The ministry said federal and local authorities were doing everything possible to minimize the environmental impact of the spill, caused by a November 13 explosion at a petrochemicals plant in northeastern China.
According to Chinese environmental authorities, the benzene concentration in the 113-kilometer slick is 21 times the norm. The spill has moved 250 kilometers (155 miles) downstream, but was still 455 kilometers (283 miles) from the Amur Thursday morning, traveling at one kilometer (half a mile) per hour.
The Amur River flows through Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region and the Khabarovsk Territory, where telephone hotlines have now been set up to provide local residents with updated information on the spill.
Tap water supplies are currently shut down in Dalianhe, a Chinese city of 30,000 people, Hong Kong's RTHK-3 radio station reported. Yilan, with a population of 110,000, will be the next to suffer the consequences of the spill.
