Word: songhua
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...Officials seemed ill-prepared for the event even though the chemical-plant explosion had occurred more than a week earlier, on Nov. 13, some 200 miles upstream on the Songhua River. On Monday, a statement from the Harbin government attributed the surprise cutoff to "water main maintenance and repair." One day later, on Tuesday, a second statement issued on the city's official Web site acknowledged that the explosion had "perhaps polluted the water" in the river...
...statement did not address the possibility that residents had been exposed to contaminated water during the previous week, or that residents in other cities along the Songhua might face danger...
...explosion upstream had occurred at the Jilin Petrochemical Company, which is owned by the state-run China National Petroleum Corporation. It has not been revealed what contaminants might have entered the Songhua River. According to Chinese media reports, the plant produced aniline, which is used to make dye, fungicide and shoe polish. The Illinois-based National Safety Council considers it an "extremely hazardous substance." In small doses it causes lethargy, while larger doses can cause coma...
...floods continue in China, both on the Songhua in the north and the Yangtze in the country's middle. China's Xinhua news agency expects more rain and rising water levels on the Songhua at least through tomorrow...