Based on the collected data, consultations with scientists from
the Khabarovsk Region (Russia) and Heilongjiang province (China)
and official representatives, environmentalists propose to work out
a comprehensive plan to improve the environmental situation in the
Amur River basin, which would include not only response to the
recent pollution but also necessary measures to change the
hazardous environmental conditions in the region. According to the
experts, the implementation of this plan should to be under control
of a single agency - the Ministry of Natural Resources. It's
necessary to increase the number of stations for ecological
monitoring and establish joint Russian-Chinese Environmental
Monitoring and Research Center to study ecological problems of the
Amur, and such measure should be written into Russian-Chinese
environmental agreements.
"This accident demonstrated that Russia is not ready for such
situations. The authorities who have neglected problems of the
Amur's pollution for a long time, are not able to fully and
adequately evaluate the situation and take measures to prevent the
pollution of the river in future", said Alexey Kiselev, Greenpeace
Russian toxic campaigner. "We need to learn at last how to treat
the cause rather than a symptom".
The Russian side still has not obtained the detailed information
about the composition of pollutants in the spill. For a long time
the Russian authorities were preparing to deal only with benzene
and nitrobenzene pollution, because these chemicals were reported
by China. Only when the slick approached Khabarovsk, there were
detected considerable concentrations of chloroform, chlorophenol,
chlorbenzene, xylene, toluene, organochlorine pesticides, which
most probably caused the distinctive smell of chlorine that can
still be smelt along the river. At the same time even the first
sample taken by Russian specialists on the Songhuajiang (Sungari )
river on December 1 contained considerable amount of
chloroform.
So far officials estimated the level of pollution of the Amur
water based on the least strict of existing standards. There are
two very different standards of the maximum permissible
concentration of nitrobenzene in Russia - one for fisheries and
another for water used for domestic purposes (0,01 mg/litre and 0,2
mg/litre respectively). Amur is the river of the top fishery
category and it needs the strictest possible standard to be
applied. However, for some reason the samples were tested according
to the less strict domestic standards. So the concentrations of
nitrobenzene were always below the maximum permissible level. If
the fishery standard would be applied, the concentrations of
nitrobenzene will exceed the maximum permissible level. On the
night of December 21 the concentration of nitrobenzene in the water
in 130 km upstream Khabarovsk more than 13 times exceeded the
maximum permissible concentration according to the fishery
standard.
"According to Nikolay Efimov WWF Amur Program Coordinator based
in Khabarovsk, Khabarovsk Regional Government has done everything
it could do in order to safeguard its citizens from the immediate
threat. This very regional government since 1995 made multiple
proposals to the national level agencies on necessity to set up
international monitoring system on the Amur River and solve
transboundary pollution problems, moreover, Khabarovsk region on
its own proposed cooperative plans to Chinese authorities, and
devoted funds and other resources to work on these issues. However
presently all these Amur environmental monitoring issues is not the
business of regional government. according to the law it is
exclusively responsibility of national authorities. The main
problem is no system of environmental control. At present there is
no functioning federal body in Russia which could solve
environmental problems, both in the emergency and business-as-usual
mode. There are no bodies capable to formulate and carry out
international environmental policy, even in internaction with close
neighbours" The main danger for Amur is that after the benzene
stain passes Khabarovsk the complicated problem of the river's
pollution reduced at the moment to the problem of water supply for
municipal needs will be forgotten.
For further information please contact:
926-50-45, ext. 340 - Alexei Kiselev, Greenpeace Russia
727-09-39 - Ilya Mitasov, WWF Russia
Nesessary measures:
Measures listed below are proposed by Greenpeace and WWF Russia
experts, who have been constantly monitoring this spill on its way
from Harbin to Khabarovsk, and represent minimal adequate response
that is absolutely necessary to mitigate consequences of current
spill and prevent future environmental hazards in Amur basin.
(1) It's necessary to work out a plan to carry out comprehensive
evaluation of impact and take restoration measures. The plan should
be developed and implemented by the authorised federal agency with
the clear system of coordination with other agencies and
organizations. According to the Russian state policy, such
authorized agency is the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the
mandatory participants of the environmental impact evaluation and
monitoring are Goskomhydromet (State Commission on Hydrology and
Meteorology) and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
(2) It's also necessary to provide mandatory familiarization of
citizens with the procedure and results of the environmental impact
assessment presently being carried out by People's Republic of
China or, better, to organize joint environmental impact assessment
focusing on the impact on Amur river ecosystem and life support
systems. For this purpose it's necessary to establish joint
Russian-Chinese Environmental Monitoring and Research Center to
study ecological problems of the Amur with the extended network of
monitoring stations along the main river channel.
(3) Preparation and realization of the respective action plan ,
as well as the system of cooperation with the People's Republic of
China on all environmental issues should be provided with the
targeted sufficient federal funding.
(4) To manage the situation, one should at least have sufficient
information about it.It is critical to increase the number of
stations in the network of hydrochemical monitoring Goskomhydromet
on the main channel of Amur River from three to the number
sufficient to monitor the transboundary pollution; and to include
all typical pollutants brought with the waters from China in the
list of analyzed chemicals.
(5) The modern and effective system of informing about
transboundary problems should be established in the Russian-Chinese
agreement as soon as possible. The coming meeting of Ecological
Ministers of the member countries of Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO) will be a good chance for that.
(6) It's time to unite efforts of Russia,China and Mongolia for
international environmental management of the Amur River Basin
following the example of the formed Russian Coordination Committee
for Sustainable Development of the Amur river basin. At the end of
this year the project of Global Environment Foundation/UNEP
"Complex Management of the Amur Basin" will be launched, which is
aimed to prepare Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis and to form the
platform for negotiations and development of the joint Action Plan
for Amur River Basin.
Such international Action Plan should address comprehensively
all major environmental and nature resources problems in the
region: severe pollution and human-altered hydrology, ecosystem
and biodiversity conservation, preserving traditional cultures and
restoring fishstocks, and first and foremost - preventing harmful
environmental impacts on amur ecosystem resulting from growing
economies and speeding economic cooperation in North-East
Asia.
Amur River is the largest international river basin in Eurasia,
possessing immense ecological values and rich natural resources,
and environmental protection and sustainable use of Amur should
become priority item for countries of Amur River Basin and should
be the top issue on agenda for cooperation between them.
Additional information
1. What was released in the river after the accident at the
Chinese chemical plant?
As a result of the explosion at the oil processing plant in
Jilin on November 13 t, more than 100 tons of polluting chemicals,
including benzene and nitrobenzene, were released in the largest
tributary of the Amur River - Sungari.
The Russian party still does not have the detailed information
about the composition of pollutants at the moment of the accident.
On the night of December 21 the concentration of nitrobenzene in
the water in 130 km upstream Khabarovsk more than 13 times exceeded
the maximum permissible concentration according to the fishery
standard. There was also high concentration of other polluting
chemicals and a distinctive smell of chlorine - possibly because of
an attempt to purify water in the upstream river by means of
chlorine-containing chemicals.
Unfortunately, the Russian party does not have reliable
information about background concentrations of pollutants in Amur
upstream and downstream of its confluence with Songhua/Sungari
River, which makes the evaluation of the situation and taking
necessary measures more difficult. Thus, downstream the confluence
with Sungari Goskomgidromet has a station for hydrochemical
measurements (in Khabarovsk), but the indicators it monitors do not
include many typical chemicals that are brought with water from the
Chinese People's Republic.
Meantime Amur has high concentrations of many pollutants, and
the flow of pollutants from China regularly increases the
concentration of dangerous chemicals to the critical level even
without accidental major emissions. The consequences of the
accident can only be considered in the context of chronic pollution
of water and fish with many hazardous chemicals.
2. How this may affect the ecosystem?
The effects of the release have many aspects and have to be
considered in the light of solutions to the problem of chronic
pollution of Amur:
Political: the time necessary to solve the problem depends on
the ability of Russia and China to use this accident for drastic
enhancement of the system of international environmental safety in
the Amur basin. If Russia does not use this accident to radically
improve its practical cooperation with China on environmental
issues, this may cause serious consequences - removing questions of
environmental safety from the agenda of international negotiations
and cooperation.
Medical: this will be both a negative impact on the health of
the population consuming the water and fish in the near months and,
in long term perspective, further deterioration of the
environmental parameters and accumulation of toxic chemicals in the
food chain with the man on the top of it.
Social: " Patology of liver, blood producing system,
vegetal-nerve system, increased level of innate anomalies and
malformation have chemical origin, concerning with eating 'durty'
fish from Amur river. Risk of pathology increasing with stable
situation with pollution will redouble in 3 years and if
concentraton of toxins will rise - more than in three times.
Economic: (reduction of fish resources, increasing costs of
water treatment for drinking supply, and treatment of domestic and
industrial sewage): this aspect is already evident judging by both
expenses for operations to prevent the consequences and the ban for
fishing and decrease in demand for fish from the Amur basin
supplied to the market. This winter/spring there will be no fishing
for lamprey and smelt - the important sources of income for the
poor population of fishers in the Amur region.
Ecological (reduction of population of some species of ordinary,
salmon and sturgeon fish, transformation of bacteria communities,
decrease in capability of natural water purification, accumulation
of polluted bottom sediment and the effect of secondary pollution
of water). One of the worst scenarios is pollution of channels and
former river-beds with considerable amount of hazardous chemicals,
which may lead to high concentrations of pollutants and mass death
of hydrocoles.
3. When will the natural environment of the river be restored at
least to the former level?
As neither the exact composition nor the amount of the released
chemicals nor dynamics of background pollution are known, the
comprehensive evaluation of environmental impact is needed to
answer the question. The restoration will take years and it will
only be possible if international efforts are taken to improve the
environmental situation in the basin.
4. Evaluation of Russian authorities' activity
The reaction of russian side to the accident has shown that many
years of the "reform" of environmental services had no positive
outcome. The successfully functioning laboratories of the State
Environmental Committee were eliminated as the Committee was
dismantled. The expensive equipment was dismantled or sent to
non-core organizations. The most important - skilled specialist
were lost and now Russia is asking China to send their experts to
help to monitor nitrobenzene pollution.
There is simply no responsible agency capable to solve complex
environmental problems within the country, let alone transboundary
issues.
All efforts of the Russian side in the last month were aimed at
the emergency preparation of municipal services system to soften
the short term impact of the stain coming through Khabarovsk and
other settlements rather than at solving serious and complicated
environmental problems. We are not aware of any comprehensive plan
from Russian side how to deal with ecological situation on Amur,
while China already proposed such draft plan in November.
For many years blaming China for pollution, Russia itself did
not establish any agreable environmental protection system on its
own side. Russian government is lowering environmental standards
for "dirty" industries to catch new opportunities on the market,
but it cannot lead to improvments in the life of Far-East
residents. Russian Far East becomes unprotected resouce-rich annex
of growing economy of NE China.