BRATISLAVA, December 21, (WEBNOVINY) — As Greenpeace Slovakia spokeswoman Lucia Szabova told SITA on Wednesday, toxic materials from the red sludge reservoir near the Hungarian village Almasfuzito are leaking into the Danube River. The samples Greenpeace collected on December 9 contained amounts of arsenic, molybdenum and bromine compounds exceeding the legally allowed limits.
Greenpeace demands that Hungarian authorities end the operations of the sludge reservoir. “Hungarian authorities have still not taken any measures to protect nature and health of the people living near the dangerous reservoir although we have warned them about its critical condition several times,” said Greenpeace expert on toxic materials Gergely Simon. He then added that the reservoir does not have the system for elementary isolation and retention of dangerous waste.
“We now found proof that dangerous materials leak from the reservoir into the Danube. There is no monitoring system on the Danube side of the reservoir that would show how much materials leak into the river and into groundwater,” adds Simon. Greenpeace took sediment samples from the Danube at the time of its low water level from places which are normally inaccessible. A sediment sample taken near the sludge reservoir contained 324 milligrams of arsenic per kilogram, although the legal limit is 15 mg. The reservoir is located only a few kilometers from the Slovak town of Komarno.
The Almasfuzito red sludge reservoir is similar to that in the town of Ajka, which burst open in 2010, causing an ecological catastrophe. According to Greenpeace there are several serious problems with the technical condition of the reservoir, however, the authorities prolonged its operating permit to its operator, Tatai Kornyezetvedelmi, last year. Greenpeace has been pointing to the situation with the reservoir since September, demanding Hungarian authorities to immediately abolish the reservoir’s operations as well as further storage of new waste. They also appealed to the government to adopt all EU legal frameworks so that Hungary would treat dangerous waste responsibly in accordance to principles of sustainability.
SITA
