China River Spill Reaches Russian City, Water OK
Date: 23-Dec-05
Country: RUSSIA
"Analysis of the water showed that the benzene content does not exceed ... the maximum allowable concentration," RIA-Novosti quoted an Emergencies Ministry official as saying.
"As a result the city authorities have decided not to turn off the Khabarovsk water supply because of the arrival at the city of the slick of polluted water."
Khabarovsk, a city of 580,000, had readied alternative water supplies while waiting for the slick to wind its way northeast to Russia's Amur river, known in China as Heilong.
An explosion at a chemical plant in China's Jilin province last month poured some 100 tonnes of cancer-causing benzene compounds into the Songhua river, poisoning the drinking water.
Russian workers also had temporarily dammed a waterway to divert the pollution away from a river area where Khabarovsk gets its water.
China is facing another environmental disaster this week as the southern province of Guangdong scrambles to protect its water supplies while a waste spill from a zinc smelter flows along a major river towards several cities.
Around 70 percent of China's rivers are contaminated, raising questions about the cost of its economic boom.
