spilled near the Danube river; that's roughly the area of one of the Great Pyramids in Egypt. If heavy rainfall were to occur, the sludge would make its way into the river, and kill all wildlife that makes its home there. This sludge, known as "red-mud" is composed of a mixture of water and mining waste including toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium, arsenic and chromium. It has a frighteningly high pH of 13, which is enough to kill anything in the rivers it reaches. Presently, it is hard to predict what the outcomes of this spill will be, but the best that can be done is to clean it up as quickly as possible before it reaches any more rivers. If it does, it could potentially have the same effects as the Baia Mare cyanide spill. Industrial plants in this region need to take more precautions to prevent from such natural disasters. This is their second spill in a decade, so hopefully they will learn from their mistakes this time around.
Do they have a plan for how they are going to clean this up? And is this spill going to affect the drinking water of Hungarian citizens?
ReplyDeleteThe article isn't clear about their plans on how they will clean it up, but it could take up to about a year. The reason for the spill was due to the fact that there was too much waste stored there. The article also says nothing about drinking water, so i can only assume it won't have an effect unless it reaches the Danube river. Here's the article link: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/624092/hungary_toxic_spill_could_be_worse_than_baia_mare_cyanide_disaster.html
ReplyDeleteHow long will it take before it reaches the river without rainfall or other factors that would increase the rate that it spreads?
ReplyDeleteIf the toxic waste enters the river, would it be possible to later extract it from the water? Who would it effect in the longrun?
ReplyDeleteThis will probably take a Lon period of time to clean up. Whoever is responsible for this tragic spill definitely needs to find some sort of way to get this cleaned up and fast.
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