Toxic red sludge reaches Danube River

KOLONTAR, Hungary – The toxic red sludge that burst out of a Hungarian factory’s reservoir reached the mighty Danube on Thursday after wreaking havoc on smaller rivers and creeks, and downstream nations rushed to test their waters.

The European Union and environmental officials fear an environmental catastrophe affecting half a dozen nations if the red sludge, a waste product of making aluminum, contaminates the Danube, Europe’s second-longest river.

Officials from Croatia, Serbia and Romania were taking river samples every few hours Thursday but hoping that the Danube’s huge water volume would blunt the impact of the spill.

The Hungarian reservoir break on Monday disgorged a toxic torrent through three villages and creeks that flow into waterways connected to the Danube. Creeks in Kolontar, the western village closest to the spill site, were still swollen and ochre red days later and villagers said they were devoid of fish.

The red sludge reached the western branch of the Danube early Thursday and its broad, main stretch by noon, Hungarian rescue agency spokesman Tibor Dobson told the state MTI news agency.

Dobson said the pH of the red sludge entering the Danube had dropped and was unlikely to cause further environmental damage.

The Hungarian Academy of Science said sludge samples taken two days ago showed that the muck’s heavy metal concentrations do “not come close” to levels considered dangerous to the environment. But the academy said Thursday it still considered the sludge dangerous – apparently due to its caustic characteristics.

The sludge has devastated local waterways.

“Life in the Marcal River has been extinguished,” Dobson told the Associated Press, referring to the river’s 25-mile stretch that carried the red waste from Kolontar into the Raba River and on to the Danube.

Dobson said emergency crews were pouring plaster and acetic acid – vinegar – into the Raba-Danube meeting point to lower the slurry’s pH value.

South of Hungary, the 1,775-mile-long Danube flows through Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova before emptying into the Black Sea.

Local officials said 34 homes in Kolontar were unlivable but furious residents said the disaster had destroyed the whole village of 800 by making their land worthless. The prime minister called the worst-hit area a total write-off, saying he saw “no sense” in rebuilding in the same location.

It is still not known why part of the reservoir collapsed and allowed an estimated 35 million cubic feet of waste to sweep through the villages, killing at least four people and leaving three missing.