Abandoned and contaminated land - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 83

Figure 3.5 Life goes on at the contaminated sites: ecosystem adapted to toxic metal contamination in
the vicinity of a mine waste dump near Gyöngyösoroszi, Northern Hungary.
It became obvious from the retrospective survey that people of the village had no
knowledge and were not informed about the adverse effects of toxic metals, metal-
contaminated soils and mine wastes. Children were playing in the “sand'' of flotation
tailings, bathing in the creek and ponds full of highly contaminated sediment, house-
holders fished for catfish all day, Romany families collected berries, mushrooms and
firewood on the tailings dumps, and village people grew vegetables and fruits on the
flooded and consequently highly contaminated soils. None of them knew anything
about the toxic effects of lead and other toxic metals, and even if they heard some-
thing about it, they just ignored it (Gruiz et al., 2000). Mine waste without any cover
is exposed to air, wind and precipitation. Leaching, runoff and erosion result in grow-
ing dispersion. Contaminant concentrations may decrease at the original source, but
a much larger area will be affected, including soil, groundwater, surface waters and
sediments. The ecosystem adapts to the contaminant, masking contamination. Pictures
in Figure 3.5, for example, were made in the vicinity of a mine waste dump (with a
content of As: 2-3000 mg/kg; Cd: 20 mg/kg; Pb: 2-3000 mg/kg; Zn: 1-4000 g/kg)
which emitted uncontrolled acidic and contaminated leachate. After the surface of the
waste heap was leached by rain water, plants and other organisms moved in.
Chemical industries contributed to extreme spillages all over the industrialized
world. Lack of knowledge led to extensive contamination and extremely expensive
remediation of a hazardous waste disposal site in the south of Hungary, owned by
one of the largest chemical companies, the Budapest Chemical Works Corporation
(Budapesti Vegyim uvek Rt). Between 1980 and 1987, the company disposed of 65,000
barrels containing unknown mixtures of different residues and wastes of chlorinated
aromatic hydrocarbons, and their mixtures that were covered by a soil layer. The
wet soil enhanced the corrosion of the buried iron drums and the hazardous mix-
ture infiltrated into the soil. At the beginning of the survey, the experts—trained on
the Soviet military facility cases, where petroleum hydrocarbons were the dominating