Appeal for calm as toxic slick reaches Russia

A TOXIC spill from China reached Khabarovsk in Russia yesterday, and the region’s governor appealed for calm in the Far Eastern Russian city, where residents have crammed their apartments with bottles, pails, pans and even bathtubs full of fresh water.

The dreaded slick, which extends for 110 miles, entered the city limits five weeks after a chemical plant explosion in China's northeast spewed 100 tons of benzene, nitrobenzene and other toxins into the Songhua River. The November 13 accident shut off running water to the city of Harbin's 3.8 million people for five days.

The Songhua becomes the Amur river in Russia, and Natalya Zimina, a spokeswoman for the regional administration, said levels in the Amur were normal and water supplies to the city of 580,000 would be maintained.

The slick has been floating downstream and entered Russian territory last week. It could take four days or more to pass through Khabarovsk, but experts warn the ecological effects will last longer.

Benzene and nitrobenzene are heavier than water and they are settling on the river bottom or sticking to the ice.

Come spring, melting ice will pollute not just the river water, but also the banks, according to Yevgeny Rozhkov of the Far East Meteorological Agency.

Tons of carbon are being used to filter out contamination from water supplies taken from the Amur River, which normally provides the city with all its water.

"We have done everything we could to safeguard and filter the water and we do not plan to cut off water to Khabarovsk," said Governor Viktor Ishayev. He appealed to residents to keep calm.

Officials have set up a telephone hotline to field calls from worried residents, who have filled their apartments with bottles, pots and pans and even baths filled with water.

Irina Zakonnikova's family stopped using tap water yesterday, even though callers to the hotline were assured that it was "absolutely safe" to wash and cook with running water.

"We are trying to keep ourselves from panicking, but of course there is fear," she said.

"Residents have stocked up on water and this should be enough to last them for two to three days," said Vladimir Ott, the regional chief of the Federal Natural Resources Service.

The regional administration has already banned fishing on the Amur possibly for up to two years and residents have filled their freezers with frozen fish.

But some people are flouting the ban despite the health risks. Galina Denisova, a 69-year-old retiree, stood at a bus stop in sub-zero temperatures, hawking fish. She said her husband had caught the fish in the Amur that morning.

"I have a small pension, so I eat freshly-caught fish myself and make money from selling it," she said.