Hungary: Toxic red sludge has reached the Danube

[Panaconda]

Source: AP


Hungary: Toxic red sludge has reached the Danube
AP

By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer Pablo Gorondi, Associated Press Writer – 50 mins ago

KOLONTAR, Hungary – The toxic red sludge that burst out of a Hungarian factory's reservoir and inundated three villages reached the mighty Danube on Thursday after wreaking havoc on smaller rivers and creeks, an emergency official said.

The European Union and environmental officials had feared an environmental catastrophe affecting half a dozen nations if the red sludge, a waste product of making aluminum, contaminated the Danube, Europe's second-longest river.

Officials from several nations downstream — Croatia, Serbia and Romania — were testing the river 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 into creeks that flow into waterways connected to the Danube. Creeks in Kolontar, the western Hungarian village closest to the spill site, were swollen ochre red days later and villagers said they were devoid of fish. Kolontar is 45 miles (70 kilometers) south of the Danube.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101007/ap_on_he_me/eu_hungary_sludge_flood

[Roland99]

1. "up to now there were "no heavy metals in the drinking water" of the affected region'

hmmmm

[Ian David]

2. Aluminum is LIFE! n/t

[Lucky 13]

3. We are doing our best to make this planet completely uninhabitable.

I used to fear that humanity will be wiped out due to famine, lack of clean water, lack of food.

I don't fear it now. I take it as a foregone conclusion.

Now I fear that once we are wiped out we will leave behind a planet that is not even inhabitable by fish and wildlife to repopulate.

It's unreal.

[MountainLaurel]

4. Does it get any more horrifying that this? n/t

[Art_from_Ark]

8. I think a blown out well spewing hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil

into a major water body can be pretty horrifying. And a billion-gallon deluge of sludge from a coal-fired power plant can be pretty horrifying, too. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=6614157&page=1

Of course, what's happening in Hungary is also horrifying :scared:

[Adsos Letter]

5. delete

[maryf]

6. K&Rnt

[Odin2005]

7. YUCK!