A Flood of Toxic Sludge

[Farin]

30 Pics from The Boston Globe's "The Big Picture"

On Monday, October 4th, a large reservoir filled with toxic red sludge in western Hungary ruptured, releasing approximately 700,000 cubic meters (185 million gallons) of stinking caustic mud, which killed many animals, at least four people, and injured over 120 - many with chemical burns. The 12-foot-high flood of sludge inundated several towns, sweeping cars off the road as it flowed into the nearby Marcal River. Emergency workers rushed to pour 1,000 tons of plaster into the Marcal River in an attempt to bind the sludge and keep it from flowing on to the Danube some 45 miles away. The red sludge in the reservoir is a byproduct of refining bauxite into alumina, which took place at an alumina plant run by the Hungarian Alumina Production and Trading Company. A criminal probe has just been opened by Hungarian authorities.

[Tenacious_Peaches]

That is terrible.

[Farin]

especially since nobody will be able to live there for a couple generations, no animals either, not even mentioning agriculture

someone said that the whole area where this mud landed is effectively a giant hazardous waste deposit

[MarcM]

Nasty. Poor people and animals.

[miamisammy29]

What I want to know is: Why would anyone have a lake of toxic sludge in the first place?! And if for some reason they needed one, why would they have a sh*tty little dam like that to hold it back?!

[Lea]

I was telling my mom about this this morning. It's awful and people really need to start paying more attention to what big companies are doing so stuff like this isn't happening so much.

It's always about cutting corners to save a buck so more bucks can go into somebody's already bulging pockets :beady:

[edna]

The Danube is no longer blue... this is tragic.

[chutzpah]

Now that's disgusting

Even a criminal probe isn't going to make something like this go away (for a very long time too)

Edited October 9, 2010 by Guest