Danube Not Blue Now

[Madeline]

A "red slurry" has been leaked by a Hungarian metals plant reservoir and caused 100 people there to suffer chemical burns. The sludge has been treated and its pH level reduced, easing fears over its impact as it reaches the Danube River.

Toxic sludge in Hungary reportedly reaches the Danube River (video) | cleveland.com

What is this stuff? What happened that Hungary had this disaster? I love how blithely the reporter dismisses the possibility of harm to the environment. No, no problem...its just water.

Jeeze Louise.

 

[xotoxi]

Danube Not Blue Now

But your text still is.

 

[Madeline]

Thankies for pointing out that pointless coincidence, Mr. Scientist.

*Laughs*

 

[xotoxi]

Thankies for pointing out that pointless coincidence, Mr. Scientist.

*Laughs*

It would have only been fitting for you to have posted in a large red font for this thread only...but you blew your one chance.

And to add insult to injury, you live in Cleveland.

 

[L.K.Eder]

here is some more information.

Red River: Hungary's Toxic Sludge Could Reach Danube - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

The biggest chemical accident in Hungary's history has killed four people and swept through entire villages. Now the authorities are worried that the toxic sludge could reach the Danube River.
The red poison covers streets, fields and meadows. Bridges and houses have been swept away or badly damaged. At least four people are dead -- all killed in the biggest environmental disaster Hungary has ever seen. The caustic sludge has spread across several areas in western Hungary after leaking from a reservoir in an alumina refining plant. At least 1 million cubic meters of the red sludge, a mixture of lead and other heavy metals, has contaminated an area covering 40 square kilometers.


"When I heard the roar of the floods I only had enough time to jump out of the window and run to higher ground," said Tunde Erdelyi of Devecser, a town about 150 kilomters southwest of Budapest. One of her relatives had to be taken to the capital city by a rescue helicopter. The corrosive mud had "burned him to the bone," she said. In Erdelyi's house the poisonous red slime was still 1.5 meters high on Tuesday morning. The rescue workers had to break down the door with an ax in order to allow the mud to escape. On the streets around the house, a layer of sludge around 10 centimeters deep has built up, news agency AFP reported. Almost one-third of the buildings have been damaged. Not everyone was able to escape in time. At least four people died, and 61 injured people have had to be treated at hospitals, according to the Interior Ministry. Another six people are still missing. In all, 7,000 people have been affected. The dead include a three-year-child, Karoly Tily, the mayor of the village of Kolontar, said.



..

 

[Madeline]

Thankies for pointing out that pointless coincidence, Mr. Scientist.

*Laughs*

It would have only been fitting for you to have posted in a large red font for this thread only...but you blew your one chance.

And to add insult to injury, you live in Cleveland.

You are a mean, mean man. I hadn't thought of making a burning river joke, and now I just dun wanna.

*Raspberry*

 

[Madeline]

here is some more information.

Red River: Hungary's Toxic Sludge Could Reach Danube - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

The biggest chemical accident in Hungary's history has killed four people and swept through entire villages. Now the authorities are worried that the toxic sludge could reach the Danube River.
The red poison covers streets, fields and meadows. Bridges and houses have been swept away or badly damaged. At least four people are dead -- all killed in the biggest environmental disaster Hungary has ever seen. The caustic sludge has spread across several areas in western Hungary after leaking from a reservoir in an alumina refining plant. At least 1 million cubic meters of the red sludge, a mixture of lead and other heavy metals, has contaminated an area covering 40 square kilometers.


"When I heard the roar of the floods I only had enough time to jump out of the window and run to higher ground," said Tunde Erdelyi of Devecser, a town about 150 kilomters southwest of Budapest. One of her relatives had to be taken to the capital city by a rescue helicopter. The corrosive mud had "burned him to the bone," she said. In Erdelyi's house the poisonous red slime was still 1.5 meters high on Tuesday morning. The rescue workers had to break down the door with an ax in order to allow the mud to escape. On the streets around the house, a layer of sludge around 10 centimeters deep has built up, news agency AFP reported. Almost one-third of the buildings have been damaged. Not everyone was able to escape in time. At least four people died, and 61 injured people have had to be treated at hospitals, according to the Interior Ministry. Another six people are still missing. In all, 7,000 people have been affected. The dead include a three-year-child, Karoly Tily, the mayor of the village of Kolontar, said.

O God, it is far more serious than I thought. I cannot believe the Plain Dealer is ignoring this story; most of the area is of Eastern European descent.

Any idea what caused this? When I read it I thought of all the abandoned steel mills here.

 

[L.K.Eder]

a reservoir burst, resulting in a toxic flooding.

what caused the burst is under investigation.

the MAL spokesman says: natural disaster

maybe his next defense is "it was terrorism".

my guess is capitalism.

 

[Madeline]

Poor Hungary. I am angry this was not CNN's lead story. T'aint the New York Times' either. No wonder Americans think the whole fucking planet revolves around them.....our media suck at covering international news.

 

[California Girl]

Apparently large levels of arsenic and mercury are in the sludge. It is the size of the gulf oil spill, some 35,-000,000 cubic feet. 150 people hospitalized and 5 dead so far. But this could go on for generations - these chemicals cause illnesses such as cancer so the long term effects on the region could be substantial. They re worried about it getting into the water supply.

 

[Madeline]

Apparently large levels of arsenic and mercury are in the sludge. It is the size of the gulf oil spill, some 35,-000,000 cubic feet. 150 people hospitalized and 5 dead so far. But this could go on for generations - these chemicals cause illnesses such as cancer so the long term effects on the region could be substantial. They re worried about it getting into the water supply.

This is horrifying. I am so angry...how could the Hungarian government permit such a hazard to accumulate?

 

[California Girl]

Apparently large levels of arsenic and mercury are in the sludge. It is the size of the gulf oil spill, some 35,-000,000 cubic feet. 150 people hospitalized and 5 dead so far. But this could go on for generations - these chemicals cause illnesses such as cancer so the long term effects on the region could be substantial. They re worried about it getting into the water supply.

This is horrifying. I am so angry...how could the Hungarian government permit such a hazard to accumulate?

Shall we wait to point the finger until we have some facts..... I don't do screaming hysteria.

 

[Defiant1]

Apparently large levels of arsenic and mercury are in the sludge. It is the size of the gulf oil spill, some 35,-000,000 cubic feet. 150 people hospitalized and 5 dead so far. But this could go on for generations - these chemicals cause illnesses such as cancer so the long term effects on the region could be substantial. They re worried about it getting into the water supply.

This is horrifying. I am so angry...how could the Hungarian government permit such a hazard to accumulate?

I think we should send Al Gore. One way ticket of course....

 

[L.K.Eder]

Apparently large levels of arsenic and mercury are in the sludge. It is the size of the gulf oil spill, some 35,-000,000 cubic feet. 150 people hospitalized and 5 dead so far. But this could go on for generations - these chemicals cause illnesses such as cancer so the long term effects on the region could be substantial. They re worried about it getting into the water supply.

This is horrifying. I am so angry...how could the Hungarian government permit such a hazard to accumulate?

I think we should send Al Gore. One way ticket of course....

why did you not use SOROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS?

 

[editec]

A "red slurry" has been leaked by a Hungarian metals plant reservoir and caused 100 people there to suffer chemical burns. The sludge has been treated and its pH level reduced, easing fears over its impact as it reaches the Danube River.

Toxic sludge in Hungary reportedly reaches the Danube River (video) | cleveland.com

What is this stuff? What happened that Hungary had this disaster? I love how blithely the reporter dismisses the possibility of harm to the environment. No, no problem...its just water.

Jeeze Louise.

We ALL LIVE downstream.

We ALL LIVE downwind.

It behooves us, as stewards of the earth to take care of it.

Those among us with summer places on Venus probably don't have to worry so much about that, of course.

But for the rest of us?

Yeah, taking care of our environment is a very conservative thing to do.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Didn't Nostradamus predict something about the rivers turning red? Hmmmm .. . . . .

 

[Si modo]

Apparently large levels of arsenic and mercury are in the sludge. It is the size of the gulf oil spill, some 35,-000,000 cubic feet. 150 people hospitalized and 5 dead so far. But this could go on for generations - these chemicals cause illnesses such as cancer so the long term effects on the region could be substantial. They re worried about it getting into the water supply.

This is horrifying. I am so angry...how could the Hungarian government permit such a hazard to accumulate?

 

[westwall]

Apparently large levels of arsenic and mercury are in the sludge. It is the size of the gulf oil spill, some 35,-000,000 cubic feet. 150 people hospitalized and 5 dead so far. But this could go on for generations - these chemicals cause illnesses such as cancer so the long term effects on the region could be substantial. They re worried about it getting into the water supply.

This is horrifying. I am so angry...how could the Hungarian government permit such a hazard to accumulate?

The sludge is coming from an alumina processing plant that I believe is long defunct and a relic of the Warsaw Pact days of the Cold War. The Marcal river is dead. Utterly devoid of life. At last count over 2000 acres of farmland have been rendered unusable by the highly alkaline slurry. The death toll has also risen to 7.

This is a significant event and many more will happen I am afraid. This is one of those things that need to be cleaned up but won't because the money keeps being redirected to those who don't do anything with it but line their pockets.

Also this is not the fault of capatalism but socialism. Under the socialist system there were no pollution controls and no incentive to clean up toxic dumps, so they just accumulated. The same is true all over the Balkans.

 

[Madeline]

Apparently large levels of arsenic and mercury are in the sludge. It is the size of the gulf oil spill, some 35,-000,000 cubic feet. 150 people hospitalized and 5 dead so far. But this could go on for generations - these chemicals cause illnesses such as cancer so the long term effects on the region could be substantial. They re worried about it getting into the water supply.

This is horrifying. I am so angry...how could the Hungarian government permit such a hazard to accumulate?

The sludge is coming from an alumina processing plant that I believe is long defunct and a relic of the Warsaw Pact days of the Cold War. The Marcal river is dead. Utterly devoid of life. At last count over 2000 acres of farmland have been rendered unusable by the highly alkaline slurry. The death toll has also risen to 7.

This is a significant event and many more will happen I am afraid. This is one of those things that need to be cleaned up but won't because the money keeps being redirected to those who don't do anything with it but line their pockets.

Also this is not the fault of capatalism but socialism. Under the socialist system there were no pollution controls and no incentive to clean up toxic dumps, so they just accumulated. The same is true all over the Balkans.

Man...this is disheartening. I thought the former Soviet Union cleaned up the Chernobyl site? But yanno, whichever form of government you think India has, the BoPhal site is still killing people, and that's about 25 years old now.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

This is by no means the worst industrial accident to hit the Xsoviet block.
Worst distaster before Chernobyl
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR1wo5s3Ua4&feature=related"] spooky[/ame]


Pretty much the SOP for Socialist societies. As for Hungary, I doubt folks appreciated what was there, as it had been there forever. And the authorities had tons of claims on the public purse, and if it is ok today, it will be ok tomorrow.