[ Jilin City, China: Floods Wash Explosive Chemicals into River ]
Northeast China’s Yongji County was hit by a severe 12-hour rainstorm on the evening of July 27. The following morning it was reported that two chemical plant warehouses had collapsed causing 7,000 barrels of chemicals to be catapulted into the Songhua River (also known as Sungari River.) Flooding was reported to be at the highest levels of Wende River in the last century.The two chemical plants affected were Jinlin Xinyaqiang Biochem Co. and Jilin Zhongxin Chemical Co. Wang Mingchen, deputy secretary of Jilin City government delayed the announcement till July 29, two days later. Among 3,000 barrels that retained chemicals, 2,500 of them contained the highly toxic chemical chlorotrimethylsilane-known to burn the skin and irritate the lungs.
According to China News, Jilin authorities have retrieved 1,500 barrels from the Songhua River.
The chemicals pose a threat to the 2.58 million population of the northeastern city of Jilin, where the Wende River and the Songhua River merge.
Eyewitnesses said, the chlorotrimethylsilane that leaked from the errant blue iron barrels reacted with the water from the Songhua River, generating heat and thick noxious smoke. The same eyewitnesses said people could smell the odor 100 meters away from the riverbank.
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