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Pollutant Concentration Keeps Dropping in Contaminated Songhua River

Posted on: Saturday, 26 November 2005, 09:00 CST

Pollutant concentration keeps dropping in contaminated Songhua River

HARBIN, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The concentration of nitrobenzene, the prime pollutant in the contaminated Songhua River following explosion of a petrochemical plant near the river earlier this month, has kept falling, said local environmental protection bureau on Saturday.

Heilongjiang Provincial Bureau of Environmental Protection said in a press release that by 6 a.m. on Saturday, concentration of nitrobenzene monitored at Sujiatun upstream Sifangtai, one major water intake spot of Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, fell to 0.0793 mg per liter, but still above the state safety standard of 0.017 mg per liter, but the density of benzene stood at 0.0011 mg per liter, which is within the state safety benchmark.

A spokesman with the bureau said though urban districts of Harbin were still under the grip of the highly polluted stretch on Saturday, the end of the polluted stretch passed Sifangtai spot around 9 a.m., with its front approaching Bayan County, also inside Heilongjiang Province.

Other environmental monitoring stations downstream Harbin have stepped up monitoring efforts as the polluted stretch moves on, said the spokesman, who said their workers had monitored the air quality from three urban sites on Songhua River but didn't spot any toxic substance in the air.

Benzene and nitrobenzene flew into the river following a blast at China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Jilin Petrochemical company, a petrochemical plant in Jilin Province.

China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said Songhua River suffered a major water pollution incident, which led to a four-day water supply system shutdown as of the wee hours Wednesday in Harbin.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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