In Hungary, salvage teams are doing all they can to prevent toxic sludge from flowing into the River Danube, Europe’s second longest river. The disaster with the poisonous sludge, waste from an aluminium factory, is partly the result of West-European stinginess. Four people drowned in the toxic sludge spill. Dutch companies are ready to help the clear up operation.

An estimated 30 million tons of toxic sludge was stored in a huge basin for many years. On Monday a dike gave way and part of the sludge flowed away, covering three villages with 15 cm of poison.

The sludge contains the corrosive substance sodium hydroxide (NaOH), which is not lethal straight away, but can cause burns and damage mucous membranes. However, the sludge is also thought to contain traces of aluminium and possibly arsenic.

Brain damage
If these substances end up in drinking water or flow via a tributary into the River Danube, there could be far-reaching consequences, as the two substances can cause cancer and brain damage.

The sludge is left over after refining bauxite into alum, a relatively clean raw material for aluminium. The problem is that aluminium factories in Western Europe have left the countries where the raw materials are mined with the waste. The Caribbean also has this kind of sludge left over from aluminium produced in the Netherlands.

Costly procedure
The toxic sludge can be neutralised and stored relatively safely, but that is a costly procedure. The EU has also been negligent over the past years, when new member states had to clean up in order to comply with strict European environmental legislation. Environment expert Lucas Reijnders:

“There was another spectacular accident in Romania, in which a tributary of the Danube was contaminated. After that an inventory was made of the storage reservoirs, but clearing them up properly is very, very expensive. The only thing that was done, was that the dikes were improved here and there, so they wouldn’t break as easily.”

Budapest estimates the cost of the clear up operation to be around 25 million euros. But according to most experts, this estimate is far too low. Cors van den Brink of the Dutch engineering and environmental consultancy Royal Haskoning has worked in Hungary for years. He warns that the costs depend on how the clear up is done.

“I think the estimate is low. If you shovel the sludge aside like snow, then it could be done very cheaply. But that will have little or no effect on the environment. However, clearing it up carefully and getting rid of it in the best possible way, that will be pretty expensive.”

Dutch expertise
So far Hungary has not yet asked his company for help. The Netherlands is one of Europe’s leading countries in soil decontamination. It was the first country to properly map its own soil pollution.

Cors van den Brink has discovered that Hungary has sufficient technical expertise in decontamination and groundwater protection:

“I was extremely impressed by the expertise in Hungary in my field. Our added value had mainly to do with combining knowledge in different areas. If help is needed, it will mainly be to organise such a huge project.”

Difficult operation
Mr van den Brink says the clear up job will be difficult. He thinks it will be almost impossible to neutralise the sludge now that it has spread so far. It has to be removed by digging up a layer of soil, which then needs to be stored somewhere else. Preferably more safely than before.

Difficult job or not, in the Netherlands there are companies specialised in soil decontamination waiting by the phone for a call. Perhaps it will ring with someone from Budapest on the line. The Dutch embassy in Hungary says a number of companies have been approached.