http://agmetalminer.com/2010/10/07/hungarian-alumina-refinery-disaster-what-exactly-is-this-red-mud/
Outstanding attention to the detail.
We have had lead contamination, mine accidents, and now it is the turn of the aluminum industry to come under the microscope following a major, and we mean major, spill of liquid waste from the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company (MAL) alumina refinery between Ajke and Kolontal in Hungary. At least four people are confirmed dead, several more missing and over 60 hospitalized.
To be fair this isn’t the aluminum industry as we know it. The plant in question refines bauxite to produce special calcined aluminas and aluminum hydroxides, synthetic zeolites and gallium for sale in central and western Europe for refractories, ceramics and a wide range of aluminum containing chemical reactants. This is not, nowadays anyway, a plant for producing alumina for aluminum smelting.
As you can see in this link the holding ponds are only a short distance from the town of Kolontal, the town that suffered a 6-8ft wave of red mud sludge that surged through the streets and went on to cover an area of some 16 square miles. Although the firm asserts that 98% of the waste has remained in the ponds, it is estimated (a curiously precise) 35.3 million cubic feet have contaminated a wide area. One source puts the volume as equivalent to 440 Olympic sized swimming pools.
