100 tons of chemicals flowed into river (after chemical plant explosion in China)

China Daily ^ | Nov. 25, 2005 | Sun Xiaohua in Beijing,Li Fangchao and He Na in Harbin (China Daily)

[FairOpinion]

About 100 tons of dangerous chemicals equivalent to 10 tanker-truck loads was spewed into the Songhua River, which supplies water to Harbin, the nation's environment watchdog disclosed yesterday.

Zhang Lijun, vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), told a press conference in Beijing that Jilin Petrochemical Corporation, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), "should be responsible" for the leak of benzene and its derivatives following an explosion at a chemical plant.

The plant, on the upper reaches of the river in Jilin Province, earlier denied any connection between the contaminated water and the explosion on November 13, which left a trail of dead fish.

But Jilin Vice-Governor Jiao Zhengzhong, also Party secretary of Jilin city, apologized to the 3.8 million residents of Harbin on Wednesday during a visit there. He brought 71 tons of mineral water with him. "We will work with the Heilongjiang provincial government to quickly investigate the incident," Jiao said.

CNPC also apologized to Heilongjiang people yesterday.

Water supply has been suspended in Harbin since Tuesday midnight and the city government is keeping a close watch on an 80-kilometre swathe of polluted water in the Songhua which flowed into the city early yesterday morning.

"We know where the toxic water is and how its density changes," said Li Weixiang, director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Environment Protection Bureau.

The slick, flowing at about 2 kilometres an hour, is expected to pass the city by Saturday morning.

The Harbin Water Purification Plant said it could restart water supply on Sunday, Xinhua reported.

Heilongjiang Governor Zhang Zuoji earlier vowed to "drink the first mouthful of water once the supply is resumed" to ease people's worry about water quality.

On the second day of the water-supply suspension, Harbin residents found it much easier to buy bottled water, which was readily available in shops and supermarkets.

"Now it is totally unnecessary to worry about buying water," said Teng Song, a postgraduate student of Harbin Institute of Technology.

The city has drilled 55 wells in three days, and more will be dug, the government said on its website.

But many people still chose to leave the city.

For the fourth day in a row, sales of air and rail tickets remained brisk as many were sending the elderly and the young to other places.

A saleswoman in Harbin North Ticket Centre, one of the largest in the city, told China Daily there was strong demand with tickets to Guangzhou and Shanghai sold out for yesterday.

Liu Yunlong, a businessman, said he would send his two sons to Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning Province. "I can't afford to let anything happen to my children," he said.

On the international front, China has informed Russia of the situation in the Songhua River which flows into the neighbouring country Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a press briefing in Beijing yesterday.

"China attaches great importance to the potential impact and harm caused by the pollution on Russia," he said, adding that Russia appreciated the information.

The Songhua is a tributary of the Heilong River (called Amur River in Russia).

[FairOpinion]

The explosion took place Nov. 13th, and the nearby town of Harbin has had its water cut off, to avoid being contaminated.

It's a major disaster, yet there has been very little news about it.

[systematic]

where is the outrage from the green tree huggers?

[Brilliant]

A ton or two is incompetence. I don't know how you can label 100 tons.

[Brilliant]

"China attaches great importance to the potential impact and harm caused by the pollution on Russia," he said, adding that Russia appreciated the information.

[HHKrepublican_2]

Sun Xiaohua in Beijing,Li Fangchao and He Na in Harbin(China News Daily

Chi hua desoongchange neeeehow domechungquitzung (Todays Headlines)

[FairOpinion]

There was a MAJOR explosion. I haven't read anywhere what caused it.

[gotribe]

This is Soviet-style environmental degradation all over again. Not that I'm an enviro-weenie, but the Communist economies inherently do not eliminate inefficiencies, which is what waste, i.e. pollutants, are. Hence these huge environmental "accidents."

[TexasTransplant]

Same place the UN outrage is, New York City, trying to figure out a way to blame it on the US and George Bush.

TT

[FairOpinion]

Russia mulls state of emergency after China blast poisons river

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051124/42196853.html

VLADIVOSTOK, November 24 (RIA Novosti, Veronika Perminova) - Authorities in the Russia's far-eastern Khabarovsk Territory are considering imposing a state of emergency as heavily polluted water from China heads toward the cities on the Amur River, a local official said Thursday. A regional commission said the state of emergency could be imposed November 25 in the wake of an explosion 11 days ago at a petrochemicals plant near one of the biggest cities in China, which says it officially notified Russia about the accident on November 22, left lethal chemicals spewing into the Songhua River, a tributary of the Khabarovsk Territory's Amur River.

The Russian commission has said that the river water might freeze before it reaches the region's administrative center of Khabarovsk, which is only 30 kilometers from the border with China and has a population of about 600,000, but the appropriate measures should be taken to address the potential danger.

The November 13 blast at a chemical plant belonging to the Jilin Petroleum and Chemical Company in northeastern China led to lethal benzene spewing into the Songhua River, the main source of fresh water for the nearby Chinese city of Harbin, which itself has a population of 9 million.

[Itzlzha]

OK, I was on another thread along the lines of this one, when I posted the following to what someone else wrote...here it is for those interested...

It appears the AP reporter didn't get it quite right, it's not really bezene that was spilled, but the componds made from it, specifically Benene products, and the Alkyl substituents -aklylbenzenes- such as toluene, xylene, mesitylene, phenol, aniline, chlorobenzene, nitrobenzene, picric acid, trinitrotoluene, benzoic acid, salicylic acid, acetylsalicylic acid, paracetamol, phenacetin.

OK... in a nutshell...

Alkylbenzenes are usually used as surfacants in detergents.

Toluene is used as a degreaser...xylene has a few different variations...

o-Xylene is used almost entirely as the feedstock for phthalic anhydride manufacture, and for the preparation of phthalonitrile which is converted to the copper phthalocyanine, a pigment.

m-Xylene is used for the manufacture of isophthalic acid and to a lesser extent, isophthalonitrile, which is the starting material of the fungicide tetrachloroisophthalonitrile.

p-Xylene, the most important commercial isomer, is primarily converted for use in fibers, films, or resins, including polyester fibers which are used for household fabrics, carpets, and clothing.

Chlorbenzenes are used in the manufacture of insecticides.

Nitrobenzenes are used to produce aromatic amines (e.g. phenylamine), azo-dyes and explosives like methyl-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TNT).

Picric acid has been used as a yellow dye, as an antiseptic, and in the synthesis of chloropicrin, or nitrotrichloromethane, CCl3NO2, a powerful insecticide. It also can be used for explosives.

Benzoic acid is used as an anti-microbial agent.

The salicylic acid and acetylsalicylic acid is basically Aspirin.

The main uses of paracetamol are for relief of pain and for reducing a fever. Phenacetin is another analgesic.

Does this pique anyone's curiousity as to just what this place was doing? Because for every good use, there are a TON of shady uses, and given the proclivities of China, I'm more apt to err on the side of them being scumbags.

[FairOpinion]

Found a picture of the explosion.

China chemical plant explodes
Nov 14, 2005
Explosions at a chemical plant in the northeastern city of Jilin injured more than 30 people on Sunday and forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 residents, Chinese media reported. State television showed billowing clouds of black smoke enveloping the city of 1.25 million. Two people were taken to hospital after breathing chemical fumes, while about 30 other workers were slightly injured. It took nearly 300 firefighters to bring the blaze under control, television said. The cause of the accident was under investigation.

[FairOpinion]

Thanks for the additional detail. In one place I read that it was a "medical factory" that exploded, most places call it a "chemical factory", manufacturing chemicals, which could indeed be for any purpose.

But this must have been a HUGE explosion, to have released such HUGE quantities of chemicals, in addition to the chemicals that burned, and probably filled the area with toxic fumes.


We should also note, that Al Qaeda has threatened China with attacks and President Bush just returned from there.

The explosion took place on Nov. 13th, a few days before President Bush's visit.

[MCCRon58]

where is the outrage from the green tree huggers?



Posting HTML

You need to ask? Why would the green criticize a system of government they wish for all of us to emulate?

[RightWhale]

There is a time limit on this one. If they can't get water to Harbin in two weeks, one way or the other, this will be 20x bigger than NO, and Harbin isn't just a couple hundred miles from Houston. China is already facing water shortages, so they don't have a lot of slack.

[manwiththehands]

"Chemcel plan will exploe! Lea in coolan towah! You! Plu lea with fingah. Stop lea or DIE!"

[CrazyIvan]

"The salicylic acid and acetylsalicylic acid is basically Aspirin."

Hmmmmm, an explosion at an aspirin factory. This sounds like the work of Bill Clinton.

[joesnuffy]

God charged man with being the faithfull responsible steward of HIS earth..

[Prime Choice]

Perhaps the Lefties should demand that their Chinese buddies should be subject to Kyoto, hmmm?

Nah...that would require them to be non-hypocritical.

[America's Resolve]

And they hid this disaster for 10 days. What monsters. Just like the RusComs about Chernobyl.

Unaccountability. The death of millions upon millions.

[GSlob]

Not monsters - just humans, and only too human. The instinct to cover one's rear end is universal - there are merely more opportunities for doing so under the communist system. Look at our own Bianco and Nagin...