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Additional damage to reservoir prompts evacuation of Kolontar, Hungary

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Saturday, October 9, 2010

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Kolontar, Hungary is currently being evacuated as new damage was discovered at the burst reservoir that spilled hazardous sludge on Monday 04 October 2010 in Western Hungary. If the embankment dam of the storage pond that already released about 700,000 cubic meters of highly alkaline (pH ~13) red sludge into the area would entirely collapse, an extra volume of 500,000 cubic meters of red mud could be released.

A second spill containing more sediments from the bottom of the reservoir would be heavier and thicker than the first one, and would move less rapidly. The flash flood of Monday already killed seven people, chemically burnt 150 others, and left the land and the surface water devastated by the sodium hydroxide and the iron oxides bearing also traces of heavy metals. According to Reuters the prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, arrived in the village Saturday morning.

It is also being reported that the newly discovered damage is minor; however, disaster crews do not want to take any chances and are evacuating the village's 800 inhabitants as a precaution. The evacuees are being taken to a sports hall and two high schools, which are eight kilometers away from the reservoir in a town called Ajka.


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  This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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