Opinions are divided about the possible impact of the Hungarian toxic red sludge disaster on Bulgaria, with one Bulgarian senior environmental official saying that there was "no risk of pollution".
 
Assen Lichev, head of the Environment and Water Ministry’s water management directorate, said that there was no risk of pollution of the Bulgarian section of the Danube River, Bulgarian news agency BTA said.
 
Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) said that any contamination from the incident in Hungary, reported to have led to four deaths and more than 120 injuries, would reach Bulgaria’s part of the Danube by October 12 2010 at the earliest.
 
It was expected that the contamination would be highly diluted by the time in reached Bulgaria, because it would pass through the Iron Gate hydro power facility, BNR said, quoting the Enviroment Ministry.
 
Mayors of towns along the Danube and civil defence authorities in Bulgaria are on alert, the ministry said.
 
Bulgarian news website Focus quoted Daniel Popov of the Information Centre for Environmental Education as saying that there would be an impact from the Hungarian ecological disaster in Bulgaria.
 
Popov said that even the responsible authorities could not say what the impact on the river would be, Focus said.
 
International news agencies said that countries along the Danube were on alert.
 
The Hungarian government declared a state of emergency in three counties in the west of the country on October 5.
 
The BBC reported that Hungary had said that it would cost tens of millions of euro to clean up the damage and would take at least a year to do so.
 
Emergency workers were trying to stop the spill from flowing into major waterways, including the Danube.

In a media statement on October 6, enviromental organisation WWF said that it was "fearful" of the long term environmental impacts of the toxic mud disaster in Hungary.

The possibly slightly radioactive and highly corrosive material contains toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and chromium and has so far covered around 40 sq km, WWF said.
 
A third degree alert to be called on the Marcal River, where, according to experts practically the total amount of fish stock of the upper river has already been destroyed, the media statement said. The toll of domestic animals suggests that wildlife would be similarly affected, according to WWF.
 
The mud has a pH level of up to 13 andacids are being poured into the Marcal to neutralise the alkaline stream before it reaches the Raba and the Danube. 

Red mud was on October 6 still flooding from the reserves covering Kolontár, Devecser and Somlóvásárhely. About 500 to 600 tons of cluster have been transported to the river to collect the slightly radioactive material.
 
"This is an unprecedented incident that effects deeply the ecosystem, wetlands and surface water bodies of the region as well as pointing out the fragility of our drinking water reserves," Gabor Figeczky, the Deputy CO of WWF-Hungary, said.
 
According to Zoltan Illes, Hungary’s state secretary of environmental protection, the country only in the beginning of eliminating the damage. First they have to collect the toxic mud, then neutralise it to reduce the harm before it reaches the Danube – predicted to be in about five days from now, according to WWF.
 
For Danube communities, the spill has reignited memories of the the Baia Mare cyanide spill in Romania In January 2000, a retaining wall failed at the Aurul gold processing plant, releasing a wave of cyanide and heavy metals that would moved quickly from one river to the next through Romania, Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria, killing fish and other wildlife and poisoning drinking water, WWF said.
 
"I hope that the Kolontar incident will not have the same degree of far reaching consequences as the Baia Mare spill," Andreas Beckmann, Director, WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme, said.

"From the information I can gather, the escaped sludge would not normally be a direct threat to the Danube River, but unfortunately we are in the midst of the rainy season and it has rained especially hard in Hungary. This means that the sludge will spread faster and further and it is likely inevitable that some sludge will escape into the Danube.
 
"It’s hard for us to know how this will affect the environment. Heavy metals are known for their longevity, they don’t disappear overnight.
 
"This is a good occasion to remind ourselves that such depots – some currently in use, some abandoned – are common place in the Danube region. Some contain heavy metals, some radioactive elements. None of these are safe and the current incident has shown us this."
 
Hungary has two other such refineries with an estimated 50 million cubic metres of similarly toxic red mud in highly sensitive areas close to rivers (like the one in Almasfuzito on the bank of the Danube), and karst water reservoires threatening wildlife, wetlands and safe drinking water, according to WWF.

 

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