Toxic water fears as sludge reaches Danube

THE toxic red sludge that burst out of a Hungarian factory’s reservoir and inundated three villages reached the mighty Danube yesterday after wreaking havoc on smaller rivers and creeks, an emergency official said.

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

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

The reservoir break on Monday, which killed at least four people, disgorged a toxic torrent into creeks that flow into waterways connected to the Danube. Creeks in Kolontar, the western Hungarian village closest to the spill site, were swollen ochre red days later and villagers said they were devoid of fish. Kolontar is 70 kilometers south of the Danube.

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

He said up to now there were “no heavy metals in the drinking water” of the affected region, but did not address concerns that the caustic slurry might contain toxic heavy metals.

Dobson said the pH content of the red sludge entering the Danube had been reduced and was unlikely to cause further damage.

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

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, stopping at dawn in Kolontar, described the reservoir break as a disaster unprecedented in Hungary.