Word: slicked
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Within hours, a toxic slick that grew to 80 km long had started to float down the Songhua. Jilin officials opened a reservoir to dilute the contaminants and instructed factories to avoid using river water. They also notified the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) in Beijing, which coordinated the response. SEPA has issued conflicting statements about its subsequent actions. In a Nov. 24 statement it said that it "quickly" sent an expert team to Jilin and neighboring Heilongjiang province, which lies downstream. But in the same statement, SEPA said that Jilin officials didn't notify their counterparts in Heilongjiang until...
...Downriver from the plant by 350 km lies China's eighth-largest city, Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang. Most of the surrounding province draws its drinking water from wells; in contrast, Harbin's downtown population of 3.5 million gets 90% of its water directly from the Songhua. As the slick approached, Harbin's officials announced on Nov. 21 that they would shut off the city's water for reasons of pipe maintenance. "There was no way the people were going believe that," says Xu Shijian, a 77-year-old retired Communist Party official. Like most residents, Xu stocked...
...week after the explosion to notify Russia about the toxins. The two countries are now conferring, but Russian politicians have complained. Viktor Shudegov, Chairman of the ecology, education and science committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, has suggested that Russia sue China. SEPA says the slick will reach Russia around...
...even if the main body of the slick disperses into the sea, the danger may not be over. Experts such as Chan King-ming, an associate professor of biochemistry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, say the chemicals may seep into the banks of the Songhua and even into the area's groundwater, which could contaminate wells. And the river has started to freeze: the chemicals could be trapped in the ice until spring. "They'll need a long-term monitoring program, from this November until next summer," says Chan...
...just three nights after the premiere of the slick, vivacious new Broadway musical Jersey Boys: The Story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, but already the audience at the August Wilson Theatre on West 52nd Street dresses like the crowds you'd see in the fifth year of Mamma Mia! Tight-fitting tops, carefully pomaded hair, ostentatious gold neckwear ... and the women look pretty gaudy...