Environmental Controversy
In November 2005, the river was contaminated with benzene, leading to a shutdown of Harbin's water supply and threats of a Russian lawsuit against China. The spill stretched 80 kilometers and eventually reached the Amur River in Russia.
On July 28, 2010, several thousand barrels were washed away by floods from two chemical plants in China's Jilin province. Barrels contained some toxic chemicals like Trimethylsilyl chloride and Hexamethyldisiloxane, about 170 kg of a poisonous substance in each. There were reports that some barrels exploded on contact with water.
Read more about this topic: Songhua River
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)