City in Harbin is ready to restore water supply
Gee
Harbin is ready to restore water supply for people.
HARBIN, China (AP) -- Authorities were making last-minute preparations
Sunday to restore running water to 3.8 million people in this
northeastern Chinese city who were spending a fifth day without
supplies after a toxic spill in a nearby river.
Water service was due to resume at 11 p.m. (1500 GMT) after visiting
Premier Wen Jiabao told local leaders on Saturday to see that every
resident got running water.
Work crews were installing more than 1,000 tonnes of carbon filters at
water plants in preparation for treating water from the Songhua River
once it is deemed safe, according to state-run media.
"We cannot allow even a single person not to have water," Wen said at a
meeting of local leaders Saturday, according to state television.
Wen promised a full investigation of the November 13 explosion at a
chemical plant in a neighboring province that spewed 100 tonnes of
benzene into the Songhua.
State media have criticized local officials for reacting too slowly and
failing to tell the public the truth about the disaster until this
week.
Pictures of Wen visiting a water plant and the home of a Harbin family
were on the front pages of local newspapers Sunday in an apparent
effort to reassure the public about Beijing's concern for their safety.
Also Saturday, the Chinese foreign minister made an unusual public
apology to Moscow's ambassador to Beijing for damage caused by the
benzene spill, which is flowing toward a city in the Russian Far East.
"Li Zhaoxing expressed his sincere apology on behalf of the Chinese
government for the possible harm that this major environmental
pollution incident could bring to the Russian people downstream," state
television said on its national evening news.
The government said benzene levels in the Songhua near Harbin had
dropped below the official safety limit on Saturday.
goodg...@yahoo.com
goodg...@yahoo.com
By JOE McDONALD, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 21 minutes ago
HARBIN, China - Running water was restored Sunday in this city of 3.8
million people where a chemical spill forced a five-day shutdown, but
officials warned it was not immediately safe to drink.
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Water supplies resumed in Harbin at 6 p.m. - about five hours earlier
than expected, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said tests
showed a 50-mile spill of toxic benzene in the Songhua River had passed
the city in northeastern China.
State television showed the governor of Heilongjiang province, where
Harbin is located, drinking a glass of boiled water drawn from a tap at
a local family's home.
"It tastes good," said Gov. Zhang Zuoji.
But Wang Minghe, deputy general manager of the Harbin water department,
said the water was still "dangerous" to drink "because it's been
sitting in pipes for five days." He said it should be used only for
other purposes, such as washing.
"We will advise citizens when they can drink the water," he told
reporters taken on a tour of a water-treatment plant.
Wang did not say how soon the water might be considered safe for
drinking.
The government will cut water fees to encourage the public to use water
as quickly as possible over the next few days to flush out the old
supply and "enable it to be drinkable sooner," Wang said.
Earlier Sunday, Liu Yurun, general manager for the Harbin Water Group,
the city's water utility, said local radio and television stations
would broadcast a color-based indicator of water safety over the next
few days - red for unusable, yellow for bathing only and green for
drinking.
Work crews were installing more than 1,000 tons of carbon filters at
water plants in preparation for treating supplies from the Songhua,
according to state media.
Before service resumed, people lined up for another day in freezing
wind holding out buckets and teakettles for free water delivered by
truck from wells operated by factories and a beer brewery. The city
also had trucked in millions of bottles of drinking water and said it
was drilling 100 new water wells.
The Harbin disaster resulted from a Nov. 13 explosion at a chemical
plant in Jilin, a city about 120 miles southeast. Five people were
killed and 10,000 evacuated.
But it was only last week that the government announced the Songhua had
been poisoned with 100 tons of benzene. The spill is possibly the
biggest ever of the chemical, a potentially cancer-causing compound
used in making detergents and plastics.
State media have criticized local officials for reacting too slowly and
failing to tell the public the truth promptly. Environmentalists have
said the government failed to prepare for such a disaster and
questioned the decision to allow construction of a plant handling such
dangerous materials near important water supplies.
Premier Wen Jiabao promised a full investigation when he visited Harbin
on Saturday and told leaders to see that every resident got running
water.
Pictures of Wen visiting a water treatment plant and Harbin residents
were on the front pages of newspapers in an apparent effort to assure
the public of Beijing's concern for their safety.
The spill is an embarrassment to President
Hu Jintao's government, which has made a priority of looking after
ordinary Chinese and of repairing environmental damage from 25 years of
sizzling economic growth.
Also Saturday, the Chinese foreign minister made an unusual public
apology to Moscow's ambassador to Beijing for damage caused by the
benzene spill, which is flowing toward a city in the Russian Far East.
Officials in Khabarovsk were preparing emergency plans, including the
possible shutdown of its water system. A senior Russian official
visited the city Saturday and said its water purification system was
being quickly upgraded.
Meanwhile, authorities in southwest China, where another chemical plant
accident sparked fears of a second chemical leak, said contamination of
a nearby river was under control, Xinhua reported Sunday on its Web
site.
State media said the blast that killed one worker occurred Thursday in
Dianjiang, a county in the Chongqing region. Schools were closed and
about 6,000 people were evacuated.
More than 800 residents and Communist Party members were helping clean
the contaminated portion of the Guixi River using screens made of straw
and charcoal, Xinhua said Sunday. Water samples were being tested every
four hours, it said.
The report did not say what kind of chemicals had tainted the river but
said water supplies were safe.
Also Sunday, Sina.com, a popular Chinese news Web site, reported that
the central city of Lengshuijiang had its water supply suspended for 12
hours last week after waste water containing ammonium nitrate was
discharged into a nearby river.
The spill occurred when a wall holding back the waste collapsed, but
tests showed the pollution did not rise to unacceptable levels and
would not affect cities downstream, the site said.
Ira Humperdink MD
week using the old water.
b) they should test for benzene
Gee
sick.
demor...@aol.com
A few points:
1) Did Wen Jiabao drink a glass? He is in Harbin, so he can easily pour
himself a serving. He can also pour some servings to take back to
Beijing.
2) The Chinese official drank from water after the toxic slick has
passed Harbin, and then the water was passed through many carbon
filters. Villagers upriver drank from the toxic slick when it was more
concentrated than what passed through Harbin. So this Chinese official
can only demonstrate that the toxic slick is safe to drink (as LTLee is
claiming) by drinking from the toxic slick that was hidden from the
villagers.
3) There has been much talk about benzene, but large contaminations of
nitrobenzene, dimethyl benzene (all three kinds), dianil and other
compounds were detected.
4) Even though this case is a massive spill in the river, the citizens
have complained bitterly for years about the petrochemical plant in
Harbin. This was a polluting plant in Jilin even before the explosion.
charl...@my-deja.com
demor...@aol.com wrote:
> goodg...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > yeah, a Chinese official has already drunk the first glass.
>
> A few points:
>
> 1) Did Wen Jiabao drink a glass? He is in Harbin, so he can easily pour
> himself a serving. He can also pour some servings to take back to
> Beijing.
Did our GW Bush take a swim in the New Orleans flood water like all
those black folks had to?
> 2) The Chinese official drank from water after the toxic slick has
> passed Harbin, and then the water was passed through many carbon
> filters. Villagers upriver drank from the toxic slick when it was more
> concentrated than what passed through Harbin. So this Chinese official
> can only demonstrate that the toxic slick is safe to drink (as LTLee is
> claiming) by drinking from the toxic slick that was hidden from the
> villagers.
>
> 3) There has been much talk about benzene, but large contaminations of
> nitrobenzene, dimethyl benzene (all three kinds), dianil and other
> compounds were detected.
>
> 4) Even though this case is a massive spill in the river, the citizens
> have complained bitterly for years about the petrochemical plant in
> Harbin. This was a polluting plant in Jilin even before the explosion.
Even we, as an enlightened 1st world nation, have many citizens
complaining bitterly for years about benzene. Google will show you how
many class action lawsuits wrt benzene there are in America:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=benzene+class+action+lawsuit
demor...@aol.com
charl...@my-deja.com wrote:
> demor...@aol.com wrote:
> > goodg...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > > yeah, a Chinese official has already drunk the first glass.
> >
> > A few points:
> >
> > 1) Did Wen Jiabao drink a glass? He is in Harbin, so he can easily pour
> > himself a serving. He can also pour some servings to take back to
> > Beijing.
>
> Did our GW Bush take a swim in the New Orleans flood water like all
> those black folks had to?
Benzene has definitely contaminated the Songhua River; desperation is
definitely contaminating Charles Liu's arguments.
----------
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/27/AR2005112700180.html
Running water returned to this northeast city of 3.8 million people
Sunday, ending a five-day shutdown blamed on a chemical spill that
embarrassed the government and highlighted China's mounting
environmental problems.
However, officials warned that what was coming out the tap in frigid
Harbin still was too dirty to drink.
Jim Walsh
wrote:
> demor...@aol.com wrote:
>> 1) Did Wen Jiabao drink a glass? He is in Harbin, so he can easily pour
>> himself a serving. He can also pour some servings to take back to
>> Beijing.
> Did our GW Bush take a swim in the New Orleans flood water like all
> those black folks had to?
Mr. Liu's argument is very funny.
First he argues that the US is evil (i.e., he vigorously criticizes the US
invasion of Iraq).
Then he argues that that the CCP is good because it is equal to Bush.
I agree with Mr. Liu that the invasion of Iraq was wrong. I think that if
the CCP is "no better" than George Bush, it is sincerely and deeply wrong.
BTW, one of the causes for the misconduct of the government officials in
Harbin was their (mistaken) belief that they could control the press.
--
Love, Jim
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demor...@aol.com
demor...@aol.com wrote:
> 4) Even though this case is a massive spill in the river, the citizens
> have complained bitterly for years about the petrochemical plant in
> Harbin. This was a polluting plant in Jilin even before the explosion.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c74629d8-607c-11da-a3a6-0000779e2340.html
According to Bloomberg, Sergei Zimin, a spokesman for the regional
government in Khabarovsk, said the river had been polluted with benzene
from Chinese chemicals plants even before the November 13 explosion in
Jilin city. "There is no other explanation for the fact that we have
already discovered higher-than-normal levels of benzene in the Amur,"
he was quoted as saying.