Thursday, October 7, 2010

And we thought the Gulf spill was bad. Today's menu special Hungarian Sludge



For those of you who have long forgotten your high school chemistry.

Ph levels in the Marcal river in Hungary are at 9 to 10 on the scale. It's killed all the fish and response workers were unable to stop it from reaching the Danube. So what now you might ask? Well there's good news and bad news. Hungary is in it's rainy season. That will help to dilute the chemicals but it will also help them to flow even faster.
It was reported that this spill is larger than the Deep Water Horizon spill but I find that hard to believe. It was after all just one reservoir. Maybe in terms of property damage this would be worse.
To try and fix this problem is going to be an engineering nightmare. What they would need to do is dump large amounts of vinegar into the river upstream from the Danube while workers try to build some type of containment. Not knowing the terrain in that area it's hard to say if that could even be done. Unlike Deep Water the ph could be neutralized but then there the long term effects of the heavy metals. Is this yet another "perfect storm"? As I see it it's just one more example of profits over safety. I understand that this pool of toxic sludge has been there since Soviet days and was inspected just two weeks ago. At this point I see no alternative other than to declare the area what we would call a Superfund site, relocate the population and build a containment system, but I know they won't. They'll white wash the buildings clean up the streets and people will continue to live there like some lab rats in a sick experiment. We saw this in Libby, Montana. We saw it at ground zero and we're seeing it in the Gulf. Now it's Europe's turn. When will we learn?

Short post I have a bunch of things to do today and tomorrow.

9 comments:

S.W. Anderson said...

These are warning signs. If we don't get serious about dealing with the many potential sources of large-scale ecological and public-health disasters, eventually, huge portions of the planet will become uninhabitable.

Industry is so large scale and so widely spread around the world any more that it must be constantly monitored and made to operate as cleanly and safely as possible.

That site was inspected two weeks before all hell broke loose. We've had refinery and mine calamities here not long after they were supposedly inspected. Before the Gulf disaster, BP was running ads bragging about its safety record.

They are clowns who will pee down your leg and with a straight face tell you it's just raining. Like I said, we've got to get serious. Part of that, IMO, means creating new laws that make selfish, stupid decisions by what are now considered white-collar criminals punishable by stiff prison sentences. Fines and bad PR clearly aren't sufficient.

jmsjoin said...

I wonder what it is going to do to the Black Sea. They are monitoring the once Blue Danube so they can stop people from drinking it if necessary.

They think the sheer mass of the Danube may negate the toxicity but I wouldn't think so. Instead of taking care of our old sick planet we seem to be revving up the destruction.

BBC said...

So what now you might ask?

Don't worry about it so much, it's just part of my plan to get rid of a bunch of monkeys.

Just figure how what you have to do to live in your own area, no point in worrying about everyone else.

BBC said...

So what now you might ask?

Don't worry about it so much, it's just part of my plan to get rid of a bunch of monkeys.

Just figure how what you have to do to live in your own area, no point in worrying about everyone else.

BBC said...

Opps, got a double comment, you delete it. Good boy....

Demeur said...

I'd love to focus on my part of the world if it wasn't falling apart too.

You can't get rid of them that easy Billy.
You can't get rid of them that easy Billy.

Randal Graves said...

When will we learn?

About 15-20 minutes after the last human is wiped off the planet.

Tim said...

All for the love of money.

Demeur, drop me a line when you can.

Ranch Chimp said...

I've been seeing alot about this, not even knowing shit like you do about these thing's ... it look's really bad to me, if it's as contaminated as they say in the news. Now just imagine ... we been on this big scale industrial shit for a tad over a century I reckon, worldwide ... considering how long the earth been here, and all we have fucked up in just over only a century, could you imagine if we have been doing this shit for a few hundred year's the mess we may have. No doubt, we need energies and product's ... how in the Hell do we get product's for instance, since 1000's of our everyday daily product's come from petro alone? I posted a list of only a few hundred daily common use product's that come from petro and that was only a part. Then you look at all the mining, and the so called "waste reseviour's" ... all over the world, how many even get around inspection's with pay- off's and such? ... frankly guy ... the future to me on this look's pretty goddamn grim as it is. I seen a CNN piece the other day of a place in Pennsylvania called "Blue Lake" or something and the waste resevoiur they had there right off folk's backyard's. We are just in a mess, and "IF" we get to clear this up ... it ought to be a trip trying to see "how", if we stop all these industries, what do human's do for energy, product's and everyting else we have became accustomed to? I just am not very optimistic as far as what's to come, because you know damn well, a bunch of other waste site's or whatever will fail at some time or another.