China has experience with spilling toxics into rivers: it’s done it just recently in the Songhua, the Xiangjiang, the Yellow, and the Yangtze.
And China really loves dams; oh, does it heart dams.
So I guess this shouldn’t be surprising:
Chinese authorities tried to slow the spread of a toxic spill by building 51 makeshift dams along the tainted river and using fire trucks to pump out polluted water before it reaches a reservoir serving a city of 10 million people, state media said Friday.
The spill of 60 tons of coal tar into the Dasha river in north China’s Shanxi province was the latest in a series of mishaps fouling the country’s already polluted waterways. Officials said there have been at least 76 water pollution accidents in the last six months.
Nope, not surprised. Just depressed.
