China's biggest oil company apologized for an explosion that polluted a northeastern river with benzene and prompted the government to cut off running water to 3.8 million people, while another blast in the country's southwest raised fears yesterday of a second toxic spill.
Zeng Yukang (曾玉康), deputy general manager of China National Petroleum Corp, expressed "sympathy and deep apologies" late on Thursday to the people of Harbin and others in China's northeast whose water supply was shut down due to the huge benzene slick in the Songhua River, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The government, which blamed CNPC for the disaster, did not publicly confirm that the Songhua was poisoned with benzene until Wednesday -- 10 days after the spill was caused by a blast upstream at a chemical plant owned by a CNPC subsidiary. The slick reached Harbin early on Thursday.
Environmental officials have defended the government's handling of the incident, saying that local authorities were advised of the spill and that nobody was sickened by the poisoned water.
However, the disaster highlighted the environmental damage caused by China's sizzling economic growth and complaints that the secretive communist government fails to enforce safety standards.
State television yesterday sought to depict the situation in Harbin as under control, showing scores of workers installing new water filtering material at the city's main water plant. They were replacing anthracite with activated carbon, which can absorb pollutants, China Central Television said.
Meanwhile, another chemical plant accident hundreds of kilometers away prompted fears of another benzene leak and warnings that residents not drink river water, Xinhua said yesterday.
The second incident took place in Dianjiang, a county in the southwestern region of Chongqing, where an explosion at the Yingte Chemical Company on Thursday killed one worker, Xinhua said. Nearby schools were closed, and about 6,000 people were evacuated, the Beijing Daily Messenger newspaper reported.
The massive slick in Harbin also was created by an explosion -- on Nov. 13 at a CNPC subsidiary plant. The blast killed five people and forced the evacuation of 10,000 others. Authorities blamed human error at a tower that processed benzene, a toxic, potentially cancer-causing chemical used in making plastics, detergents and pesticides.
Zhang Lijun (
"Authorities acted that day, and not one person has been sickened," Zhang said. "We will be very clear about who's responsible. It is the chemical plant of the CNPC."
Asked whether the company might face criminal charges or fines over the estimated 105 tonnes of pollutants released into the river, he said that had not been decided.
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