VLADIVOSTOK, December 12 (RIA Novosti, Veronika Perminova) - Russia and China have signed a program to conduct joint monitoring of the Amur River in the Russian city of Khabarovsk, a local official said Monday.
The move comes after an explosion at a Chinese petrochemical plant on November 13 dumped about 100 metric tons of toxic chemicals into the Songhua, an Amur tributary in China, which are now moving toward the 600,00 residents of Khabarovsk.
"The contaminants are not evenly distributed in the Amur, which is why samples will be taken from three sectors: the left bank, the midstream and the right bank," said Viktor Bardyuk, the head of the Khabarovsk Territory's environmental department.
According to Chinese experts, the waters of the Songhua currently only contain benzene and nitrobenzene, and no other poisonous substances have been identified. But both are poisonous in large doses for humans.
