hill of chemical waste beside Farmer Wu Shuliang’s rice paddy began to take shape in the 1990s. The waste was from a neighboring factory; a byproduct from making chemicals used for tanning leather. Each day for 20 years, workers dumped more of it, making the hill bigger and bigger. Last year, an estimated 300 million pounds of chemical sludge towered over Wu’s land and the river below. “Whenever it rained, our rice paddy and the river would suddenly turn bright yellow,” Wu says. “Much of my rice died. It killed everything in its path.” Continue Reading…