Sludge Spill: Getting Better All The Time.

It's 4:23 in the morning in Hungary, and as I stay awake listening to the Sabres season opener and tracking Phish's setlist from the Austin City Limits Festival... I just wanted to comfort all of my concerned friends and family, that the ecological catastrophe of the red sludge scenario is improving greatly!

I am very thankful for all of your concerns, and relieved to hear that we are working our way out of this incredibly-unfortunate disaster. As a resident of Somogy County, I was not directly affected by the spill, but there is a significant emotional strain that the people of Hungary are enduring and I can only hope that it will ease soon...

Apparently, the concentration of toxic metals entering the Danube has dropped to the level allowed in drinking water, appeasing fears that Europe's second longest river would be significantly polluted.

From Yahoo News: Monday's reservoir break at an alumina plant dumped up to 700,000 cubic meters (184 million gallons) of sludge onto three villages, government officials said, not much less in a few hours than the 200 million gallons the blown-out BP oil well gushed into the Gulf of Mexico over several months. The red sludge devastated creeks and rivers near the spill site and entered the Danube on Thursday, moving downstream toward Croatia, Serbia and Romania. Monitors were taking samples every few hours Friday to measure damage from the spill but the sheer volume of water in the mighty Danube appeared to be blunting the red sludge's immediate impact.

Test results released by Hungary's disaster agency show the pH level of the water where the slurry entered the Danube was under 9 — well below the 13.5 measured earlier in local waterways near the site of the catastrophe. That is diluted enough to prevent any biological damage, Interior Minister Sandor Pinter said. Despite the apparent good news, the risk of pervasive and lasting environmental damage remained at the site of the spill, with Greenpeace presenting laboratory tests that it said showed high concentrations of heavy metals in the sludge.