BUDAPEST — The managing director of the company whose reservoir unleashed a lethal torrent of red sludge on three villages last week has been arrested, the Hungarian prime minister announced before Parliament on Monday.
He will be charged with criminal negligence leading to a public catastrophe, and if convicted could face a sentence of up to 10 years, according to a government spokeswoman.
The arrested man, Zoltan Bakonyi, works for MAL Zrt, the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company. He was not available for comment and a spokeswoman for Mal Zrt did not return phone calls.
A week ago, nearly 200 million gallons of toxic red mud — a byproduct of the conversion of bauxite to alumina, for aluminum — poured out of a reservoir after part of its containing wall collapsed, killing eight people and injuring hundreds more. Hundreds of people have been forced from their homes, and tens of millions of dollars in private property have been destroyed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/world/europe/12hungary.html?ref=global-home+++++++++++++++++++
Tennessee sludge spill runs over homes, water
A wall holding back 80 acres of sludge from a coal plant in central Tennessee broke this week, spilling more than 500 million gallons of waste into the surrounding area.
The sludge, a byproduct of ash from coal combustion, was contained at a retention site at the Tennessee Valley Authority's power plant in Kingston, about 40 miles east of Knoxville, agency officials said.
The retention wall breached early Monday, sending the sludge downhill and damaging 15 homes. All the residents were evacuated, and three homes were deemed uninhabitable, a TVA spokesman told CNN.
http://articles.cnn.com/2008-12-23/us/tennessee.sludge.spill_1_kingston-fossil-plant-sludge-coal-plant?_s=PM:US
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