More environmental "storms" are needed

China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) will launch a new round of inspections on 127 key chemical and petroleum projects along rivers and lakes, densely populated areas and nature reserves to prevent sudden and serious environmental pollutions from happening.

The 127 projects have a combined investment of about 450 billion yuan or 55 billion U.S. dollars.

Vice minister of SEPA Pan Yue told reporters that the inspection follows the national environmental security inspection after the Songhua River pollution in northeast China last November.

The national inspection has found that there is obvious potential environmental danger in chemical and petroleum industries due to their structure and distribution.

"30 out of 78 enterprises inspected are unreasonably distributed. Some high-polluting and highly dangerous projects have been built in densely populated areas or the upper reaches of the rivers or lakes which are water sources for people. " said Pan Yue.

"The new round of checks is a more active response and a systematic approach to the environmental potential threats," said an expert from Tsinghua University.

Over the past two and half months, there have been 45 serious pollution accidents shocking the nation. They included the chromium pollutions in Beijiang River in South China's Guangdong Province and Xiangjiang River in Hunan Province, the diesel leaking accident which caused pollution to the Yellow River by Henan Gongyi No. 2 Power Plant, as well as water quality pollutions in Hongshui River in Guangxi and Hunhe River in Liaoning Province.

During the national inspection, 11 polluting enterprises have been told to close down or to correct their behavior by installing and operating waste treatment equipments. These accidents included noise pollution and ecological damage on part of the Guangzhou-Zhanjiang expressway and water source pollution in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province which caused 22 hours suspension of water supply to 300 thousand people. The "801" factory that discharged the waste water has been ordered to install an online monitoring equipment so that their discharge will be up to the standard.

A paper-making company in Dandong, Liaoning Province has also been ordered to close down. Other enterprises such as Baiyin Nonferrous Metals Co in Gansu Province and Xingtai Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. in Hebei Province have also been told to move their sites or install and operate their environmental protection equipment.

SEPA also named 10 metal, transportation and power projects under construction or in trial operation near rivers, areas of dense population or nature reserves as posing serious environmental danger.

By People's Daily Online