Shanghai Daily
August 24, 2006

Environmental protection officials in Jilin province dispatched thousands of police to build three dams on the Manghe River in a bid to keep a five-kilometre-long chemical pollution belt from reaching the nearby Songhua River.

A five-kilometre-long pollution belt was found in a branch of northeastern China’s Songhua River in Jilin Province, Xinhua news agency said. The environment protection authority of Jilin, capital city of the province, received the report that a chemical plant spilled wastewater into the river on Monday, Xinhua said. Officials from the authority found a 5-kilometer long pollution belt in the Manghe River, a branch of the Songhua River, which contained a high density of dimethylaniline. “In some areas of the polluted river, the water was red, and foam could be seen on the surface of the water,” the officials said. Luckily, it’s not a threat to the Songhua River as no contamination has been detected in the river till now, said the Jilin government. Still, the provincial environment protection bureau dispatched thousands of police to built three dams, one to block and two for purify, on the Manghe River eight kilometers away from its entry into the Songhua River. Legal representative and the responsible workers from the chemical plant who spilt the wastewater into the river have been placed into custody, Xinhua said. Last November, a chemical plant blast in northeastern Jilin Province released 100 tons of toxic benzene and nitrobenzene into the Songhua River, compelling officials to cut off water supplies to millions of people. It was one of China’s biggest environmental accidents since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Xie Zhenhua, the director of the State Environmental Protection Administration resigned after the Songhua River spill. Last year, 27 officials involved in seven pollution incidents were prosecuted and convicted. “We’ll take into account the handling of environmental issues in the evaluation of local officials. Those who fail to meet requirements will pay a price for turning a blind eye to the law,” said Zhou Shengxian, head of the State Environmental Protection Administration, in a previous report.