China rivers hit by flood-related chemical spills

Yahoo News 1 Aug 10;

BEIJING (AFP) – Chinese officials said Sunday flood-related chemical spills had spread through major rivers, but added there had been little impact on water quality.

Tests indicated highly-flammable chemicals had spread into northeastern Heilongjiang province after floods swept 7,000 chemical barrels into the Songhua River in neighbouring Jilin province, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, in eastern Wuhan, floods swept 1,500 drums of resin, oil, fertiliser and waste into the Yangtze River on Friday, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a statement.

The announcements came as China tries to cope with an oil spill in the country's northeast that Greenpeace said ranks as one of the world's worst known oil disasters.

Beijing said 1,500 tonnes of crude may have poured into the Yellow Sea after two pipelines exploded at an oil storage depot in the port of Dalian on July 16, but Greenpeace says the spill could be 60 times that size.

In Heilongjian, Vice Governor Du Jiahao confirmed to reporters that tests showed the Songhua River spill, which occurred on Wednesday, had crossed into the province, Xinhua said.

The Songhua is the major source of drinking water for about 4.3 million people.

The report did not give details on the impact of the spill on Heilongjian, only citing previous water quality tests from Jilin that showed "a very small quantity" of hexamethyl disiloxane, a volatile liquid, had been found in the water.

It quoted Sun Lili, an engineer from Jilin's Design and Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology as saying the amounts "posed no threat" and the impact "can be negligible".

The Environmental Protection Ministry said the spill in Wuhan had been controlled.

"Monitoring results show that the Yangtze River water quality was not affected," spokesman Tao Detian said in the statement.