BEIJING - In the
aftermath of the November 13 explosion at a China
National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) chemical
plant in Jilin province, the
Chinese press reported that CNPC might have to pay
large fines for the pollution of the Songhua River
caused by the blast.
The blast forced the
downstream city of Harbin to shut down its
civilian water supply system for five days,
causing panic and touching off a large relief
effort to bring water to the city. The water taps
were finally turned back on in Harbin November 28,
with governor of Heilongjiang province
Zhang Zuoji taking the "first drink" after
resumption in a bid to restore wavering public
confidence.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities
were bracing for the arrival of the 50-mile long
benzene slick released by the disaster (the Songhua
River merges into Russia's
Amur River), and environmental toxicologists
warned that the aftereffects of the incident could
last for years as the chemical entered the food
chain.
'Large penalties' seen for
CNPC CNPC may face large economic penalties
and compensation for the pollution of the Songhua
River caused by the blast in a CNPC Jilin
petrochemical company chemical plant, the Chinese
press reported. Deputy general manager of the
CNPC, Zeng Yukang, had earlier made an apology on
behalf of the CNPC to residents along the Songhua
River for the pollution of the city's water
source, saying that it is CNPC's duty to help
treat the pollution.
The Songhua River, in
northeast China's Heilongjiang province, suffered
major water pollution as a result of a blast on
November 13. The pollution affected the water
supply to provincial capital Harbin City for four
days, causing huge direct and indirect economic
losses.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li
Zhaoxing has informed Russian ambassador to China,
Sergey Razov, of the situation with the Songhua
River's water pollution and measures taken by the
Chinese government. The same day, China informed
the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) of
the river pollution.
The blast took place
at about 1:45 pm on November 13 in a workshop of
the No 101 chemical plant, operated by the CNPC
Jilin Petrochemical Company based in Jilin City,
some 100 kilometers east in Changchun, the
provincial capital of Jilin province. Five people
were killed and about 70 were injured in the
explosion.
Water back on in
Harbin The city of Harbin turned its
civilian water supply back on at 6pm November 27,
after cutting it off on Wednesday over pollution
fears, and governor of Heilongjiang province Zhang
Zuoji took a heavily publicized "first drink" in a
bid to restore public confidence in the water
supply.
The governor had his drink in the
house of 75-year-old citizen Pang Yucheng, who
lives in the Daoli district of Harbin. "I took the
first drink to fulfill the government's solemn
promise made a few days ago to the citizens [of
Harbin] that [the] water supply will be restored,"
Zhang said. "It was also meant to reassure the
public and dispel their worries," he added.
The water quality at Sifangtai, the water
source site in the upper reach of Harbin's section
of the Songhua River, has met national standards
since 8:00 pm November 26. The main pollution
slick in the Songhua River had moved beyond Harbin
as of November 27, according to local
environmental authorities.
The latest
inspection result showed that by 2pm November 27,
no benzene was found in the water at Sifangtai,
while the nitrobenzene level met the national
safety standard with a concentration of 0.0034
milligrams/liter, said Lin Qiang, spokesman for
the Heilongjiang Provincial Environmental
Protection Bureau. (Nitrobenzene, a benzene
derivative, was also spilled in the accident,
along with benzene.)
"The water is safe
and reliable," said Wan Likui, director of the
Public Health Inspection Institute with the
Heilongjiang Provincial Disease Prevention and
Control Center. "All the indicators show the water
quality has met the national standards," she told
Xinhua.
Before the city recovers its full
water supply capacity, some key sectors will be
considered priorities, including households,
enterprises, heating service departments,
governmental departments, colleges and
universities, hospitals, hotels, restaurants,
primary and middle schools and kindergartens. Car
washing and bathing service agencies are not
allowed to use water for the time being, the
government said.
In addition, the city
will launch a three-level warning forecast system
for water quality to ensure public health, the
city government said. In the warning system, "red"
means the water is not suitable for drinking or
other uses, "yellow" means the water is suitable
for other uses but not for drinking, while "green"
means that the water is drinkable. The city will
publish the water quality rating over local media
to tell its citizens when they can use or drink
water, the government said.
Benzene is a
clear, colorless, highly refractive flammable
liquid that is usually derived from petroleum and
used in the production of a wide variety of
chemical products, including detergents,
insecticides and motor fuels.
Benzene
slick flowing to Russia As the
benzene-contaminated water flowed steadily
downstream, Russian officials prepared to switch
off local water supplies and airlift activated
carbon filters into the area for use in water
treatment plants. According to the Associated
Press, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry
expected the pollution to affect 70 Russian cities
and villages with a total of over 1 million
residents along the Amur River, the largest of
which was the city of Khabarovsk, with a
population of 580,000. Officials said the benzene
spill was expected to reach Khabarovsk around
December 10.
Some Russian sources claimed
that the current benzene slick was not the first
time the carcinogen had been found in the river.
Bloomberg quoted Sergei Zimin, a Khabarovsk
regional government spokesman, as saying that the
Amur had been polluted with benzene from Chinese
chemical plants even before the November 13
incident. "There is no other explanation for the
fact that we have already discovered
higher-than-normal levels of benzene in the Amur,"
he said.
Scientists warn of
aftereffects Meanwhile, scientists warned
of a variety of long-term environmental effects
from the disaster. Kenneth Leung, an
ecotoxicologist from the University of Hong Kong, told the AFP
news agency that benzene in the river sediment
would be taken into the food chain by small fish,
and accumulate in higher-up animals such as water
birds and ultimately, humans. Leung noted that, as
is the case for many other organic
(carbon-containing) pollutants, animals can
accumulate the molecule in their tissues because
they are unable to metabolize it.
Professor Gu Jidong, a Harbin native and
also a professor of environmental toxicology at
the University of Hong Kong, told the Financial
Times that the pollution from such an accident
would occur in two phases. The first phase was the
chemicals in the river water, which were gradually
being diluted as they flowed downstream. The
second phase involved heavy concentrations of
chemicals absorbed by the riverbed, which would be
gradually released into the water over a period of
time. "It is not as simple as saying that the
chemicals have now passed the city and the water
is now safe," noted Gu. "The local government is
talking about the first stage, but not about the
second stage."
It would take three to five
years before the pollution was degraded, Professor
Gu said, adding that, although certain
microorganisms are capable of degrading chemicals
such as benzene and nitrobenzene, the water
currently too cold for these microbes to begin the
process. Regarding the issue of well
contamination, Professor Gu said that ground wells
near the site of the explosion were certainly
contaminated, but others farther away were at
essentially no risk.
