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At 12.55 pm, 4th

October 2010, a mining waste reservoir containing caustic slurry of burst in Ajka,

Hungary. This catastrophic disaster released approximately 1 million cubic meters of split mud and

alkaline slurry, which covered about 1000 acres of land. About 10 people were found dead and

almost 150 were injured in this calamity. The purpose of this report is to give an overview about the

casual relationship of this disastrous event. Next, an ethical issue of this case would be discussed in

detailed. A summary would be given at the end to conclude about all the findings mentioned.

A series of activity led to the occurrence of split red mud. It was suspected there was a sink of the

dam at a rate of 1 cm/year resulting from the slurry walling. According to ______, this created

maximum shear stress and caused shear failure in the dike. Consequently, separation of dike

happened and collapse of the dam eventually took place. Toxic sludge, with high value of pH,

containing heavy metals such as chromium, mercury, lead and nickel was released and flooded the

areas in the vicinity of Ajka as well as polluted the lands and rivers nearby. People were found dead

and some experienced minor or severe injury due to the highly corrosive alkaline slurry. Eventually,

this gained the attention from different parties about the toxicity of the split mud. Immediate

actions had been taken on checking the toxicity of the red mud as well as searching for missing

people. Remediation likes pouring acids into river to neutralize the alkaline spill was implemented to

minimize the impact of the disaster.

Although there are many causes of the toxic sludge disaster which relate to technical, regulatory and

organizational factor, it is believed that the breaking of dam was the immediate and root cause that

led to great danger and loss in this incident. Ethical implications about safety of the people and

environment due to the risk of failure structure of reservoir arise.

It was found that both permission-requesting documentation by Mal Co. Ltd and permission-

granting permit by Inspectorate did not consider dam break as a risk factor. According to World

Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) Model Code of Ethics, engineers from both parties

violate the rules of to hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and the

protection of both the natural and the built environment in accordance with the Principles of

Sustainable Development. Mal. Co. Ltd did not take into account the probability of rupture of dam

while Inspectorate did not seek professional opinion from expert concerning the stability of the dam.

It is also shown that rule was breached as no immediate actions were taken for the significant

displacement of dam. Study has been done by a research group, led by Dr. Gyula Grenerczy (Satellite

Geodetic Observatory of the Institute of Geodesy) on the motion history of the broken reservoir

with the technique called Persistent Scatterer Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (PSI). The

results showed that dam moved with rate about 1 cm/year and revealed that the rate of motion and

displacement were obvious to be detected with on-site geodetic measurements several years ago.

This shows that the company neglected the responsibility of creating a safe environment which has

violated the

Although there are many causes of the toxic sludge disaster, which relate to technical, regulatory

and organizational factor, it is believed that the failure of classification of red mud was the root

cause that led to great danger and loss in this incident. It was also one of ethical issue arose in this

tragic accident. According to World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) Model Code of

Ethics, classification of red mud as non-hazardous material has violated the rule of analyzing

exhaustively the surrounding area that will be affected, evaluating all the possible repercussions that

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might arise in the system as well as choosing the best environmental-friendly and sustainably option.

Initially, hazardous activities were regulated by Government decree 98/2001, which in effected from

01.01.2002.a more stringent law was established to deposit hazardous waste. Then, Directive

2008/98/EC was being used since 12.12.2010, which to replace Directive 91/689/EEC that consist of

partial compatible specifications of Government decree. All Member States are obliged to abide by

EU directive, but exception happened in Hungarian Law. After a change in law on 4 December 2003,

the obligation on classification of the waste was transferred to its owner. This indicates that the

Inspectorate would be only acknowledged the qualification of the owner and the permission-

granting order of the Inspectorate is largely based on the integrated environmental permission

requesting documentation submitted the operating company at Ajka. It is believed that the

operating company, MAL Co. Ltd has omitted and abused the autonomy. Even though regulations

changed and red mud could be categorized as non-hazardous based on the technology used, MAL Co.

Ltd. failed in keeping the registry documentation on the waste concerned up to date and reporting

on any changes of the chemical constituents of red mud as well as its treatment method.

Furthermore, this relates to the reliability of the inspection by the inspectorate. Individual tests wereperformed and showed that the pH value of red mud exceeded 11.5, which caused the red mud

should have been categorized hazardous by the time of issuing permit. Significant conflict between

the separated tested data and documents submitted should be taken seriously before granting the

permit.

Due to the ambiguous classification of red mud, local residents and participants in the rescue

operations were not well informed on the composition of red mud as well as the risks brought by its

hazardous property. This caused them to a huge exposure of dangerous red mud and eventually led

to the dead and injury.