Lake restored as firm cleans up act
Source: Xinhua |
July 16, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THREE years ago, the water in Hongfeng Lake, in southwest China's Guizhou Province, was undrinkable.
The seepage from 3 million tons of chemical waste piled up over decades by the shores of the lake had turned it into a toxic mess.
Hongfeng Lake is the drinking water source of more than 3.6 million residents of Guiyang, the provincial capital, but it seemed that nothing could be done to clean it up.
"Three years ago, people would become sick if they drank water in this lake," He Xiaoyi, a tourist guide tells visitors as she drinks directly from its waters.
The provincial environmental protection department had handed down about 10 administrative orders to demand the main polluter, Tianfeng Chemicals Co Ltd, which is located in Anshun City, to suspend production.
The suspension orders, if executed, would have left thousands of Tianfeng workers without stable income. They besieged the offices of the municipal government and blocked traffic on the city's major roads in protest.
The Anshun City government asked the provincial government to stop the administrative orders. The provincial government, with social stability as its top concern, complied.
But the company's immunity from the law came to an end in 2007 when the People's Court of Qingzhen City, under the jurisdiction of Guiyang, set up a tribunal for environment protection.
Tianfeng, one of the largest chemical companies in Guizhou, was the first defendant at the tribunal, which handed down a civil verdict, ordering Tianfeng to take measures to curb pollution in the lake within three months.
Cai Ming, the chief judge of the tribunal, says the lawsuit against Tianfeng was a civil case. If the company failed to stop the pollution by the deadline, Dai Wendian, Tianfeng's vice general manager in charge of production, would have faced criminal prosecution and a possible jail sentence.
The company dismantled production equipment of ammonium phosphate, installed an anti-seepage membrane and cleared up the phosphogypsum residue, says Cai.
At the end of last year, the phosphorus content of the lake was 57.2 percent down from the levels of 2007, according to the city's municipal environmental protection department.
The seepage from 3 million tons of chemical waste piled up over decades by the shores of the lake had turned it into a toxic mess.
Hongfeng Lake is the drinking water source of more than 3.6 million residents of Guiyang, the provincial capital, but it seemed that nothing could be done to clean it up.
"Three years ago, people would become sick if they drank water in this lake," He Xiaoyi, a tourist guide tells visitors as she drinks directly from its waters.
The provincial environmental protection department had handed down about 10 administrative orders to demand the main polluter, Tianfeng Chemicals Co Ltd, which is located in Anshun City, to suspend production.
The suspension orders, if executed, would have left thousands of Tianfeng workers without stable income. They besieged the offices of the municipal government and blocked traffic on the city's major roads in protest.
The Anshun City government asked the provincial government to stop the administrative orders. The provincial government, with social stability as its top concern, complied.
But the company's immunity from the law came to an end in 2007 when the People's Court of Qingzhen City, under the jurisdiction of Guiyang, set up a tribunal for environment protection.
Tianfeng, one of the largest chemical companies in Guizhou, was the first defendant at the tribunal, which handed down a civil verdict, ordering Tianfeng to take measures to curb pollution in the lake within three months.
Cai Ming, the chief judge of the tribunal, says the lawsuit against Tianfeng was a civil case. If the company failed to stop the pollution by the deadline, Dai Wendian, Tianfeng's vice general manager in charge of production, would have faced criminal prosecution and a possible jail sentence.
The company dismantled production equipment of ammonium phosphate, installed an anti-seepage membrane and cleared up the phosphogypsum residue, says Cai.
At the end of last year, the phosphorus content of the lake was 57.2 percent down from the levels of 2007, according to the city's municipal environmental protection department.
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