There has been a recent leak of a dangerous chemical in to the Nakdong River that has tainted the water supply for the people living in the Taegu area:

While a chemical company and local authorities accuse each other of being responsible for a toxic chemical leak into the Nakdong River, the contamination of the main source of drinking water for the Gyeongsang region reached the upper stream that feeds Daegu’s main waterworks yesterday afternoon.

The water supply to the city of 2.5 million was not disturbed, but the Daegu City government said it has stopped collecting water from the river. According to the city, the amount of phenol found in the water supply was 0.005 milligram per liter in the upper stream of the Maegok waterworks at around 3:15 p.m. yesterday. The amount is the same as the limit of phenol allowed by law in drinking water.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

Anyone want to drink this water that has a dangerous chemical in it that is measured at the very limit of being safe?  Here is what it does to people who drink it:

Phenol can cause skin to peel and cause stomachache, nausea and paralysis if it enters the body through the respiratory system. When the toxic chemical is mixed with water, it creates carcinogenic substances.

So any if any ROK Drop readers reading this from the Taegu area feels sick and your skin in falling off now you know why.  What is even more interesting about this toxic spill is that it is not the first time it has happened:

The city said it has emergency water supply plans that include distributing bottled drinking water. Since the disastrous 1991 phenol leak, we have upgraded our purification facilities so we are capable of eliminating the chemical entirely, Jeon Jin-gwon of the Daegu city government said. However, we suspended the waterworks operation in order to not risk the residents safety.  In March 1991, 30 tons of phenol spilled into the Nakdong River from a damaged pipe in a Doosan Electro-Materials factory in Gumi City, causing thousands of residents downstream in Daegu to become ill.

Remind me to never ever live in Taegu. 

Any bets if Korean society will go into an uproar about this chemical spill like it did when USFK mortician Albert McFarland poured 20 gallons of diluted embalming fluid down a drain at the Yongsan Garrison mortuary that was processed through two different water treatment plants before being discharged in the Han River and had no effect on the local water supply?  Better yet does anyone think a blockbuster monster movie will be made from this?

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