What was done for the people?
- The long term effects of this event are still somewhat unknown.
- Many say that fishing in the river will be banned for several years.
- Also, the benzene contamination could gather in the rivers organisms, and get trapped in the rivers rocks and ice.
The Songhua River before and after the explosion:
- At first, Jilin Petrochemicals denied the fact that the Songhua River had been polluted by the spill.
- The local officials also claimed that because there was a fire, it had burned all the chemicals and it only produced carbon dioxide.
- The Jilin city water plant had to be closed.
- In an attempt to dilute chemicals in the water, Jilin hydroelectric plants that were upstream had started releasing extra water.
- Two days later, Jilin had stopped using the water that came from the Songhua River.
- By November 18 (5 days after), all water supplies in Jilin were partially suspended.
- It took 10 days for the water supplies to be restored.
- Harbin, one of the largest cities that depends on the water from the Songhua River for its water supply, had its local water supplies shut off for four days .
- This led to the panic of many and the purchasing of large amounts of water.
- Truck loads of water was brought from nearby cities because of the water crisis.
- The Chinese military drilled 95 feet deep water wells to bring fresh water to the people.
- The vice governor and the company that runs the plant apologized to residents for the incident that occurred.
- The environmental impact of this event caused water pollution, air pollution, oil spills, fires, soil contamination, and potential wildlife loss.
- The chemicals in the Songhua River created a 50 mile toxic slip that ran through Jilin City, other small cities, and then to the Amur River, between the China and Russia border, until it then went into the Pacific Ocean.
- However, by the time the chemicals reached other areas their levels of infected water were very low.
- The toxin issue was initially denied and ignored by the government after the spill, allowing people to use and drink from this water.
The cause
About the explosion
- What happened was a blockage was found in the plant processing tower.
- When the blockage was found, one of the workers scrambled to fix it.
- Though this plan ultimately failed, and an explosion occurred.
- The processing tower had a clear cancer-causing liquid in it called benzene.
- Exposure to high levels of benzene can cause vomiting, dizziness, rapid heart beat, sleepiness, coma, and even death.
Affects afterwards
- As a result of the Jilin Chemical Plant explosion five people were killed and dozens were injured.
- Media failed to report on the smaller villages that were affected by the chemical explosion, this caused panic throughout neighboring villages in fear of being affected.
- The lack of communication from the government about the situation and the conflicting news reports only kept fear high. (One report may say everything is fine while the other report will say don’t drink the water.)
- Water prices skyrocketed due to companies gouging the price of water bottles, soda, juice, and other drinks in order to make a profit.
- Many people were angered by their government for the lack of awareness of the situation and the cover ups being made to ignore the event.
People affected during the explosion
- Residents of Jilin City did evacuate the city, not because they were warned by the local government, but because they discovered what the actual situation was themselves.
- The blasts shattered windows from buildings 100 to 200 meters away from the plant. It took nearly 300 fire-fighters to bring the blaze under control.
- After the explosion occurred a large amount of yellow colored smoke filled the city, the smoke made it extremely difficult for the residents to breathe.
- The police blocked off the streets for emergency vehicles making it difficult for citizens to make there way through the city.
- More then 30,000 residents of the city evacuated the city.
- Because residents were unable to use vehicles a significant amount of the old people and the sick were left behind.
- Eventually 10,000 residents had to be evacuated by the Chinese Government.
- During the time of the explosion all maintenance such as electricity, water, heat, and all telecommunications (except for radio) were shut off.
- A few hours after everyone has evacuated, a radio broadcast by the Chinese government was aired saying that the city was safe. Despite the fact the sky above the city was still clearly covered in the yellow smoke.
- On November 13th, 2005 there was an explosion at a petrochemical plant in Jilin, a northeastern province in China.
- This explosion released 100 tons of toxins into the Songhua River.
- The damage was devastating and horrendous.
- But what caused such a disaster event in the first place?
- http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-11/15/content_494601.htm
- http://chemicalexplosionjilin.blogspot.com/
- http://www.newschinamag.com/magazine/explosions-corruption-and-floods-how-chinas-chemical-plants-became-a-nation
- https://ejatlas.org/conflict/the-jilin-chemical-plant-explosions-songhua-river-pollution-incident
- https://disasteropedia.wikispaces.com/2005+Jilin+chemical+plant+explosions
Jilin Chemical Plant Explosion