Toxic Spill in Hungary Flows Toward the Danube

Toxic Spill, Ajkai Timföldgyár alumina plant in southern Hungary

Source: NASA Earth Observatory

At the same time there is good news that the trapped miners in Chile will likely be released from their Hades in a few days, another industrial accident related to mining threatens the water of the Danube in Central Europe. A waste reservoir at a Hungarian People's Republic era alumina plant burst and sent a wall of toxic sludge downstream, the wave from the broken reservoir killing at least four people and injuring many others while making dozens homeless. Several thousand people have been directly impacted by the spill. Some reports suggest that the remaining sludge is also likely to flow into the stream. 

As yet I have not accessed a hydrographic map of the region, so I do not know much about the flow of the small tributary of the Danube, but it appears to enter the Danube upstream from Budapest and possibly also of the city of Györ. Not far away to the south of the spill, but apparently on the opposite side of a divide and in another watershed is Lake Balaton, Hungary's natural treasure. A shallow lake, a plume of toxic materials entering Balaton would be devastating for the economy and the psyche of Hungary. 

A news report on the Scientific American site suggests that the effects on the Danube are likely to be limited, but downstream users of that water, including many in the various Balkan Republics and on to the Black Sea are anxiously watching the spill.  In an earlier posting I discussed the possibility of an oil pipeline bursting and contaminating a major stream in the United States. The aging infrastructure in much of the western world presents many similar risks to rivers and lakes outside of North America.

Area downstream of the Ajkai Timföldgyár alumina plant

Source:  NASA Earth Observatory

Related articles

• Toxic Spill in Hungary Could Take One Year to Clean Up [Video] (gawker.com)
• Hungary spill pollution eases, no big risk to Danube (scientificamerican.com)
• Toxic Sludge Could Spill Again, Hungary Government Warns (huffingtonpost.com)

Minerals, Mining, and Water I

Berkeley Pit, an open pit copper mine, Butte, Montana

Source: NASA Earth Observatory

A report in today's New York Times says there may be huge deposits of valuable minerals in Afghanistan (remind me  of why that war was started), and the country could enjoy substantial wealth from their exploitation. Several skeptics have questioned the news, but assuming it is true, exploitation, if it happens in the not too distant future, is neither going to be easy nor cheap. The war has demonstrated the problems of a country with minimal transportation infrastructure, where electricity is sporadic even in larger places, and where political control is far from firmly established. Another problem could be the absence of adequate water supplies.


Most types of mining use vast quantities of water and often contaminate that water. Hydraulic processes use water  to dislodge ore. In the California and later the Yukon gold rushes in North America huge areas were damaged by hydraulic processes, and more than a century and a half later some of the water flowing over the abandoned workings contains quantities of mercury dangerous for humans. More recently hydraulic mining was used in Malaysia to dislodge tin ores where dredging of river bottoms has also been utilized.


While hydraulic techniques are limited to ores at or near the earth's surface, underground and deep pit mining also demand large quantities of water to wash and treat ores, and sometimes to carry crushed ore from a mine considerable distances to  processing facilities. Deep pit mines, like the Berkeley pit in Butte, Montana shown above, are potentially hazardous for nearby streams and rivers. The pits can fill with water, and the water can become highly toxic. Water flooding the abandoned Montana pit is so toxic that birds landing on its surface have reportedly died! Sitting close  the Continental Divide, water released and ground water seeping out from the mine could contaminate either the Missouri River drainage or the Columbia drainage and make use of river water problematic far downstream.

Even when the processes do not use much water, mining can harm water supplies as mining wastes pollute lakes, streams and aquifers. Breaking into ore bodies can unleash previously trapped underground aquifers contaminated with arsenic and other toxic elements and chemicals. Ores in contact with surface water also unleash contaminants, and very toxic materials are used in some mining processes, including cyanide and arsenic.