Felicia Jenkins
10/15/10
1:58 PM

Fears of More Red Sludge in Hungary

Last week I talked about the red sludge that spilled across a Hungarian town. This week, the saga continues. Nearly 200 million more gallons of sludge has leaked from the fall and destroyed three other towns. There is another part of the northern wall that is weakening and is endanger of collapsing. Several widening cracks were found and the danger of the retaining wall collapsing is becoming more and more evident. Hungary’s Catastrophe Protection Unit is building an emergency barrier to stop the red sludge in case the wall does indeed break again. The Hungarian government has began an investigation on the collapse of the reservoir wall. The company has already gotten $97.3 million in fines because of water damage and the sludge. This is the largest environmental disaster in the history of Hungary. A spokes person has said that the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company has said that hopefully the production of aluminum will restart shortly. “the company expressed condolences to the families of those killed by the sludge and said it was willing to pay compensation “in proportion to its responsibility.” Due to a lack of regulations this sludge is unable to have the label of a toxic chemical.

There is clearly a structural problem with the wall that no one is doing anything about. What will happen will the whole thing falls down? It is becoming more and more of a possibility because the wall keep getting weaker and weaker and cracking even more. This chemical by product is seeping into the land of a large farming community. Families are still harvesting their crop but they are afraid to sell them in case they are toxic. What is the HAPTC doing about their potential lost wages? I wonder if this company will take any responsibility for their destruction of the community other than minor property damages. The local economy will be affected because of the decrease in the income of the population as well. It also seems to me that the aluminum company is taking no efforts to stop future damage. Sure they built an emergency wall to stop the spread of the sludge, but what happens if that fails too, then what are they going to do? This also sparks the question if the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company has checked its retaining walls in other locations to make sure they are not also in danger of falling down. But my main question is what repercussions will this company have to pay? Yes they are “regulated” by the government but who is looking out for the small towns that have been damaged by the spill?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/world/europe/11hungary.html?_r=2&ref=earth