Seeing Red in Hungary

„Though officials have yet to figure out exactly how to contain and clean up the spill, a new protective dam around the villages is ready, and we are told that many people will be able to return home soon.

Still, the disaster has made it clear that Hungary must reassess its environmental heritage, its decades-long practice of storing toxic industrial waste around the country. The next step is to find out exactly what is being stored, where and in what conditions. And we must find out how best to dispose of or contain the material.

This reassessment will have to be a political debate, involving more than just scientists. It must be about why we once accepted such threats to people and the environment, which means it must be about our past — a topic that many people in power try hard to avoid.

My father-in-law told me that his fellow winemakers have begun cleaning the tire marks from the roads around Somlo. The pollution never reached the water supply, he said. The wind blows from the north, away from the mountain, and the winemakers believe the harvest can be saved. But that is the only thing they are sure of.”