Blue Barrels and Panic on the Songhua, Again

(Jilin) - Horrible memories of a Songhua River pollution incident five years ago came flooding back in Jilin and Harbin after thousands of blue chemical barrels were found bobbing through on the surface of the Songhua River.
The shocking scene July 28 was accompanied by a pungent odor in Jilin, public water cutoffs and panic buying of bottled water in riverside communities as far as Harbin, hundreds of kilometers downriver.