In an event echoing a near environmental disaster last November, Chinese media said Wednesday that on August 20 the Jilin chemical plant discharged untreated industrial waste containing highly toxic benzene derivatives into a tributary of the Songhua River, which runs into the Amur River in Russia's Far East.
The State Environmental Protection Administration of China said that tests carried out Thursday morning 2-3 kilometers (2 miles) downriver from the spillage, including the point at which the tributary meets the Songhua, did not find any toxic substances.
The Russian Embassy said, "Therefore, according to China's official conclusion, there is no threat of chemical pollution to the Amur, and not even to the Songhua."
China said earlier it had provided Russia with the detailed chemical composition of a toxic slick 5 kilometers (3.5 miles) long in the Songhua tributary.
A blast at the plant belonging to the Jilin Petroleum and Chemical Company in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang on November 13, 2005, caused 100 metric tons of potentially lethal benzene to spill into the Songhua. The spill came close to creating an environmental catastrophe in the Russian Far East as a massive slick passed along the Amur.
China failed to inform Russia until days after the incident.
