Toxic sludge actually beautifies the countryside the same way coal mining tailings do. These so-called victims should apologize to the aluminum company for stealing their landscaping sludge.

Rand Paul.

Hungry? Of course they're hungry. If they would let bidnesses serve only the races they like, they wouldn't be hungry.- Rand Paul

I have received classified information that shows that the sludge spill was part of Romania's plan to take over Hungary.

Christine O'Donnell

I was never a big fan of heavy metal, but this shit sounds REALLY nasty.

This is not as bad as the sludge from the Gold mine that flooded out of Romania a few months back. That has arsenic in it and it was all flushing down the Danube to the rest of Europe.

Environmental concerns are not high on the priority list in Hungary apparently.

Bush's fault!

"Bush's fault!"

i love that this was posted.

it shows that you are still stuck on Bush, and yet you claim that others are.

is Bush the first thing that pops into your head when there is a disaster?

WWGWBD

its not bush's fault. but its the fault of people who share his mentality: DEREGULATE.

we just mention bush and palin so much because they encapsulate an attitude of willing ignorance and corporate greed that manifests itself in many forms in the current events of any given day, unfortunately.

Christine O'Donnell

#3 | POSTED BY DARTHCHENEY

doesn't really fit in but i found this funny
(i took that post as a jumping off point to not seem completely random)

europe...

this is the type of land they are trying to keep muslims from taking over...

This is a mini Chernobyl. 15.4 square miles. Several towns. How will they be able to clean it up? Getting rid of the sludge will be the easy part. The land will still be contaminated for decades. No people, crops or livestock can survive in this region now.

No people, crops or livestock can survive in this region now.

That's what they said about Chernobyl, but nature is proving to be far more resilient than science understands.

This is a mini Chernobyl.

It is waste from an aluminum processing plant.

I saw it referred to as "radioactive" by one reporter, but I don't see how that could be true.

It is a terrible accident, but it is what it is.

Caustic means highly alkaline which can be neutralized with common acids.

The toxic metals in it will cause the most long term damage, but certainly not like the radioactive release at Chernobyl.

Aluminum MSDS:

When life gives you toxic aluminum sludge, make toxic aluminum lemonade cans out of it!

Tea bangle

"Keep container closed."

Oh well.

Looks like it's mostly iron and silica (red color) which can eventually be cleaned up. But titanium and residual sodium hydroxide will stick around for awhile.

Hey we can practice saying it the Brit way now ...Al-Lu-Minium
Ahh now don't you feel better? Hey EU tell RJ and Reynolds they can fix it ...Imagine smoking Red Ciggys dipped in this shit ....Makes your fillings tingle ...Yummy

FTA: Local environmentalists say they have tried to call the government's attention to the risks of red sludge for years, pointing to a 2003 report in which they estimated the waste at 30 million tons.

"Accumulated during decades ... red sludge is, by volume, the largest amount of toxic waste in Hungary," the Clear Air Action Group said, adding that producing one ton of alumina resulted in two tons of toxic waste.

30 Million tons of toxic sludge broke loose in Hungary?

Blech, Spud is certainly not feeling very hungry after reading THAT.

Sorry, asshole from the place this happened, you wanted to say sommat?

MAL Rt., the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company that owns the Ajka plant, said that according to European Union standards, the red sludge was not considered toxic waste.

Not toxic?

Tell that to the guy who was "burned to the bone" by yer shiat and then heli-vacced into intensive care.

If he recovers, that is.

Guess you can also put that sentiment on a Hallmark card and send it to to the surviving family of the 4 dead so far as well.

Schmuck.

Be Well.

the Brit way now ...Al-Lu-Minium

Fun factoids.

There are approximately 4,000 commonly used word in the English language spelled differently in the US and UK.

Here in Canada we've tended to pick and chose from both menus over time and thus these days a lot of folks are never sure if they're spelling anything the "proper" Canadian way.

Spud just makes up his own words if he can't remember.

In 1812, its discoverer, Sir H. Davy, first called the metal "alumium" meaning there are actually 3 ways of spelling it.

Sorry fer the threadjack.

Spud's a bit of an amateur etymologist at times.

Be Well.

well, this makes me want to ask the de-regulation fans, the ppl who think the EPA is the devil and the cause of all our ills, how far they think it should go. Seriously, no trolling here. I'm curious what the Libertarian-minded people think of this. How should it be dealt with and how can it be prevented from happening in, say, your neighborhood?

Do we just have to wait till after a catastrophe and then pound the guilty parites so hard that no one would ever take the risk of stepping over the line again? Or...what?

"According to the current evaluation, company management could not have noticed the signs of the natural catastrophe nor done anything to prevent it even while carefully respecting technological procedures,"

Anyone have any idea what that means?

Anyone have any idea what that means?

"Don't sue us"?

A guess.

Be Well.

The problem all comes down to a simple word....GREED, and an unwillingness to spend money to do a job safely and without risk to others. All of these accidents could have been avoided with money spent on redundancy and safe practices but the decision makers often are afflicted with a disease called greed. I suspect that there is a genetic basis or gene mutation involved because it is a minority of people who are inherently cheap, and never have enough even when they have more than 99% of others.

Bush's fault!

actually a lack of bushes. More bushes would have added integrity to the retaining walls.

Okay, I said bush and added integrity in the same sentence. Who says I'm not impartial?

I seriously doubt you could get anything to grow on the berm of a caustic lagoon, but if they did it would actually weaken it. Roots loosen packed soil and give a path to saturate the berm.

Has Joe Barton apologized to MAL Rt. yet?

"May cause irritation."
May? Ahem.

"Use with adequate ventilation."
Well, there's the sky, and such, so I suppose that goes in the "plus" column...sort of.

"Keep container closed."
Oops. Ahem.

In further news, it is now prohibited to call aluminum light "light", since it's just as bad for you as regular, full-flavored aluminum.
It is now referred to as "aluminum blue".

"So far, about 35.3 million cubic feet of sludge has leaked from the reservoir"

If it were a cube, it would be well over a football field's length on a side.
A big-ass, nasty cube, that is.