The toxic slick that has plagued the Songhua River
since November 13 was expected to arrive overnight in Tongjiang,
where it joins the Heilongjiang River on the border between China
and Russia, according to sources from Heilongjiang Province
Environment Protection Bureau.
China and Russia signed an agreement to cooperate
in testing the water of the Heilongjiang?River (called Amur in
Russia), as the border runs along its middle, and six testing
stations will be established along it, according to the bureau.
Yesterday, experts from both countries conducted
three water tests at a station near Nizhneleninskoye, a port city
in Russia's Jewish Autonomous Oblast.
They drilled holes in the ice on both sides of the
river but no toxic chemicals had been found as yet, though they
will be taking samples eight times a day from today.
The pollution was caused by a leak of 100 tons of
benzene and other chemicals following a chemical plant blast along
the upper reaches of the Songhua in Jilin Province on November
13.
The concentration of the slick has declined sharply
since the spill, and is expected to be further diluted when it
flows into the Heilongjiang River, Zhou Shengxian, director of the
State Environment
Protection Administration, said earlier this week.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the incident
"should not harm bilateral relations" after discussing it with
Premier Wen
Jiabao on the sidelines of the 1st Russia-ASEAN summit in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia on Monday.
(China Daily December 16, 2005)