BUDAPEST (Dow Jones)--The toxic mud that burst out from a Hungarian aluminum plant Monday contains more dangerous elements than the government had said earlier, environmental organization Greenpeace said Friday.

"We have received research results, which indicate that the substance is more toxic than officials have said," Zsolt Szegfalvi, head of Greenpeace Hungary told a press conference.

According to research by two independent laboratories, the level of arsenic in the mud dissolved in water is 25 times higher than the officially permitted level in drinking water, and mercury and chrome levels are also significant, Szegfalvi said.

Meanwhile, the government said this morning that most recent measurements of the alkalinity of the water show the water quality has been improving.

Fish deaths on the affected river stretches, which have been a phenomenon of contamination, have stopped, Hungarian state news agency MTI said.

Alkalinity of the water at the point when the Raba River meets the Marcal River is 8.5 pH and about 8 on the Danube, "which can be termed as very good, considering the circumstances," MTI quoted Tibor Dobson, the regional disaster issues spokesman as saying.

A pH of 7 is neutral and values higher than 7 are alkaline while those below are acidic. Earlier levels seen as a result of the contamination in the Marcal River, where all living organisms have been destroyed according to some reports, were between 10 and 13 pH.

- bill 10-09-2010 2:47 pm





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