MONSTER BENZENE SPILL STILL
POISONS CHINESE RIVER
NOVEMBER 2005 SPILL
On the 13th of November 2005, a chemical plant in Jilin City, China blew up killing eight people. It was not until 10 days later that authorities admitted to the presence of highly toxic levels of benzene in the water supply of Harbin, a city of about 4 million. The spill then proceeded down the Songhua river to its confluence with the Amir river, which drains into Khabzarovsk or something like that in Russia. Eventually, this even pissed off the Russians, not the gold standard in environmental stewardship.
The chemical spill took place in the Heilong-Amur ecoregion, a high priority conservation region for World Wildlife Fund. The area covered with temperate forests and is a critical habitat for tigers, leopards, bears and musk deer. Ooops.
Originally, Jilin Petrochemical officials had said the explosion produced only carbon dioxide and water, which would not cause pollution of the Songhua River. The true facts were on was kept secret for days and was made public only when water supplies to the city of Harbin were cut off, leaving 3.8 million residents in Heilongjiang province with no access to clean water. A wave of protest hit company bosses and the authorities for hiding the information and led to the resignation of Xie Zhenhua, then chief of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).
Jilin’s deputy mayor, Wang Wei, was found dead at his home on December 6, 2005, the day after he was dismissed from his functions.
CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTION:
Do you see any similiarity among public officials and corporate managers around this crazy great big world? We're all just people after all...not so different.
Fish after a long night drinking benzene and nitrobenzene. Know when to say when people.
Benzene is a carcinogenic chemical and even small doses in a river system can present health risks. Drinking liquids containing high levels of benzene can cause vomiting, irritation of the stomach, dizziness, sleepiness, convulsions, rapid heart rate, coma and death.
July 2008 Update:
Well, there have been some more problems along the Songhua River. In 2006, A crisis arose last August when two trucks from Changbaishan Jingxi Chemical Company carrying ten tons of toxic chemicals dumped their loads into the Mangniu, a principal tributary of the Songhua. Meanwhile, second wave of pollution reached Russia. The presence of some toxins exceeded allowable limits by a factor of thirty. A water ban was put in place once again in Khabarovsk for drinking and cooking.
In January 2007, Jilin Petrochemical, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp, was ordered to pay one million yuan (US$ 128,000) for polluting the Songhua River in 2005. That amount is the maximum possible fine but has never been imposed before on corporate polluters. The court rejected a petition for damages. Now individuals and public agencies are likely to sue the company for damages.
Prof Wang Jin from Peking University filed a lawsuit one month after the incident, demanding compensation of 10 billion yuan (US$ 1.25 billion) from the company to restore the environment. The case was not accepted by the court, but sparked discussions over who should foot the bill for cleaning up the environment.
In a recent secret investigation of 82 polluting enterprises along the river, SEPA found over 80 percent flouting national standards in releasing pollutants. Beijing has now adopted a plan that includes spending 13.4 billion yuan (US$ 1.7 billion) to clean up the Songhua River and put in place pollution controls by 2010.
However, in May 2008, Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said that from here on the banks of the Songhua would be cleared of all industrial projects discharging non-biodegradable pollutants. In a recent secret investigation of 82 polluting enterprises along the river, SEPA found over 80 percent flouting national pollutant standards in releasing pollutants.
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