Warnings and Lessons from the Songhua River Toxic Spill Crisis

WARNINGS AND LESSONS FROM THE SONGHUA RIVER TOXIC SPILL CRISIS

Qie Jianrong

Introduction

On November 13, 2005 an explosion rocked PetroChina Jilin Petro- chemical Company’s aniline workshop, precipitating one of the most serious toxic spills in China since the Revolution. This crisis not only imposed a threat to safe drinking water for residents along the river, it caused huge property losses, and also produced serious and widespread environmental and social impacts. Fallout of these events led a min- ister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) to resign, making him the highest-ranking environmental ofﬁ cial to do so as a result of this kind of crisis. His resignation gives some indication of the breadth of long-standing problems in China’s environmental management system. Since this incident, faulty management has given rise to other mishandled pollution crises in China. Each has endangered public health and safety to varying degrees. Such frequent environmental mishaps have sounded the alarm that China faces a severe challenge in achieving sustainable development while protecting the environment.

A Complete Review of the Toxic Spill Crisis

The Accident: The Explosion on November 13 in PetroChina Jilin Petrochemical Company’s Plant At 1:45 p.m. on November 13, a ﬁ re and explosion spread through the benzene processing section of a chemical plant operated by PetroChina Jilin Petrochemical Company (referred to as “Jilin Plant” below). Soon thereafter, witnesses reported that a vast mushroom cloud and chemical fog enshrouded the whole of Jilin City. Reports soon established that the explosion killed ﬁ ve people, with one person missing. 20 qie jianrong

Jilin Petrochemical provided an explanation of the explosion’s cause in a press release issued that evening: a mishandled blockage in a chemical processing tower with the designation P102 produced a ﬁ re in that unit, which in turn triggered an explosion in the nitrifying unit used for aniline processing. On November 15, a report in the Chinese Environmental Newspaper entitled “The Explosion in a Double Benzene Plant of Jilin Petro- chemical: Emergency Pollution Monitoring Launched” written by Xinhua, disclosed the possibility that air pollution could result from the explosion: Ofﬁ cials with the Environmental Supervision Branch of the Jilin Envi- ronmental Protection Bureau claim that benzene and phenol were found in the air above the explosion spot. Fortunately these chemicals disperse quickly. Residents can expect to return home and resume their normal lives after a short evacuation period.

The Key Question: Why Did a Safety Accident Become an Environmental Crisis? Why did a safety accident develop into an environmental crisis? Why did the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) eventually end up “paying the bill?” Various media told different and confl icting stories, thus a defi nitive answer cannot be identifi ed.

The Crisis Grows: The Water Stoppage in Harbin After November 23 For eight days, from November 13 to the 21, reports and news con- cerning the explosion gradually quieted. On November 23, however, residents of Harbin—a city downstream of Jilin and on the Songhua River, which draws its drinking water from the river—started to spread the rumor that the Songhua River had probably been contaminated as the result of the explosion. People began to stockpile water. Soon thereafter, rumors spread that an earthquake might strike Harbin, precipitating a run on supermarkets to buy ﬂ our, cooking oil, salt and, of course, water. On November 21, the Municipal Government of Harbin made an announcement that the water supply would be cut off for four days starting from 12:00 a.m., November 22, for the overall examination and maintenance of the city’s pipeline network. Later that day, the municipal government made another announcement conﬁ rming water