Tuesday, October 5, 2010

I've done some spills in my life but not one like this


Toxic spill in Hungary
At least two people have been killed after the dam of a sludge reservoir at a big alumina factory in western Hungary burst, flooding parts of three villages.

The accident occurred at the Ajkai Timfoldgyar Zrt plant, owned by MAL Zrt. No one was immediately available at the company to comment.

Gyorgy Bakos, a county disaster-control spokesman, said about 600,000-700,000 cubic metres of sludge had spilled from the reservoir.


That works out to about 35 million cubic feet of material and it's caustic! I can only imagine having to try and clean up an entire town. The largest clean up I ever did was 4 acres of toxic material at a boat repair and maintenance yard contaminated with PCBs.

And a little inside info from somebody's who's been there. They're wearing the wrong protection. The pressure wash hoses and their boots will start to melt in a couple of hours or sooner depending on the ph of the spilled material.

Gee now I'm not feeling too hungry right now.

7 comments:

Randal Graves said...

If they didn't want to encounter toxic sludge, they shouldn't have been born in Hungaristan.

Aside: wouldn't they want their protective gear to melt? Just think of the superpowers that will come from toxic sludge meeting skin!

The Blog Fodder said...

Welcome to the FSU and all its satellites. Here the five year plan took precedence over everything. Meet the targets or get fired and have no place to go. There was only one system and one ladder.

In North America, Quarterly profit trumps five year plans and when the bums are turned out they land similar jobs at higher rates.

But the environment still pays.

jmsjoin said...

I heard this with the sludge but didn't pay any attention because I was thinking mud, good luck to them that have to live in all that if it's caustic.

jmsjoin said...

I was just reading up on that, that is some pretty nasty radioactive deadly stuff.

Tim said...

Good catch, I glossed over it. It was an oh by the way thing. But in real news some blond showed her stuff.
Yeah that get up won't last long.
Here comes the toxic avenger II

Demeur said...

Yes I just found out a bit later that it was radioactive. There's a game changer.

A blond show her stuff? Where Tim where?

Ranch Chimp said...

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