Environmental authorities have launched proceedings against Chinese-owned battery manufacturer CATL after the company allegedly discharged “green-colored liquid waste” into the sewage system in violation of regulations, according to the Hajdú-Bihar County Government Office.
Responding to an inquiry from the Hungarian News Agency (MTI), the government office said that following the incident at CATL’s Debrecen facility on the evening of May 5, the water management authority immediately revoked its approval for the plant’s industrial wastewater pre-treatment system and ordered the company to clean both the municipal sewage network and the stormwater drainage system.
The authority noted that CATL eliminated the pollution within the prescribed deadline. However, due to the violations, both the water management and environmental authorities will impose fines in accordance with the law.
Earlier, Zsolt Tárkányi, a Member of Parliament for the Tisza Party in Debrecen, reported that chemical substances, including the reproductive toxin NMP solvent, had been detected in the green liquid that surfaced from the ground near CATL’s battery factory in early May.
In response, the government office stated that authorities immediately began investigating the circumstances of the May 5 incident. That same evening, accredited wastewater and surface water samples were collected from several locations and sent to an accredited laboratory for analysis.
“Measurements carried out so far have not detected pollution harmful to human health, but the necessary inspections have been repeated, and the public will be informed of the results,” the office said.
Officials also stressed that sampling results published on various online platforms can only be considered reliable if both the laboratory analysis and the sampling process itself were conducted under accredited procedures.
They added that relying on non-accredited sampling results can be misleading, and therefore authorities base their conclusions exclusively on fully accredited testing from start to finish.
The government office further pointed out that incorrect conclusions may arise if measurement units listed in laboratory reports are converted in a manner inconsistent with the legal threshold values.
The office emphasized that, in order to determine whether any contamination occurred, Rural and Regional Development Minister Viktória Lőrincz ordered an extraordinary investigation into the case.
Green liquid incident near Debrecen CATL plant raises concerns, no official update yet
