JIAMUSI, China (AP) – The head of a Chinese chemical company blamed for a toxic spill that poisoned a major river and strained relations with Russia has been removed from his post, the company said Monday.

The announcement came as the benzene spill on the Songhua River flowed toward this northeastern city of 480,000 people, which shut down a water plant Friday as a precaution against contamination. The slick was due to reach Jiamusi on Tuesday and the Russian city of Khabarovsk next week.

A Russian regional governor said Monday that the river-fed water system of Khabarovsk, a city of 580,000 people, would be cut for three days. He complained that Beijing was ignoring the environmental consequences of its dramatic economic progress.

“Swift economic growth is frequently achieved due to a scornful attitude to ecology by unqualified personnel,” Viktor Ishayev, governor of the Khabarovsk region, told officials at an emergency meeting.

Ishayev said the benzene was expected to cross the Russian border on Dec. 13 and it was likely the consequences of the spill would adversely affect the region for a year.

A report on a Web site run by China National Petroleum Corp. said Monday that Yu Li, general manager of the subsidiary Jilin Petrochemical Co., was among managers who “had responsibility” for the Nov. 13 benzene plant explosion and spill, and would lose his position.

The accident killed five people and dumped 100 tons of benzene and other chemicals into the Songhua, creating a 50-mile-long slick.

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 report said Yu also was credited with minimizing injuries and helping investigators. It didn’t say whether he would leave the company or face criminal charges.

A man who answered the phone in the CNPC secretary’s office and gave his name only as Division Chief Dai confirmed Yu was removed as general manager but wouldn’t give more information.

Yu was the second major figure to lose his job over the disaster. The director of China’s environmental protection agency resigned Friday.

The manager of the benzene facility at the Jilin plant, Shen Dongming, and a boss of a safety workshop, Wang Fang, also were removed from their posts, according to the CNPC Web site.

There has been no sign of possible punishment for Communist Party officials who were accused of trying to conceal the spill, the element of the disaster that has prompted the most public anger in China.

The spill forced a five-day shutdown in running water for 3.8 million people in the industrial center of Harbin. Other communities that rely on the Songhua for drinking water also have suspended water service.

In Jiamusi, the city shut down one water plant near the Songhua to prevent contamination. But the local government said it could continue to supply running water from wells. And it said a newly built water plant farther from the river could be rushed into operation if necessary.

The disaster prompted Chinese leaders to issue an unusual apology to the Chinese public and to Moscow. China has tried to repair relations with Russia by sending 150 tons of activated carbon to Khabarovsk for use in water-treatment facilities.

Still, China watchers said it was unlikely the unusually embarrassing incident would change an ingrained government practice of suppressing bad news.

In the emergency commission meeting in Russia, Ishayev noted that China has 16 petrochemical factories and the world’s largest pulp-and-paper combine on the Songhua, and said practically all work without any cleaning mechanism.

In Russia, the Songhua joins the Amur River, which passes through the regional capital.

Ishayev said tests showed the amount of the benzene in the river, while exceeding Chinese standards for maximum exposure, was within the Russian safe levels. He said river ice was slowing the progress of the benzene, which crystallizes and freezes in cold weather. Much of the Amur is now frozen.

Experts are hoping the benzene drifts to the sea in the ice.

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