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Sungari River remains contaminated with poisonous substances

KHABAROVSK, March 31 (Itar-Tass) - The Sungari River remains seriously contaminated with heavy metals and poisonous substances, Alexei Makhinov, deputy director of the Water and Ecological Studies Institute of the Far Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Itar-Tass.

The monitoring shows that the water is seriously contaminated with organic compounds, heavy metals and much poisonous chlorine substances, he said.

Toxic concentrations higher than the safe levels for fishing are found in the water, ice and bottom sediment samples examined in Russian laboratories. There is high concentration of heavy metals, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, lead and nickel. The content of chlorphenol is 50 times higher than the safe level, chlororganic pesticides is five times higher and benzapyrene 3.7 times higher.

Chinese specialists reported low concentrations of nitrobenzene and benzene - 0.001 and 0.0007 mg a litre, a source at the Khabarovsk territorial government said.

The information was provided in line with the joint monitoring of the Amur basin. The samples were taken in the Chinese territory in mid-March.

No hasty conclusions on the contamination levels should be made, Makhinov believes. All the details must be clarified together with Chinese colleagues, and the test results must be checked and rechecked, he noted.

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