Cyanide near Tianjin waters 277 times acceptable level

SHANGHAI—Chinese authorities warned that cyanide levels in the waters around the Tianjin Port explosion site had risen to as muchas 277 times acceptable levels although they declared that the city’s drinking water was safe.

The local government also said it would relocate chemical plants away from the area, where thousands of nearby residents were forced to evacuate after toxic chemicals were detected in the air due to the explosions last week, which killed 114 people.

A report from the Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau issued on Wednesday said that tests conducted the day before showed that cyanide levels in the river, sea and waste water in the evacuated area surrounding the explosion site had risen sharply since the deadly blasts. One testing site at the mouth of a rain water pipe recorded cyanide levels 277 times above acceptable standards.

Drinking water in Tianjin, however, met national standards, according to a separate statement from health authorities on Tuesday.

The government has confirmed there were about 700 tons of the deadly chemical sodium cyanide in the warehouse that blew up late last Wednesday.

Tianjin, the world’s 10th-busiest port, will relocate chemical plants from the Tianjin Binhai New Area where the blasts occurred to the Nangang Industrial Zone, 25 kilometers away, according to the official China Daily, citing Tianjin Mayor Huang Xingguo.

The Communist party’s antigraft watchdog promised to crack down both on corruption and on those responsible for violating laws and regulations which had led to the explosions but stressed the importance of maintaining political stability, according to a statement on the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection website on Thursday.

Chinese state media onWednesday pointed fingers at executives of Ruihai, the company which owns the chemical warehouses, over the disaster, saying they used connections to obtain fire safety and environmental approvals.

The Tianjin government announced on Wednesday that after days of investigations, they had determined the warehouses contained 2,500 tons of 40 types of dangerous goods, classified into three categories, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

There were 1,300 tons of potentially explosive oxidizing chemicals, including ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate, 500 tons of flammables, including sodium and magnesium, and 700 tons of deadly poisons, mainly sodium cyanide.