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Purge on polluting ships and gas stations
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SHANGHAI authorities have stepped up efforts to crack down on both ships using fuel oil containing excessive sulphur, a major air pollutant, and gas stations that sell substandard oil.
In a joint action by the city’s quality watchdog and maritime authorities, four oil tanks at gas stations, two container ships and six river barges were inspected yesterday, with 14 diesel oil samples tested.
One sample was found to contain 558.8 milligrams of sulphur per kilogram of oil, 10 times higher than the standard set by the city, the Shanghai Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau said. Officials said investigation was under way to trace the sample’s origin. Laboratory tests of all the samples would take two to three days, the bureau said.
The Shanghai Maritime Bureau said yesterday it had checked 1,441 ships from April to August, and 24 cases involving the use of excessive amount sulphur oil were acted upon.
In addition, 15 cases involving ships emitting too much black smoke were punished in the April-August period, the bureau said.
Shanghai has started implementing its own standard — the strictest in China — on the amount of sulphur for oil used by ships since April to curb pollution.
The city’s local standard rules that the maximum amount of sulphur contained in oil used by ships should be less than 50 milligrams per kilogram, compared with the current national standard of 350 milligrams.
The standard applies to any ships that stop in Shanghai for more than an hour, though ships passing by the city are not targeted, according to the supervision bureau.
From next year, the national standard will also be cut to 50 milligrams per kilogram for ships in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and water areas in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province, officials said.
“The amount of sulphur in fuel oil used by ships is the biggest factor for air pollution caused by ships, and excessive sulphur is also a major problem for oil used by ships that fail tests because there are some illegal gas stations in the market,” said Wang Haibin, an official with the Pudong New Area Maritime Office.
“Some ship owners have no awareness on the quality of fuel oil, not to mention the amount of sulphur, and some are driven by profit to use illegal oil to lower transport costs,” said Wang.
Ship owners will face a fine of up to 10,000 yuan (US$1,500) for using oil containing excessive sulphur, while gas stations will have illegal profits confiscated and face being fined three times the sum of their illegal profits.
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