EUROPE: Poor Safeguards Against Further Spills

By Claudia Ciobanu Reprint | | Print |

Claudia Ciobanu

BUCHAREST, Oct 14 2010 (IPS) - The red sludge spill at the Ajka alumina plant in Hungary has been called one of the three worst environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20-30 years. But environmentalists warn other waste depositing sites in Central and Eastern Europe are prone to similar accidents.

About 700,000 cubic metres of red sludge, a byproduct in alumina production containing heavy metals and chemicals, spilled out of a depositing tank at the Ajka (western Hungary) plant of company MAL on Oct. 4, covering fields and nearby villages. Eight people have died because of the flood, and 150 are wounded. Long-term damage to land and waters may mean that life in the region will never resume as before.

Hungarian authorities are investigating the causes of the accident and working on limiting damage from an expected second spill of comparable dimensions. A breach going unnoticed in one of the depositing tanks led to the first spill.

According to MAL CEO Zoltan Bakonyi — detained by the police for questioning — the reservoirs had been inspected daily with no signs of deterioration apparent. However, environmental group WWF published photographs of MAL’s reservoirs taken by Hungarian company Interspect showing damage to the walls three months before the accident.

“This accident raised the question whether monitoring (of waste sites) by member states is enough,” says WWF European Policy Officer Sergey Moroz. “The regulatory base can definitely be strengthened.”

Moroz was involved in the process of devising an EU Mining Waste Directive (adopted in 2006, to be implemented in 2012) and thinks that earlier implementation of the directive could have helped to prevent the Ajka accident.

The directive addresses management of mining waste generated during extraction and processing of ores. The text contains provisions regarding the planning and construction of waste facilities, protecting the environment during operation of waste sites, aftercare and rehabilitation of sites upon closure, regular inspections by authorities, and regular reviews of functioning permits.

Moroz told IPS that industry lobby led the European Council (heads of executives of member states) to push for delay in the implementation date of the directive and to weaken its provisions.

Terhi Lehtonen, advisor to the Green Party in the European Parliament, also involved in the adoption of the directive, agrees.

“The industry lobbied aggressively against provisions for mandatory financial guarantees (funds for rehabilitation of waste sites to be deposited by companies as a condition for receiving functioning permits) — and the final result did not include financial guarantees — and for permit defence, meaning that if companies act in accordance with permit conditions, they have limited, if any, liability for damage caused,” Lehtonen told IPS.

In Hungary, MAL has so far offered to pay 360 euros for each family affected by the spill. The government estimates damages to be paid by the company at over 70 million euros.

In accordance with current EU legislation and even with the requirements of the Mining Directive, there is considerable leverage room for companies to negotiate with national authorities over what constitutes hazardous waste falling under the strictest safety standards.

Under categorizations in force, the Ajka red sludge is not considered hazardous waste, as cyanide, for instance. Yet under the Mining Directive, such red sludge can face the toughest controls if deposited in conditions that pose risks of major accidents.

Following the Ajka accident, WWF has drawn up a list of over ten waste depositing sites in the Danube region where serious accidents could happen, including two alumina plants.

In Romania, alumina producer Alum Tulcea has for years deposited red sludge (at a rate of 1,000 tonnes daily) containing heavy metals in a landfill, polluting nearby lands and even the Danube Delta.

In 2009, the company launched a plan to close the deposit and rehabilitate the land. Alum Tulcea did not respond to IPS requests to clarify progress on these works.

Simona Constantinescu from the Tulcea environmental protection authority told IPS that so far work has been carried out to separate the old deposit from what will be a new ecological deposit site, the latter being also under construction. Measures to secure the open red sludge deposit have not been implemented so far.

Meanwhile, several local newspapers have reported this month that villagers in the area neighbouring the plant are complaining of “red dust” affecting their health and crops.

Alum plans to continue operations, hence the company has an interest in investing in better waste management.

More problematic is the case of numerous closed plants in Central and Eastern Europe which have left behind waste deposits without rehabilitating them. The situation of closed waste sites is not addressed even by the Mining Directive, bar the requirement that member states submit and update lists of closed sites.

At Almasfuzito in northwestern Hungary, alumina production stopped in 1995, but eight million tonnes of red sludge containing iron and lead continue to be stored in pools covering 174 hectares. The biggest of the reservoirs remains open.

Management of the reservoirs was taken up in 1997 by Tata Environmental Protection Ltd. The company is supposed to dispose of and recover the waste and its strategy includes monitoring groundwater pollution and re-cultivation. Here too, progress is difficult to check as public contact details for the company are not functional.

Shuzi Attila from local NGO Environmental Culture Association of Esztergom told IPS the reservoirs at Almasfuzito are still dangerous because they are not isolated, hence groundwater can reach them and carry the red sludge into the Danube. Furthermore, Shuzi says, there are signs of deterioration of the reservoir dams, which are also situated in a tectonically active area.

“The reservoirs are located close to the Danube, and when the river floods they look like islands encircled by the Danube water,” said Shuzi, emphasizing the risk of red sludge ending up in the Danube.

WWF Bulgaria reports over 20 tailing dams in the country, some decommissioned, where heavy metals buried in the ground could infiltrate nearby water sources. Authorities here are still to classify dangerous waste disposal sites.