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Spring Freshet Not to Pollute Amur River, Says Expert

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 09:00 CST

Spring freshet not to pollute Amur river, says expert

MOSCOW, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The spring freshet will not raise the concentration of toxic substances in the Amur River in the far east region of Russia above the maximum permissible level, Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Tuesday.

"Research held right after the accident showed that the Amur situation will not exacerbate. As far as we know, the freshet will not change the Amur ecological situation for the worse," Vladislav Bolov, head of emergency monitoring and forecast center of the ministry, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

Bolov said that the concentration may exceed the maximum permissible level by 1.2-1.3 times but that is insignificant.

After an explosion at a PetroChina chemical factory in the northeast province of Jilin on Nov. 13, 2005, 100 tons of carcinogens benzene and nitrobenzene spilled into the Songhua River.

This led to an 80 kilometer-long toxic slick on the Songhua River that drifted across Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces and came to Russia on Dec. 25, 2005.

Experts said that the front of the toxic slick would reach the estuary of Russia's Amur River before the end of January.

A Chinese top environment official said on March 11 that, based on the monitoring, test and analysis of more than 1,000 environmental experts, spring thawing will not cause a second pollution of the Chinese northeastern river polluted last November.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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