第三眼看中国---化工厂爆炸污染黑龙江事件(转自CNN.COM)

Russian environmental officials in the city of Khabarovsk said Monday they were fortifying water treatment facilities with 50 tons of activated carbon.

The spill comes from a chemical plant blast that released 100 tons of benzene into the Songhua River, forcing a major Chinese city to shut down its water system for days.

Residents in Harbin were waiting for word Monday on when the water would be safe enough to drink, a day after running water returned to the northeast Chinese city.

Russia's environmental watchdog said the spill could reach the first Russian settlements in the next two to three days, while the Emergencies Ministry said it could start affecting the major city of Khabarovsk by December 10-12. That city of 580,000 people draws its water from the Amur River, which is fed by the Songhua.

"Our main task is to make sure people have water," said Russia's chief state epidemiologist, Gennady Onishchenko, adding that more than one million people could be affected.

"Will we have to turn off the water supply? I cannot yet say with complete certainty," he told Reuters.

A top environmental safety officer from Russia told The Associated press that the activated carbon would be delivered on Monday and Wednesday.

As soon as the spill reached Russia, authorities would declare a state of emergency in the Khabarovsk region, Oleg Mitvol said.

It was difficult to predict the ecological consequences but Mitvol warned that the fish population of the Amur River would "suffer significantly," the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Hu Jintao's government apologized to the public and to neighboring Russia over the benzene spill.

Water service resumed ahead of schedule Sunday in Harbin, after the slick passed the city of almost 4 million people.

Harbin had spent more than four days without running water because of the spill in the Songhua River, its main source of water.

'Too dirty to drink'

Hu's government warned the public that supplies lying in pipes for five days were too dirty to drink, although safe enough for housecleaning and laundry, according to a report from AP.

The government said it would announce on radio and television when the water was safe enough first to bathe in and later to drink, the AP reported.

Zhang Zuoji, the governor of Heilongjiang province, took the first drink -- which he had pledged to do earlier in the week, according to the state-run Xinhua news service.

Local media will use a traffic-light system -- red for unusable, yellow for bathing only and green for drinking -- to indicate water safety levels over the next few days, the general manager of the city's water utility said, according to AP.

Before the taps were turned back on, Harbin residents lined up for another day in freezing winds with buckets and teakettles to collect free water from trucks with supplies from factory and brewery wells.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Harbin on Saturday and promised a thorough investigation and no governmental cover-up on the cause of the spill.

The benzene spill resulted from a November 13 explosion at a petrochemical plant, which also killed five people and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.

Used in gasoline, benzene is a cancer-causing substance.

The 50-mile spill flowed downstream, reaching Harbin last week. Officials cut off the city's water service, sparking widespread unease among residents -- who were not notified of the potential health hazard for days after the explosion.

Local officials said water would be phased in gradually, with hospitals, schools and other facilities receiving priority.

Rare apology

China's government over the weekend issued a rare apology to Russian officials over the spill, which should reach Khabarovsk within days.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing met with Sergey Razov, Russian ambassador to China, on Saturday in Beijing to offer the apology.

Li, "on behalf of the Chinese government, expressed his regret over the possible harms to be done to the Russian people by the major environmental pollution accident, saying China fully understands and attaches great importance to the concerns of the Russian side," Xinhua reported.

The two sides agreed to establish a hot line between environmental departments for communication on the issue, Li told Xinhua.

China will inform Russia of the latest developments daily and is ready to provide assistance and cooperation to Russia if needed, he said.

Razov said he appreciated the briefing, Xinhua reported, but "noted that the Russian central and local governments are very concerned about the impacts of the disaster."

Officials in Khabarovsk were preparing emergency plans including the possible shutdown of its water system, AP reported.

A senior Russian official visited the city on Saturday and said its water purification system was being quickly upgraded.

The Harbin crisis has underscored questions about the environmental costs of China's breakneck economic boom.

"Environmental problems in China are not something far away, but are threatening our daily life," Pan Yue, vice minister of environmental protection, told Xinhua.

In Lengshuijiang city in the southern province of Hunan, water supplies were suspended for 12 hours last Friday after fertilizer maker Jinxin Chemical Co. Ltd. accidentally spilled more than 100 cubic meters of ammonia nitrate into the Zijiang river, the Beijing Youth Daily said on Sunday.