Power firm managers punished for Yangtze River diesel oil spill

Two managers of a power generating company in southwest China were sacked and another was given a warning following a 17-ton diesel oil spill which polluted the Yangtze River and affected the local water supply.

Gou Faquan, deputy general engineer of Chuannan Power Generating Company, and Cheng Zhongfei, deputy head in charge of boilers, were both sacked for lax supervision, said the Sichuan Environmental Protection Administration on Monday.

The board of directors of the company was instructed to give the general manager, Shi Xun, a formal warning.

The company was also fined 200,000 yuan (25,000 U.S. dollars).

The Luzhou power generating factory, which belongs to Chuannan Power Company, leaked nearly 17 tons of diesel oil into the Yangtze River, China's longest, on Nov. 6 after a diesel oil storage device broke during a debugging operation, according to the administration.

The spill interrupted the local water supply company for several hours, although residents' water supplies were not much affected, it said.

The oil slick moved down the river to neighboring regions because the company's underestimated the volume of oil involved and this hampered de-pollution activities, said the administration.

The spill was finally cleared in the river's Chongqing section ten days after the leak.

Source: Xinhua