A serious accident occurred on the evening of 10 August when 62 containers from the Chongqing barge 'Hanglong 518’ fell into the lower waters of The Three Gorges Reservoir in Yichang. The vessel was sailing downstream, loaded with 176 containers. Six of the containers contained potassium permanganate in barrels, one contained sodium permanganate in barrels and five contained potassium hydroxide in bags, totalling 291 tons.

The Three Gorges Administration of Navigational Affairs announced on 18 August that the sunken containers would not affect navigation in the current flood season and that China lacked the salvaging techniques required in this specific case and that therefore the operation to rescue the containers from the water had been halted for the time being. However, the situation would continue to be monitored closely.

The Ministry of Transport dispatched a group of experts to oversee the initial salvage work. As the Yangtze is in the flood season, the average water depth in the region exceeds 45 metres and the currents are running at speeds of 2.5-3.5 metres per second, making it impossible to send in divers.

As most of the vessels passing this area have a draught of no more than five metres, experts believe that the sunken containers will not affect navigation in either the flood or dry season. They predict that the boxes will eventually be buried by silting. Officials from the Three Gorges Dam said that they were using different equipment to monitor this section of the reservoir and would salvage any boxes found to be moving.

An Environment Emergency Response unit was also activated in Yichang and water quality was monitored for 30 hours before it was declared safe.