Definition of "Songhua"

The water quality of the Songhua River (Northeast China) was of concern, especially in the 1980s and early 1990s, and there were many studies carried out on this aspect. However, only one or several independent water quality indices were used to consider the effects of pollutants on the water quality, for instance, heavy metal and toxic organic pollutants. The combined effects of multiple indices were seldom studied. In this article, based on the environmental monitoring data, the water quality of the Songhua River was analyzed using factor analysis, which comprehensively considered six indices of water quality of each monitoring section.

Apr 2003, Yu, S. et al., “Factor Analysis and Dynamics of Water Quality of the Songhua River, Northeast China”, in Water, Air, and Soil Pollution‎, volume 144, number 1, pages 159–169

The reports, including some from the official Xinhua news agency, suggested that officials here and in Jilin Province, where the disaster occurred 380 kilometers, or 235 miles, up the Songhua River, lied or told only part of the story until they had no choice but to admit the truth. […] "They were trying to lie and get by," said Qi Guangzhong, 64, as he walked along the Songhua River on Friday. "The government wanted to hide this."

2005 November 25, Jim Yardley, “China tried to keep benzene spill secret”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 29 August 2019, Asia Pacific‎

The study site of the Songhua River is located in the Heilongjiang Province on the territory of Northern China. The Songhua flows from south west to northeast near the center of Harbin, having a length of about 50 km within the city. The Songhua is a plains river with a sandy bottom and meandering bed. The fairway width ranges from 400 to 800 m, depth from 2 to 12 m. Bottom sediments of the Songhua nearby Harbin, as compared to other rivers and lakes of Northern China, contain particularly high concentrations of Pb, Zn and Ni, as well as appreciable levels of Cd and As [6, 12].

May 2020, Zarykhta, V.V. et al., “Differential Accumulation of Heavy Metals in Soft Tissues of Three Bivalvian Species from the Songhua River near Harbin (China)”, in Journal of Evolutionary Biochemistry and Physiology‎, volume 56, number 2, pages 125–132