Posted on 07 October
2010
Kolontar, Hungary:
As the mixture of red sludge and alkaline
water from Monday’s breach of a waste dam
at a Hungarian alumina plant reached the
Danube this morning, the river’s second
major similar disaster in just over a decade
is shifting attention to a multitude of
other sites storing bulk liquid wastes in
close proximity.
Hungary alone has two
other sludge ponds storing similarly toxic
and highly alkaline red muds from bauxite
processing – one, at Almásfüzito
right on the river bank just 80 km upstream
from Budapest, stores around 12 million
tones of sludge in seven pools covering
around 200 hectares.
WWF-Hungary acting CEO
Gábor Figeczky witnessed the anger
of villagers in Kolontar yesterday as company
representatives under police escort explained
that water limits in the dam had not been
exceeded before a corner wall breached Monday,
unleashing a wall of water and sludge that
inundated six villages, killed four, left
six missing, injured around a hundred and
left hundreds homeless.
“We still don’t know
what caused this accident and what was in
the waste,” said Figeczky. “And while we
are assured the dam has stopped leaking,
authorities have closed the airspace over
the site to any but official and company
flights.”
WWF’s Danube Carpathian
programme produced a map and list this morning
of toxic sites between Hungary and the Danube
Delta, itself in the shadow of a steel plant’s
mountains of abandoned drums with peaks
reaching over 100 metres high and the Tulcea
aluminum plant’s 20 hectare dump of red
sludge leaking into the environment through
wind and water.
“While the European
Union can lay some claim to being relatively
advanced in river and water policy, the
fact that the company behind this spill
is hiding in the fine print of EU definitions
of hazard suggests we still have some way
to go,” said Andreas Beckmann, head of WWF’s
Danube-Carpathian program.
The EU Mining Waste
Directive, which was introduced following
major toxic spills at Baia Mare in Romania
in 2000 and at Donana in southern Spain
in 1998, was meant to prevent exactly this
kind of disaster from happening.
"Unfortunately,
the EU Mining Waste Directive – which WWF
was substantially involved in developing
– was significantly weakened as the result
of industry lobbying,” said Beckmann.
"There are a string
of disasters waiting to happen at sites
across the Danube basin. A spill from Hungary’s
Almasfuzito residue reservoir would seriously
impact drinking water drinking water supplies
and the fragile ecosystems of the middle
Danube.
A spill from the facility
in Tulcea in Romania, which has already
experienced some leaks in the past, would
have a devastating impact on the Danube
Delta, an area of global importance for
flora and fauna."
Acid dump tempers alkalinity,
raises its own questions
According to information
solicited yesterday and today by WWF-Hungary
from the State Representative for Environment
Protection, acid dumping in around five
locations has reduced alkalinity of waters
and sludge from a caustic 13 to around nine
in nearby areas.
Plume alkalinity is
reported to be under 10 in a side arm of
the Danube, near the entry point at Gyor,
compared too a usual near neutral 7.5.
“There is a chance that
at these levels the alkalinity won’t kill
all fish, as happened in the Marcal River,
the tributary bearing the first brunt of
the outflow,” said Figeczky.
Meanwhile, groundwater
readings around Kolontar, the worst hit
community, are near normal – although the
speed of percolation may mean the main impacts
are yet to materialize.
“It is important to
handle acids carefully during the neutralization
because of the presence of the heavy metals,”
said Figeczky. “As the alkalinity is reduced,
the heavy metals are becoming more soluble
and more likely to end up in groundwaters
and river flows.”
On other hand as the
sludge dries, its toxic contents become
more likely to reemerge in airborne dust.
Risks multiply down
Danube
Almásfüzito’s
reservioirs, built over earthquake prone
swampland by the river, contain the red
sludge byproducts of bauxite refining between
1945 and 1995 mixed with other chemicals,
industrial wastewater, communal wastes and
oil, according to local NGO’s affiliated
into the Environmental Culture Association
of Esztergom.
The heavy metals ingredient
is estimated at about 120.000 tonnes, and
the toxic materials are not only mixed with
the red sludge but are also mixed into the
reservoir dykes. The facility’s pools were
inadequately or hardly sealed with clay,
meaning there is the possibility of extensive
flows between ground water and less directly,
with the river – a possibility confirmed
by multiple high readings for toxic metals
and fluorides in monitoring wells recently.
In Serbia, numerous
heavy industrial facilities are located
close to the river, including the Pancevo
complex of oil refineries, fertilizer and
vinyl chloride manufacturing plant and associated
storages. Surveys following NATO bombing
in 1999 "showed the presence of notable
quantities of mercury, polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs), ethylene dichloride
(EDC), and other highly toxic substances,
including dioxins".
In 2006, a punctured
fuel tank at the Serbian port city of Prahavo
sent a slick 50-100 m long and 300 metres
wide down the river as far as Romania.
Close to 20 tailings
dams, some decommissioned but with heavy
metals still buried underground, litter
Bulgaria..
Romania, site of the
massive cyanide contaminated gold processing
waste spill into Danube tributaries in 2000,
is currently witnessing large protests over
a government decision to go ahead with a
controversial new mining project at Rosia
Montana.
The ArcelorMittal Galati
plant was found in September 2009 to be
illegally storing thousands of tonnes of
waste, much of it in an old dump, described
as „a 40 year old mountain of garbage covering
one million square meters with "peaks"
over 100 meters in height.”
Also notorious is the
Alum Tulcea alumium producing plant with
its 20 hectare landfill of red sludge linked
to caustic dust clouds and numerous leaks
into waterways that have killed fish and
birds in the heritage listed delta.
+ More
Hungary could take lead
on tackling ticking toxic time bombs from
mining
Posted on 11 October
2010
Kolontàr, Hungary: Hungary, about
to take on the EU presidency, could use
its position to mount a major push on reducing
the human and natural risks of large stockpiles
of poorly maintained and regulated mining
wastes across eastern Europe, WWF said.
The call comes as emergency
operations continue to head off an increasing
risk of further large scale flows of toxic
aluminium processing sludge from the broken
reservoir above the town of Kolontàr.
The initial breach of the reservoir walls
a week ago killed at least seven, inundated
six villages and sent a caustic alkaline
plume towards the Danube.
WWF on Friday issued
a photograph showing that the reservoir
wall was clearly degraded and leaking more
than three months prior to the disaster.
Work has nearly finished on a secondary
dyke, 1500 m long, 30 m wide and 8 m high
through and alongside Kolontàr, to
reduce damage from any further spills.
“The human and ecological
disaster at Kolontàr – the greatest
chemical disaster in Hungary’s history –
has made clear the need to re-assess current
regulation of such mine waste sites and
begs the question how many other ticking
time bombs there are in Central and Eastern
Europe,” said Gabor Figeczky, interim CEO
of WWF-Hungary.
Mining and mineral processing
tailings dams – presumably including the
Kolontàr reservoir – were listed
as a priority concerns in a 2004 comprehensive
study on mainly eastern European hazardous
and toxic waste sites from the European
Commission’s Joint Research Center.
Overall, however, it
is clear that information on sites, on the
risks they present and on what is being
done to reduce risks is extremely poor.
WWF released a list of recent Danube releases
of toxic wastes and some of the major hazard
areas last week.
“WWF’s list gives an
indication of some other possibly dangerous
sites in the region but it is by no means
provides the kind of exhaustive analysis
that is needed,” said Andreas Beckmann,
Director of WWF’s Danube-Carpathian Programme.
From disaster driven
policy to risk driven policy
Specifically, WWF is
calling on the European Commission and the
Hungarian government to complement the work
package on sustainable water management
with development of an Action Plan for the
effective implementation of the EU Mining
Waste Directive during Hungary’s upcoming
Presidency of the European Union, which
begins in January 2011.
“This directive is good
in that it marks the transition from disaster
driven policy on mining wastes to risk driven
policy,” said Sergey Moroz, policy expert
at the WWF-European Policy Office.
“The impetus for the
EU’s 2006 Mining Waste Directive were major
toxic spills at Baia Mare and Baia Borsa
in Romania in 2000 and in Donana in southern
Spain in 1998. But the new rules introduced
by the directive in 2006 failed to treat
the Kolantar reservoir’s wastes as posing
risk to humans and environment.”
“Other provisions which
may have made a difference to Kolantàr
in 2010 - such as third party inspection,
monitoring, and reviewing of permits - aren’t
due to come substantially into effect until
2012.”
The Action Plan which
Hungary will shortly be ideally placed to
push should focus on sites in the new EU
Member States in Central and Eastern Europe
and include an assessment of risks in neighbouring
countries with a potential impact on the
European Union, including Croatia, Serbia,
Ukraine and Moldova, Moroz said.
.
The Action Plan should include an assessment
of risks to humans and environment from
all critical mining waste sites; screen
all licenses issued for on-going and planned
new mining operations with regard to the
hazardous substances and their classification,
defining immediate measures during the transition
period with clear responsibilities for the
operators, the respective Governments and
the European Commission.
WWF particularly calls
for review and amendment of the EU Mining
Waste Directive concerning safety, in particular
for dams of open tailings. In addition,
the European Commission should screen whether
the respective EU Directives have been transcribed
into national laws and regulations and assess
to what extent they have been put into practice.
The Action Plan could
be implemented in part as a flagship project
within the framework of the new EU Danube
Strategy, which is currently being developed
by the European Commission and expected
to be formally adopted during the Hungary’s
EU Presidency next spring.
+ More
Hungary toxic mud disaster
could have been avoided
Posted on 08 October
2010
Kolontàr, Hungary: An aerial photograph
taken in June showing a damaged and clearly
leaking sludge pond wall shows that the
toxic mud disaster in Hungary and subsequent
pollution of rivers including the Danube
could have been avoided, WWF-Hungary said
today.
The sludge pond dam
wall burst Monday flooding six villages
with toxic red mud. Another victim succumbed
to injuries in hospital yesterday and two
bodies were found during clean up operations
today, taking the death toll to seven with
one person still missing.
“This new evidence of
the degraded state of the walls and significant
leakage more than three months before the
incident should be cause for an urgent investigation,
not just of this disaster but of the state
of Hungary’s other toxic sludge ponds,”
said Gábor Figeczky, the Acting Director
of WWF-Hungary.
“This points to neglect
and a failure of regulation as a prime contributing
factor to this disaster.”
The photograph was taken
by a team from the company Interspect, who
were engaged in taking photographs of sludge
pools, open-cast mining, and other potentially
dangerous, unhealthy industrial sites.
Company representatives
told WWF that the state of the Kolontár
reservoir was particularly worrying to them
because of its close location to family
houses.
Fast investigation of
other sludge ponds needed
“It is clearly visible
on the photos made in June 2010 that the
sludge is leaking and part of the wall of
this 10th pool was weakened,” Figeczky said.
“Ultimately, the wall broke in another place,
but what you have here is a very clear signal
that it was failing and needed inspection
and attention over its full length.
“Red sludge is visible
in the havaria channels surrounding the
factory, which clearly refers to leakage.
The red color is generally from iron oxides
not soluble in water – so it doesn’t fully
indicate the presence and extent of leachate
containing other toxic substances in movement
in the ditch.”
“Since the sludge pools
are located very close to houses, and natural
values, the state of these pools should
have been expected regularly with particularly
strict measures. WWF is waiting for an explanation
of this failure.”
WWF-Hungary urged a
fast investigation of remaining reservoirs
in the area and others around Hungary, along
with an urgent aerial mapping of Hungary’s
Danube banks..
“Now is the time to
assess any hazardous areas in the country
that could be a possible threats to human
life and the environment" said Figeczky.
"These photos show that there are technologies
available even in Hungary to detect potential
hazards within a couple of weeks.
“We are particularly
concerned about the much larger reservoirs
at Almásfüzito, built over earthquake
prone swamp land right on the river bank
just 80 km upstream from Budapest, where
all sorts of other materials seem to have
been tipped into the alumina processing
waste ponds.”
