Hungary toxic sludge death toll reaches 7

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Hungary toxic sludge death toll reaches 7

Devecser, Hungary (CNN) -- The death toll from a toxic sludge spill in Hungary rose to seven Friday after an additional body was found, according to a spokeswoman for Hungary's emergency services department.
The deadly red sludge came from an aluminum plant reservoir that burst Monday, inundating three villages, the official news agency MTI reported.
Water test results made public earlier in the day, however, indicated that the sludge may not harm the Danube River -- news eagerly embraced by leaders from neighboring countries.....

Red Danube topic

What a mess.

It is dirt, AluminSicalicate. The most common form of dirt. It was already processed for metal extraction, so mostly Silica, sand. It comes from a highly weathered Laterlite soil, the red is from Iron Oxides, rust.

The Halls Cell process does use Caustic Soda, under a cap of molten salts, to extract the metal. The Ph can be a problem, but I do not see any dead fish. As for direct contact, the stuff is mixed with Draino. The main danger is being hit by a wave of thick mud which is what killed seven.

Sprinkle with Gypson, washing soda, clean up with a fire hose.

Now as for letting this be built above your town, without a spillway, any defenses, local politics.

Dirt is some nasty stuff, it is radioactive, contains metals, and most things in it cause health problems. The main one is everyone exposed dies within a hundred years.

So why were they keeping it? From the looks and description, untreated, very caustic, just working it's way into the ground water, blowing across the land, in a watershed, with no plan of disposal.

I read another article that said all life in the Marcal had been extinguished a while ago, and it was just the effuent drain for the holding pond. Enough Gypsum and the Ph will be down by the time it reaches the Danube, but this is not a good practice, They killed a river to get an industry?

We do the same with the ash from coal burning plants, and that stuff is loaded with things best left buried.

People should not live downhill from holding ponds, waste materials should not be allowed to just build up, but it seems the chosen pattern. Others live beneath the volcano, in valleys subhect to flash flood, or like myself, below sea level on the Hurricane Highway. We lost 1570 when our levee broke, still here.

The only thing that can be done is cleanup, keep it wet, and wash it away down stream. They have some building to do before they can use the pond again, it is all leaking, years of cleanup have happened at once. They should move, should not have been there, but local politics and money do strange things.

Europe is not as Green as I thought. Things like this get located in the back yard of poor people, dead economy, for jobs, and they want the jobs.

At first, I thought this said "HUNGRY toxic sludge death toll reaches 7"

funny what a huge difference that one "a" makes!