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Toxic Hungarian sludge spill reaches River Danube
10-08-10

 

Experts sasely.Tibor Dobson, a spokesman for Hungarian disaster crews, told Reuters there were sporadic fish deaths in the Raba and the Mosoni-Danube rivers. He said all fish had died in the smaller Marcal River, which was hit by the spill first.Crews were working to reduce the alkalinity shox rival of the spill, which poured out of the burst containment reservoir of an alumina plant on Monday and tore through local villages, killing four people and injuring over 150. Three are still missing. The spill's alkaline content when it reached the Raba, the Mosoni-Danube and the Danube itself, was still around pH 9 -- above the normal, harmless level of between shox rivalry 6 and 8.In Gyor, a city in the northwest of Hungary where the Raba flows into the Mosoni-Danube, a Reuters reporter saw white froth on the river and many dead fish washed ashore.Philip Weller, executive secretary to the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), a Vienna-based U.N. body, said most damage was local."It is clear that the consequences of this are greatest in the local area and that the implications on a trans-boundary level, we understand, will not be significant which doesn't mean they don't exist," he said."The Hungarian authorities took a number of measures to reduce the toxicity, they added substances to neutralize the material, they also constructed some underwater weirs to slow the mud nike shox rivalry and maintain it and contain it as much as possible in the Hungarian territory of the river system." It also helps that the Danube is a large river with a very high volume of water, he added.Gabor Figeczky, Hungarian branch director of the tiffany discount WWF environmental group said:"Based on our current estimates, it (pollution) will remain contained in Hungary, and we also trust that it will reach Budapest with acceptable pH values."Downstream from the disaster site, the Danube flows through or skirts Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Moldovan and Ukrainian territory en route to the Black Sea"This is an unprecedented ecological catastrophe in Hungary. Human error is more than likely. The wall (of the reservoir) did not disintegrate in a minute. This should have been detected."MAL Zrt, owner of the Ajkai Timfoldgyar alumina plant and the burst reservoir, said the last inspection of the reservoir on Monday had shown nothing wrong.Disaster crews, military and local villagers were clearingdiscount tiffany away the rubble and searching for the three missing people. Many people suffered burns and eye ailments caused by the caustic mud. The flood, estimated at about 700,000 cubic meters (24 million cubic feet), swept cars off roads and damaged bridges and houses.MAL said it hoped to restart production at its alumina plant at tiffany coupon the weekend with a new sludge containment pond.Many people in Kolontar said they would not move back to their houses as they did not feel secure."I hung in the sludge for 45 minutes... It had a strong current that almost swept me away but I managed to hang on to a strong piece of wood from the pigsty," said Etelka Stump."But I could hardly breathe because that air, that smell, that froth really hit me. I know what it's like because I worked in the bauxite factory for 17 years."(Reporting by Marton Dunai and Gergely Szakacs; additional reporting from tiffany rings Vienna and Belgrade; writing by Krisztina Than; editing by Andrew Roche SAid damage beyond the borders of air max nike Hungary was unlikely to be great but the threat had to be monitored clo

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