Chief suspended after mine spill
By Wang Xiang |
July 17, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE head of Shanghang County in southeast China's Fujian Province has been suspended after a copper mine in the county polluted a river and killed thousands of fish.
A vice head of Shanghang has been asked to resign and the local head of environmental protection authority was sacked, China Central Television reported last night.
Meanwhile, three managers at the copper mine have been detained.
Police have taken away the manager, deputy manager and an environmental protection official of the Zijinshan copper plant owned by Hong Kong-listed Zijin Mining Group Co, China's largest gold mining company.
More than 9,000 cubic meters of acidic water leaked from the plant on July 3 over a 10-hour period. The waste water, containing acidic copper, flowed into the Tingjiang River, poisoning about 1.9 million kilograms of fish in the Mianhuatan Reservoir.
The company has been criticized for waiting nine days to reveal the spill. Zhao Jugang, head of Zijin's stocks department, said that they did not want to cause panic.
More than half a million people living in Shanghang all used water from the contaminated river. The government said the water was not harmful to health but people still stopped using tap water.
Xinhua news agency reported yesterday that a joint investigation by the Fujian provincial and Longyan municipal environmental protection authorities found the water leak had involved a number of the plant's tanks, including one sewage tank, due to poor maintenance.
Persistent heavy rain in the past weeks caused the seal of the sewage tank to burst, according to the investigation.
The investigators said the company and local environmental protection authorities failed to detect the pollution promptly because water quality monitoring facilities in the lower reaches of the Tingjiang River were damaged.
The plant has been ordered to suspend production and improve anti-leak measures on all its tanks.
Most fish at local fish farms died and the government has ordered the company to pay 3 yuan per kilogram in compensation for the dead fish.
The massive fish kill was not the first incident involving Zijin. the same river was polluted when sewage spilled last month. In May, the company was criticized for failing to take corrective measures after its waste channeled into the river was not safe.
A vice head of Shanghang has been asked to resign and the local head of environmental protection authority was sacked, China Central Television reported last night.
Meanwhile, three managers at the copper mine have been detained.
Police have taken away the manager, deputy manager and an environmental protection official of the Zijinshan copper plant owned by Hong Kong-listed Zijin Mining Group Co, China's largest gold mining company.
More than 9,000 cubic meters of acidic water leaked from the plant on July 3 over a 10-hour period. The waste water, containing acidic copper, flowed into the Tingjiang River, poisoning about 1.9 million kilograms of fish in the Mianhuatan Reservoir.
The company has been criticized for waiting nine days to reveal the spill. Zhao Jugang, head of Zijin's stocks department, said that they did not want to cause panic.
More than half a million people living in Shanghang all used water from the contaminated river. The government said the water was not harmful to health but people still stopped using tap water.
Xinhua news agency reported yesterday that a joint investigation by the Fujian provincial and Longyan municipal environmental protection authorities found the water leak had involved a number of the plant's tanks, including one sewage tank, due to poor maintenance.
Persistent heavy rain in the past weeks caused the seal of the sewage tank to burst, according to the investigation.
The investigators said the company and local environmental protection authorities failed to detect the pollution promptly because water quality monitoring facilities in the lower reaches of the Tingjiang River were damaged.
The plant has been ordered to suspend production and improve anti-leak measures on all its tanks.
Most fish at local fish farms died and the government has ordered the company to pay 3 yuan per kilogram in compensation for the dead fish.
The massive fish kill was not the first incident involving Zijin. the same river was polluted when sewage spilled last month. In May, the company was criticized for failing to take corrective measures after its waste channeled into the river was not safe.
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