Shanghai Daily/Xinhua

The head of a Jilin Province chemical company blamed for a toxic spill that poisoned the Songhua River has been removed from his post.
Yu Li, general manager of Jilin Petrochemical Co, is the second major figure to lose his job over the disaster following last Friday's resignation of the director of the state environmental protection agency.
Yu was among managers who "had responsibility" for the November 13 blast, said a newspaper run by the China National Petroleum Corp yesterday. CNPC is the parent of Jilin Petrochemical.
The manager of the benzene facility at the Jilin plant, Shen Dongming, and a boss of a safety workshop, Wang Fang, were also removed from their posts, according to the report.
The removals were announced at a CNPC meeting on Sunday, the report said.
The government blamed the accident on human error in a tower that processed benzene, a potentially cancer-causing compound used in making plastic, detergents and other products.
The announcement came as the spill of benzene flows toward Jiamusi, a city of 480,000 in neighboring Heilongjiang Province. Jiamusi shut down a water plant last Friday as a precaution against contamination. The slick is due to reach the city today, and then move into the Russian city of Khabarovsk next Sunday.
Heilongjiang has intensified monitoring of the water quality along the Songhua with the pollution spill belt flowing further downstream toward Jiamusi, the second largest city in the river's lower reaches.
Jiamusi has also launched water quality surveillance at several monitoring stations, including Dalai, Fujin, Tongjiang River stations and a downtown post.
As of 10am yesterday, the front of the pollution stretch was approaching Hongkeli Town, 323 kilometers from where the Songhua joins the Heilongjiang River, and its peak is flowing toward Gaoleng, 410km from the junction, the provincial environmental protection bureau said.
Reports from downstream monitoring stations say the density of nitrobenzene at Dalianhe River stood at 0.1932 milligrams per liter at 11pm on Sunday, 10.36 times higher than the national safety level, while benzene density was normal at 0.0019mg per liter.
Seven downstream schools affected by the benzene-laden pollution resumed operation yesterday in Yilan County with the safety of the water supply ensured, a local official said.
Benzene slick
More than 5,100 students and some 300 school staffers began to return to primary and middle schools in Dalianhe Town of Yilan, said Bao Bingyuan, director of the county's educational department.
Trucks have transported water for the schools' 5-ton daily consumption volume.
The county cut off the water supply last Thursday before the arrival of the benzene slick.
Students and teachers are receiving bottled drinking water daily from the school before the water supply reactivates, said Zhao Xin, a senior official with the county.
There are four towns in Yilan County, of which Dalianhe is the only one that relies on the Songhua for drinking water.