Slideshow for a Hydrology class about two main horrible toxic sludge spill (plus some extra) which affected Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Danube, Tisza, Tisa
1. Toxic sludges in Central Europe
by Csaba Toth
For CSU Fresno Hydrology (EES117) class
09/27/2012
Thanks for materials to Wikipedia
2. Two sludges
1. Cyanide spill in January 30, 2000
– “the worst environmental disaster in Europe since
the Chernobyl disaster”
2. Red mud toxic sludge in 4 October 2010
7. Tisza River
• Drains an area of about 60,266 sq mi
• Length of 600 mi
• Biggest catchment and length of any of Danube
tributaries
• Mean annual discharge of 28,000 cu ft/s
• Its contribution to the Danube's total runoff is
about 13%
• Attila the Hun is said to have been buried under a
diverted section of the river Tisza
9. Danube River
• Originates from Germany, Black Forest
• Drains an area of about 315,445 sq mi
• Mean discharge of 229,545 ft3/s (at Budapest: 82,989
ft3/s, Mississippi: 593,000 ft3/s)
• Once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire
• Passes through or touches the borders of ten countries:
Romania (29.0% of basin area), Hungary (11.6%),
Serbia (10.2%), Austria (10.0%), Germany (7.0%),
Bulgaria (5.9%), Slovakia (5.9%), Croatia (4.4%),
Ukraine (3.8%), and Moldova (1.6%)
10. Danube River
• Along its course, it is a source of drinking water
for about 20 million people
• Passing through four Central European capitals
before emptying into the Black Sea via the
Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine
1. Vienna – capital of Austria
2. Bratislava – capital of Slovakia
3. Budapest – capital of Hungary
4. Belgrade – capital of Serbia
• The delta’s approximate surface is 1603 mile², it is
a UNESCO heritage
11. 1. Cyanide spill - January 30, 2000
• The spill has been called the worst environmental
disaster in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster
• Originating location: Nagybánya (Baia Mare in
Romanian), 600 kilometers from Bucharest, the
capital of Romania, 70 kilometers from the
border with Hungary and 50 kilometers from the
border with Ukraine
• Time: January 30, 2000, night
• Affected the Tisza and then the Danube
13. Gold mining
• Gold mining company Aurul, a joint-venture of
the Australian company Esmeralda Exploration
and the Romanian government
• Cleaning up byproduct of gold mining, the
toxic tailings, Aurul extracted remaining gold
from it via gold cyanidation
• The company then shipped its waste product
to a dam (contains a lot of cyanide, also has
some heavy metals and other yummy stuff)
14. The spill itself
• 100,000 cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated
water (containing an estimated 100 tons of
cyanides) spilled
• Into the Someş river, then Tisza, Danube
• Cyanide concentrations of over 700 times the
permitted levels
• More than 1,400 tons of fish, numerous eagles,
storks and otters all died
• In addition to cyanide, heavy metals were also
washed into the river and they have a long-lasting
negative impact on the environment
15. Aftermath
• Esmeralda Exploration blamed excessive snowfall for the dam
failure (srsly?)
• "The Tisza has been killed. Not even bacteria have survived" -
Serbia's Environment minister Branislav Blazic – "This is a total
catastrophe."
• After the cyanide entered the Danube, the large volume of the
river's water diluted the cyanide, but in some sections it still
remained as high as 20 to 50 times the allowed concentration
• Brett Montgomery, the chairman of the mine operator, Esmeralda,
denied responsibility, claiming that the damage of the spill has been
"grossly exaggerated" and that the fish died in such numbers
because of lack of oxygen due to the freezing of the river. (yeah,
right!)
16. More reactions
• A spokesman for the company later claimed that media
reports from Hungary and Serbia are politically
motivated and the fish were killed by spills from
industrial plants along the Tisza, due to the dynamite
explosions used to break the ice locks on the river or
simply due to the raw sewage pumped into the river.
– My two cents on this as a flat water kayaker on the Danube
for 20 years: waste water treatment significantly improved
in Hungary over the years, especially after the system
change. The various industry plants which contaminated
the water got closed down because of economic reasons.
17. More reactions
• It’s also interesting to note that
Romania ate its own dog food:
the Tisza flows into the
Danube, and the Danube flows
back to they! Rather deny
allegations then admit a fault –
congrats!
• The Hungarian government called the storing
of cyanide next to a river madness and argued
that the weather was not unprecedented. –
with a little digging we can see if this is right
18. Aftermath – there you go
• Five weeks later, a spill of contaminated waters (this
time with heavy metals) hit the region.[3] A dyke burst
in Baia Borş, Maramureş County and 20,000 cubic
meters of zinc, lead and copper-contaminated water
made its way into the Tisza.
• A year later, another cyanide spill occurred in Romania,
this time being a deliberate emptying of cyanide
solutions into the Siret River.
• Two years after the spill, the ecosystem began to
recover, but it was still far from its initial state, as the
fishermen of Hungary claim that their catches are only
at a fifth of their original levels.
19. Aftermath
• While Romania and the Australian gold mining
company denied everything and didn’t show
too much sorrow about the incident,
Australian Greenpeace activists
communicated their deep sorrow about the
tragedy and felt ashamed in the name of the
Romanian government and the gold mining
company.
20. 2. Red mud sludge, 4 October 2010
• Locations. Kolontár, Hungary
22. Aluminium production from bauxite
• waste product of the Bayer process, which refines
bauxite into a form of aluminium oxide called
alumina
• The byproduct mud primarily contains non-
aluminium compounds present in the bauxite ore
and left as residues after its refining along with
sodium hydroxide used to dissolve aluminium
oxide – notice NaOH, extreme pH!
• red mud does not contain “very high” levels of
heavy metals, although still about seven times
the levels in normal soil
• Very slightly radioactive
23. The spill
• dam of reservoir no. 10 collapsed
• freeing approximately 35 million cubic feet of
liquid waste from red mud lakes
• The mud was released as a 1–2 m (3–7 ft) tall
wave, flooding several nearby localities
• At least nine people died, and 122 people
were injured
• About 15 sq mi of land were initially affected
24. Danger
• Immediate: extremely basic, with a pH value
of 13 (remember NaOH)
• 80–90 people had been taken to hospital
• severe chemical burns to human and animals
and killing specimens in the rivers and in the
contaminated soils
• levels of chromium 660 mg/kg, arsenic
110 mg/kg and mercury 1.2 mg/kg.
25. Danger
• Extreme basic pH caustic effects on the skin is very
different, than an extreme acidic effect: you don’t feel
the damage right away like with an acid, real damage
kicks in only with a large delay (but non-reversible).
• Hungarian news showed footages as catastrophe
response teams were pouring industrial citric acid and
vinegar into the affected small rivers to counteract the
extreme pH of NaOH
• The radioactivity of the sludge is negligible
(comparable to the background radiation), doesn’t
have real impact
26. Long Term Danger
• Once the sludge dries, various toxic
compounds are picked up by the wind
– This can cause coughing, lung and respiratory
irritation
– Trigger asthma, make asthma worse
– Worse for children and elderly people
• Personal suspicion (not proven): these dams
were used to store other toxic waste products
than just the bauxite mining
27. Aftermath
• The CEOs of the bauxit mining company were detractive
towards the effect of the sludge. (The CEO were standing
on the stairs at the sludge dam, and stated that “It’s
harmless”. The governmental representative replied: “Then
jump in, and swim in it!”)
• The CEOs were cited to a lawsuit
• The CEOs had power during the communist era and could
get hold and save that governmental industry into their
own personal wealth only for pennies (same happened
with almost every big industry and valuable asset after the
system change)
• These days the lawsuit seems to not have any result, still
going on but money can by very good defense
28. Bottom line notes
• Bauxite contains lower percentage of aluminum
than an aluminum ore, extraction requires more
effort (hence the toxic dam)
• But Hungarian bauxit contained unusually high
percentage of titanium!
• Unfortunately during the communist era that
very valuable titanium was just simply taken away
by the soviets (for free, since Hungary was a
“friend” and communist “brother”), and most
probably used for military industry
29. Bottom line notes
• Hungary is famous for its baths, there are
thousands of thermal springs all across the
country, good for treating various health issues
• Heavy industry mining impacted the yield of
those spring throughout the years
• Now there’s no more mining and Hungary is just
blessed with the enormous amount of toxic
waste – sitting and waiting to spill one day (there
are many more container pools like the one
which spilled)
• Titanium is gone too as I mentioned
30. Aftermath
• The mining company stated that they performed
all mandatory check annually and regularly on
the dam
• Many local people stated that it was common
knowledge that the dams were leaking
• The disaster happened after an unusually rainy
period, seemingly the dam wall cracked and
slipped
• (Some conspiracy theorists say it was caused by a
bomb)
32. Future after red mud catastrophe?
• Red mud cleanup seems to be successful
• But people lost their homes and they won’t
return any more to the disaster area
• The leaders of the
• USA has dry technology, not dangerous in
terms of potential spills, but more costly (you
have to neutralize the NaOH and have to
prevent the disperse of the dried sludge dust,
which can cause irritation)
33. Future after cyanide spills?
• Bigger project than ever before planned: Gold
mining at Verespatak
• Means bigger than ever before cyanide dam
• The campaign against the gold mining at Roșia
Montană was one of the largest campaigns over a
non-political cause in the last 20 years in
Romania. A plethora of organizations spoke out
against the project, from Greenpeace to the
Romanian Academy. Nevertheless, in late 2009,
the Romanian government announced it made
starting the project a priority. – congratulations!
34. Comparison
• The red mud sludge looked really nasty, that’s
why it hit the news
• The cyanide spill was a rally scary invisible and
silent mass murderer
• Although people died as a result of the red mud
incident, it affected smaller area than the cyanide
spill, easier to remediate
• There was an international lawsuit about the
cyanide spill, but we only won some pennies
basically
35. Summary
• Tremendous damage because of negligence
and money hunger
• The responsible parties deny allegations, don’t
learn
• Money compensation (which can be used for
remediation) is often negligible, laughable