Photos: "Huge" Toxic Sludge Flood Hits Hungary

Armored Against Toxic Sludge

Photograph by Bela Szandelszky, AP

A Hungarian soldier, outfitted against the toxic sludge, walks through the flooded streets of Devecser, Hungary, on Tuesday.

"It's not a subtle effect," toxicologist Ronald Kendall said of the sludge's potential for harm.

"This stuff is highly alkaline; its pH is estimated to be 13, which means it’s basically like lye," said Kendall, of Texas Tech University.

"It's directly, immediately toxic. It will burn your skin and your eyes, and if you are trapped in it, it will kill you. It can kill plants, it can kill animals, and it can kill things in the water.

"It doesn't take five years to demonstrate a response. If you get it on your skin, it only takes about ten seconds."

(Get more toxic-waste facts.)

Published October 6, 2010

Toxic Sludge Seen From Above

Photograph by Gyoergy Varga, MTI via AP

The streets of Kolontar (map) run red with toxic sludge some 103 miles (167 kilometers) southwest of Budapest, Hungary, on Tuesday.

Authorities are fighting a feverish battle to close the burst reservoir and contain the sludge spill before it enters the Danube River and spreads downstream beyond the country's borders—potentially as far as the Black Sea.

Teams are dumping tons of plaster into the Marcal River in an attempt to stop the sludge from reaching the Danube, Kendall said. But the spill’s own velocity and the region's persistent rains make the prospect of containment uncertain.

"It’s a major ecological issue right now," Kendall said, "and the chances of it reaching the Danube are quite high."

(Related pictures: "Toxic Foam Chokes Brazil River.")

Published October 6, 2010

Hungary Digs Out

Photograph by Bela Szandelszky, AP

On Tuesday a resident of Kolontar, Hungary, takes stock of his yard, flooded with the caustic alkaline substance produced when bauxite is refined into alumina.

Such toxic waste is typically stored in open reservoirs until evaporation leaves a claylike material behind. But after the retaining walls of an enormous reservoir burst Monday, the watery sludge surged through neighboring towns in a wave six feet (two meters) tall, according to the Associated Press.

Published October 6, 2010

Toxic Sludge Hits Home in Hungary

Photograph by Attila Kisbenedek, AFP/Getty Images

With rubber boots to shield against the harmful sludge, a man surveys his home in Devecser, Hungary, on Tuesday.

Toxicologist Ronald Kendall said local authorities are using acidic substances to ease the burning effect of the alkaline sludge on skin. But that the process creates other, less obvious problems.

"It's a double-edged sword," Kendall explained, "because you're also enhancing the release of toxic heavy metals bound in that sludge."

The heavy metals in the sludge—byproducts of alumina production—can wreak havoc on the food chain from the base up by altering plant growth as well as egg and larvae development. They also can cause serious neurological damage in living animals, Kendall said.

(Related: "Giant Toxic Coal Ash Spill Threatens Animals.")

Published October 6, 2010

Toxic Sludge's Tall Stain

Photograph by Attila Kisbenedek, AFP/Getty Images

Seen Tuesday, a crimson waterline in Devecser, Hungary, shows just how deep Monday's toxic-sludge flood was.

Ultimately, remediation efforts may be extensive, expensive, and time-consuming, Kendall said. Layers of topsoil may require removal in agricultural areas, and river bottoms may have to be dredged where heavy metals have settled out.

"This is huge," Kendall added. "Some volume estimates are approaching the size of the BP oil spill. Even if this was clean water, it would be a big problem in terms of flooding—and this stuff is highly toxic."

(Also see: "Gulf Spill Pictures: Toxic Oil Found Just Under Beaches.")

Published October 6, 2010