HOUSTON — Images like those from Hungary of homes surrounded by red mud and cars floating through toxic sludge from a nearby metals plant would be unlikely in the U.S., where only two states have similar facilities, industry officials and regulators say.
Texas and Louisiana are the only states with alumina factories like the one that malfunctioned in Europe, and they store the waste from the mining in a “dry” form, so even if a levee broke, the sludge could not become a threatening river, officials said.
The levees that surround the storage beds also are designed to withstand winds from the most powerful hurricanes and are periodically checked by state and federal regulators, the officials said.
The sludge is a byproduct of refining bauxite into alumina, the basic material for making aluminum. Alumina plants are scattered around the world, with the 12 largest concentrated in Australia, Brazil and China. The United States produces about 1 million tons of alumina annually, making it 35th in the world for production. The Associated Press
