Chinese Toxic Spill to Get into the Sea of Okhotsk

The benzene spill that got in the Amur river after a blast at a petrochemical plant in China may reach the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan. That opinion was voiced by Mrs. Liubov Kondratiev, Professor of the Khabarovsk Institute of Water and Ecology Problems attached to the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In her opinion, during the spring ice drift the transformation products of benzene derivatives may be carried by the river out into the Amur estuary and pollute coastal offshore waters. The toxic substances may affect the biological diversity of the Amur fluvial ecosystem.

Thus, says the scientist, there is a potential ecological risk of persistent toxic substances getting into the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan. In that case the problem of the pollution of the trans-border rivers may become topical not only for Russia and China, but also for Japan.