Reuters 28 Jul 10;
(Reuters) - Flooding in northeastern China has washed more than 1,000 barrels containing explosive chemicals into a major river, state media said on Wednesday, as the death toll from flooding nationally this year neared 1,000.
The incident happened along the flood-swollen Songhua River in Jilin city in Jilin province in the late morning, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Residents contacted by telephone said water supplies had been cut off for a time in parts of the city, but were starting to return to normal.
The containers, from a chemical plant, held more than 160,000 kg (352,700 lb) of explosive chemical fluids, Xinhua said, citing local officials.
"Emergency workers have been trying to recover the containers and local environmental protection authorities were closely monitoring the water quality of the river," the report said.
China periodically faces spills into rivers that result in water supplies being cut off, most seriously in 2005 when an explosion at an industrial plant sent toxic chemicals streaming into the Songhua River further upstream, in Harbin.
The incident forced the shut-down of water supplies to nearly 4 million people.
Rains so far this year across large swathes of central and southern China have killed 928 people and left 477 missing, causing around 176.5 billion yuan ($26.04 billion) in damage, Xinhua said.
A total of 875,000 homes have collapsed, 9.61 million people have been evacuated and 8.76 million hectares of crops ruined, it added.
Northeastern China has also been lashed by torrential rains over the past few days. ($1=6.778 Yuan)
Over 1,000 chemical barrels washed into China river: report
Yahoo News 28 Jul 10;
BEIJING (AFP) – More than a thousand barrels of explosive chemicals were washed into a major waterway in northeastern China on Wednesday, state media said, in the country's latest environmental accident.
The incident occurred around 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) in Jilin province after floodwaters swept the barrels into the Songhua river, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the local government.
The barrels were from a local factory near Jilin city and contained more than 160 tonnes of methyl chloride, a highly explosive colourless gas, the report said.
Emergency workers were trying to recover the barrels and local environmental protection authorities were monitoring the water quality of the river, it added.
Jilin is the latest province to have been hit by recent deadly floods that have killed 333 people since July 14 and left another 300 missing, according to the latest official figures.
China races to recover chemical barrels from river
Yahoo News 30 Jul 10;
BEIJING (AFP) – Workers on Friday struggled to recover 3,000 barrels filled with hazardous chemicals that were swept into a river in northeast China by floods, amid fears some had sunk, state media said.
Soldiers and emergency personnel fanned out at several points along the Songhua river in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces to recover the barrels, which came from two factories damaged by floodwaters, Xinhua news agency reported.
A total of 7,000 barrels were known to be missing from the plants near the city of Jilin -- 3,000 of them filled with trimethyl chloro silicane or hexamethyl disilazane, both colourless, toxic liquids.
So far, workers using cranes and steel nets have recovered about 3,000 barrels, but it was not immediately clear how many of them contained the chemicals, Xinhua said.
While tests have so far shown no signs of water contamination, workers tracking the barrels have apparently lost sight of some of them -- fuelling fears they have sunk to the riverbed, making their retrieval more difficult.
On Friday, the local government encouraged the public to join the salvage efforts, offering a reward of 100 yuan (15 dollars) for each full barrel retrieved, and 50 yuan for each empty container, Xinhua reported.
The Songhua is the major source of drinking water for about 4.3 million people. Prices of bottled water soared Wednesday as worried consumers cleared shop shelves, but then returned to normal, the China Daily said.
Water supplies in Jilin city were restored on Thursday after being cut off the day before.
Jilin is the latest province to be hit by deadly floods that have killed more than 300 people since July 14 and left another 300 missing, according to official figures.
In 2005, millions of people in Heilongjiang province were left without water for four days after an explosion at a benzene factory spilled the carcinogenic chemical into the Songhua.
