Hazardous waste removed from Illatos Road depot

Budapest, January 5 (MTI) – The hazardous waste that had been left at a depot on Illatos Road in Budapest’s 9th district has now been completely removed from the site, daily Magyar Nemzet reported on Tuesday citing a Facebook post by opposition Egyutt district councillor Krisztina Baranyi.

Although the removal of the waste has yet to be confirmed by officials, the paper cited Baranyi as saying that a total of 2,283 tonnes of chemical waste had been removed from the site as of December 18.

Baranyi said two official toxic waste reservoirs were still being cleaned out and she expressed hope that environmental health and safety personnel would soon begin decontaminating the local soil and groundwater.

The pollution was first discovered last April and most of the hazardous waste was removed from the site by the end of May. The agriculture ministry said then that the pollution could have been caused by improper chemical usage or fodder illegally obtained by the former state chemical works privatised in 1993. The company which owned the site has been under liquidation since 2007. Its main products included sulphuric acid, pesticides, artificial fertilizers and chlorides among others.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters