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Toxic Slick Flows Into Major China City
Nov 24 12:00 PM US/Eastern
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By JOE McDONALD
Associated Press Writer
HARBIN, China
A slick of river-borne toxins from a chemical plant explosion flowed into a major Chinese city Thursday as the government dug wells after shutting down its water system to protect residents.
The 50-mile-long patch of water carrying toxic benzene began entering Harbin, a city of 3.8 million people in China's northeast, before dawn, the government said. It was expected to take 40 hours to pass.
"After it passes ... we will have to make efforts to disinfect the water," Shi Zhongxin, director of the city's water bureau, said on state television. He gave no details.
Harbin shut down its water system at midnight Tuesday after a chemical plant explosion Nov. 13 in the nearby city of Jilin spewed toxic benzene into the Songhua River. Jilin is about 120 miles southeast of Harbin.
The announcement of the impending shutdown set off panicked buying of bottled water, soft drinks and milk. Families stocked up by filling bathtubs and buckets.
The city government announced it was digging 100 new wells.
On Thursday, thousands of one-liter bottles of drinking water stood in huge stacks outside wholesale shops. Families bought them by the dozen to take home by bicycle, while sidewalk vendors pushed carts straining under hundreds of bottles.
One shop owner, who would give only her surname, Jiang, said her sales had doubled to 25,000 bottles a day at about 12 cents each. Authorities froze prices to prevent overcharging.
"We're charging exactly what we did before," Jiang said. She said distributors were bringing in extra supplies, adding: "Whatever we need, we can get."
China's central government confirmed for the first time Wednesday that the shutdown was a result of a "major water pollution incident." Local officials earlier disclosed the reason, but officials in Beijing had refused to comment.
The tip-off was a trail of dead fish in the Songhua River, the official China Daily newspaper reported Thursday. It said a monitoring station found on Nov. 20 that benzene and nitrobenzene levels were far above state standards _ with nitrobenzene at one point 103.6 times higher than normal.
"Massive amounts can lead to the disorder of blood cells _ in other words, leukemia," Zhang Lanying, director of the Environment and Resources Institute at Jilin University, was quoted as saying.
The explosion, which forced the evacuation of 10,000 people, was blamed on human error in a facility processing benzene, which is used in the manufacture of plastics, detergents and pesticides. Short-term exposure can cause drowsiness, dizziness and unconsciousness.
A top official with China's environmental watchdog said Thursday the company overseeing the plant should be held responsible _ state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., which is the country's largest oil company.
"We will be very clear about who's responsible. It is the chemical plant of the CNPC in Jilin province," Zhang Lijun, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said at a news conference.
Zhang did not give any more details but said investigators were looking into criminal responsibility.
He also had no details on what authorities would do to protect against long-term damage to the river and surrounding soil.
In neighboring Russia, news reports said concern was growing in the border city of Khabarovsk, about 435 miles downriver from Harbin.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said officials briefed the Russian Embassy twice this week and both sides have agreed to share information.
"The Chinese side attaches great importance to the potential impact and harm caused by the pollution on our neighbor Russia," he said at a regular briefing Thursday.
Zhang said China did no wrong in waiting until this week to tell Russia about the effects of the Nov. 13 accident. "There are different levels of reporting," he said, explaining that local officials along the river were told first.
"It will be another 14 days before the toxins reach the Heilongjiang River" which flows into Russia, "so we don't think we were late in providing information," he said.
But, an official in Khabarovsk told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency that not enough was known about the accident on the Songhua River _ known in Russian as the Sungari.
"Unfortunately, the Chinese side has so far not released full information about the chemicals in the Sungari and their amount," Ivan Sych, head of the Khabarovsk regional department for civil defense and emergency situations, was quoted as saying.
The disaster highlights the precarious state of China's scarce water supplies. The country is trying to meet competing demands from its 1.3 billion people and booming industry, while the government says major rivers are dangerously polluted.
With its huge population, China ranks among countries with the smallest water supplies per person. Hundreds of cities regularly suffer shortages of water for drinking or industry. Protests have erupted in rural areas throughout China over complaints that pollution is ruining water supplies and damaging crops.
Nov 24 12:00 PM US/Eastern
Email this story
By JOE McDONALD
Associated Press Writer
HARBIN, China
A slick of river-borne toxins from a chemical plant explosion flowed into a major Chinese city Thursday as the government dug wells after shutting down its water system to protect residents.
The 50-mile-long patch of water carrying toxic benzene began entering Harbin, a city of 3.8 million people in China's northeast, before dawn, the government said. It was expected to take 40 hours to pass.
"After it passes ... we will have to make efforts to disinfect the water," Shi Zhongxin, director of the city's water bureau, said on state television. He gave no details.
Harbin shut down its water system at midnight Tuesday after a chemical plant explosion Nov. 13 in the nearby city of Jilin spewed toxic benzene into the Songhua River. Jilin is about 120 miles southeast of Harbin.
The announcement of the impending shutdown set off panicked buying of bottled water, soft drinks and milk. Families stocked up by filling bathtubs and buckets.
The city government announced it was digging 100 new wells.
On Thursday, thousands of one-liter bottles of drinking water stood in huge stacks outside wholesale shops. Families bought them by the dozen to take home by bicycle, while sidewalk vendors pushed carts straining under hundreds of bottles.
One shop owner, who would give only her surname, Jiang, said her sales had doubled to 25,000 bottles a day at about 12 cents each. Authorities froze prices to prevent overcharging.
"We're charging exactly what we did before," Jiang said. She said distributors were bringing in extra supplies, adding: "Whatever we need, we can get."
China's central government confirmed for the first time Wednesday that the shutdown was a result of a "major water pollution incident." Local officials earlier disclosed the reason, but officials in Beijing had refused to comment.
The tip-off was a trail of dead fish in the Songhua River, the official China Daily newspaper reported Thursday. It said a monitoring station found on Nov. 20 that benzene and nitrobenzene levels were far above state standards _ with nitrobenzene at one point 103.6 times higher than normal.
"Massive amounts can lead to the disorder of blood cells _ in other words, leukemia," Zhang Lanying, director of the Environment and Resources Institute at Jilin University, was quoted as saying.
The explosion, which forced the evacuation of 10,000 people, was blamed on human error in a facility processing benzene, which is used in the manufacture of plastics, detergents and pesticides. Short-term exposure can cause drowsiness, dizziness and unconsciousness.
A top official with China's environmental watchdog said Thursday the company overseeing the plant should be held responsible _ state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., which is the country's largest oil company.
"We will be very clear about who's responsible. It is the chemical plant of the CNPC in Jilin province," Zhang Lijun, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said at a news conference.
Zhang did not give any more details but said investigators were looking into criminal responsibility.
He also had no details on what authorities would do to protect against long-term damage to the river and surrounding soil.
In neighboring Russia, news reports said concern was growing in the border city of Khabarovsk, about 435 miles downriver from Harbin.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said officials briefed the Russian Embassy twice this week and both sides have agreed to share information.
"The Chinese side attaches great importance to the potential impact and harm caused by the pollution on our neighbor Russia," he said at a regular briefing Thursday.
Zhang said China did no wrong in waiting until this week to tell Russia about the effects of the Nov. 13 accident. "There are different levels of reporting," he said, explaining that local officials along the river were told first.
"It will be another 14 days before the toxins reach the Heilongjiang River" which flows into Russia, "so we don't think we were late in providing information," he said.
But, an official in Khabarovsk told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency that not enough was known about the accident on the Songhua River _ known in Russian as the Sungari.
"Unfortunately, the Chinese side has so far not released full information about the chemicals in the Sungari and their amount," Ivan Sych, head of the Khabarovsk regional department for civil defense and emergency situations, was quoted as saying.
The disaster highlights the precarious state of China's scarce water supplies. The country is trying to meet competing demands from its 1.3 billion people and booming industry, while the government says major rivers are dangerously polluted.
With its huge population, China ranks among countries with the smallest water supplies per person. Hundreds of cities regularly suffer shortages of water for drinking or industry. Protests have erupted in rural areas throughout China over complaints that pollution is ruining water supplies and damaging crops.
Russia must not be happy about this.;
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