The Amur River splits into a maze of small branches that flow through or near Khabarovsk before rejoining again downstream from the city and officials said the impact of the spill on the city could depend on currents and concentrations of chemicals in waters that entered the city.
The emergency situations ministry said the water was being turned off briefly in an area south of Khabarovsk for a technical check, but officials said they had no plans to shut down water supplies in Khabarovsk.
"The latest tests show no sign" of toxicity in waters anywhere in the city and any benzene that does enter urban waterways "can be handled by the charcoal filters that we have in place," a spokesman for the regional emergency situations ministry office said.
The spill was caused by an explosion at a chemical factory in China on Nov. 13 that resulted in 90 tonnes of benzene, a known carcinogen, being dumped in the Songhua River, a tributary of the Amur.
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