Hungary sludge almost the size of Gulf spill

The mighty Danube was apparently absorbing Hungary's massive toxic red sludge spill with little immediate harm, officials reported yesterday -- even though the amount of caustic slurry spewed over the western part of the country was nearly as great as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Revising even higher earlier estimates, government officials said the reservoir break at an alumina plant Monday dumped 600,000 to 700,000 cubic meters (158 million to 184 million gallons) of sludge onto three villages -- not much less in a few hours than the 200 million gallons the blown-out BP oil well gushed into the Gulf over several months starting in April.
"The consequences do not seem to be that dramatic," said Philip Weller, who heads the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube, by telephone from Vienna, when asked about harm to the waterway's ecosystem up to now.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the threat to the Danube had been eliminated.
"We managed to take control of the situation in time," the state MTI news agency quoted him as saying.
But the risk of pervasive and lasting environmental damage remained, with laboratory analyses organized by Greenpeace showing high concentrations of toxic substances in samples of the sludge.
Greenpeace told reporters in Vienna Friday that the samples taken a day after the spill showed "surprisingly high" levels of arsenic and mercury. The analysis suggested that roughly 50 tons of arsenic, 300 tons of chrome and half a ton of mercury was set free by the spill, Greenpeace officials said.
Greenpeace officials said the detected arsenic concentration is twice the amount normally found in so-called red mud. Analysis of water in a canal near the spill also found arsenic levels 25 times the limit for drinking water.
With rain giving way to dry, warmer weather over the past two days, the caustic mud is increasingly turning to airborne dust, which can cause respiratory problems, said Hungary's state secretary for the environment, Zoltan Illes.