No charges for plant boss over toxic sludge spill

A JUDGE yesterday dismissed prosecution demands that the head of a metals company linked to Hungary’s devastating red sludge spill be charged with negligence and he has been released from police custody, his lawyer said.

Appearing after the closed court hearing, Zoltani Bakonyi’s lawyer, Janos Banati, said the judge ruled in his favour after finding that prosecutors couldn’t substantiate their argument that Bakonyi did not sufficiently prepare emergency warning and rescue plans in case of accidents like the toxic spill.

Banati said prosecutors were preparing an appeal.

The decision was sure to embitter hundreds of villagers who blame the management of MAL for the deaths of nine people, the hundreds of homes left uninhabitable and the poisoning of local waterways.

Some 700,000 cubic meters (184 million gallons) of caustic sludge and water burst from the storage pool of a metals plant on October 4, inundating three western Hungarian towns and spilling into the Danube.

“Life won’t be returning to normal for a very, very long time,” said Devecser Mayor Tamas Toldi, whose town was one swamped by the toxic slurry.

In a bit of good news, authorities said cracks in the wall of the broken reservoir appear not to have widened, calming fears that further collapse would release a second flood of sludge.

Toldi said he hoped the state of alert could be called off later in the day once a protective wall in neighbouring Kolontar meant to contain a new spill was completed.

The National Disaster Management Directorate, meanwhile, said that the death toll had risen to nine after an elderly man died overnight. Around 50 people remained hospitalised.

Banati said yesterday’s ruling reflected defence arguments that the company had emergency plans that had been approved by government authorities.

He also said he knew of no incriminating testimony against Bakonyi from employees of his firm.

Bakonyi is the managing director of MAL Rt, or the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company, which owned the reservoir, part of the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in Ajka, 160km south-west of Budapest.

The red sludge that spilled after a part of the reservoir wall partially collapsed is a highly caustic byproduct of alumina production which is used to make aluminum.

The government took over the company on Tuesday, and said the Ajka subsidiary of MAL could restart production by the end of the week under its supervision.

While some local waterways were declared dead in the wake of the spill, the Danube appeared to be suffering little immediate ecological damage due to its massive volume.