Word: songhua
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...spill had occurred on Nov. 13 when an explosion at a state-owned chemical factory in the province of Jilin released huge amounts of benzene into the Songhua river. But for the next nine days the government balked at telling citizens of Harbin, in the neighboring province of Heilongjiang, about the approaching pollutants, despite the fact that the river is the source of drinking water for the center of the city. The crucial decision to keep the spill secret was explained to provincial officials by Heilongjiang governor Zhang Zuoji at an internal meeting in Harbin's Peace Village Hotel...
...said. "On the other hand, investment in Heilongjiang province is at a critical moment. The travel season is nearly upon us, especially the ice festival." Harbin's annual ice festival draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to view massive sculptures carved from blocks of ice taken from the Songhua...
...Finally, we needed to consider who will speak to the outside," he said, apparently in reference to notifying downstream cities in Russia. The Songhua flows into Russia's Amur river before emptying into the Sea of Okhotsk. "We asked the State Council, who will inform them? And how? This is not the kind of thing a province can decide...
...earthquake or a bird flu outbreak. At 2 a.m. on Nov. 22-presumably with Beijing's permission-Harbin put out a second statement alerting the population to the water stoppage. This time, the statement acknowledged that the chemical-plant explosion had "perhaps polluted the water" in the Songhua. This announcement seemed to calm residents, as did efficient logistics that ensured access to plenty of clean drinking water trucked in from neighboring cities...
...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...