You're reading: The Moscow Times: Red chemical dust settles in Ukraine

Waste from a chemical refinery has turned part of a city in southern Ukraine into a Martian landscape. Dust, kicked up by strong winds over a frozen sludge reservoir at United Company RusAl's plant in Nikolayev, has covered an area of about five square kilometers including two villages, a local resident told The Moscow Times. The plant refines alumina — a compound made from bauxite used in aluminum production. "It started about four days ago," Yury Derzhavin, a Nikolayev resident, told The Moscow Times by telephone. RusAl has admitted that its plant is the source of the dust. "Dust that appeared as a result of freezing was raised by the wind. The situation has now normalized," the company said in an e-mailed statement. At least nine people were killed after a red sludge spillage at a Hungarian aluminum refinery last October. RusAl insisted its byproducts have "no harmful effects on the air or soil." Read more.