Hungary Toxic Mud Spill Reached Danube Thursday Afternoon - Romanian Water Administration

"According to latest information from Hungarian authorities, the sludge contamination has reached the Danube (Thursday, e.n.), at 2 p.m.. (...)", the water administration said in a press release Thursday afternoon.

"The pH level of the Danube is estimated to be below 9.00 due to the dilution capacity of water", the press release also reads.

It also said it will take almost five days until the sludge spill reaches Bazias, the entrance point of Danube River in western Romania, according to recent analyses by experts of Romania's National Institute of Hydrology and Water Administration.

Water Administration officials said earlier Thursday that a work group of experts, biologists and chemists was set up at central and local level, adding that, ever since Wednesday, Romanian experts have been monitoring the pH content of the Danube at the entrance point in Romania.

Emergency authorities in Mehedinti county, south-western Romania, convened Thursday morning to decide what must be done regarding the ecological disaster in Hungary. The committee for environmental matters within Romania's Chamber of Deputies has asked the Hungarian Parliament to provide detailed information on the ecological catastrophe. Also, Romanian Environment Minister Laszlo Borbely has asked for information on the way authorities in the two countries are tackling the situation in order to prevent the toxic flood from reaching Romania.

The sludge, which is waste produced during alumina manufacture, swept cars off roads and damaged bridges and homes, forcing the evacuation of 400 residents. At least four people were killed, six were reported missing, 120 injured, many with burns, and about 7,000 are thought to have been directly affected by the spill.

The European Union urged authorities to do everything they can to keep the slurry from reaching the Danube and affecting half a dozen other countries. Greenpeace described the spill as "one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years".

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