Greenpeace reveals heavy metal pollution near Hortobágy national park

Greenpeace Hungary said on Tuesday it had detected heavy metal contamination outside the compound of a waste disposal facility near the Hortobágy National Park in eastern Hungary.

Greenpeace commissioned a local company, Isotoptech, to carry out tests outside the facility in a canal that flows into the Hortobágy river, the organisation told MTI.

Samples taken on Feb. 17 revealed zinc and chrome pollutants contained in galvanic mud in amounts exceeding permitted levels, Greenpeace said in a statement.

Greenpeace said it was unacceptable that the poisonous waste-disposal storage plant at Balmazújváros-Lászlóháza has not been scrapped. Consequently hazardous substances have appeared in canals adjoining the Hortobagy river.

It has called on the farm minister to initiate immediate measures to prevent further contamination and the facility’s elimination.

In January last year, Marcel Szabó, the ombudsman for future generations, carried out an on-site inspection, revealing ten thousand barrels, or two-thousand tonnes, of cyanide and chloride derivatives and galvanic mud stored improperly.