China Environmental Law

Like the swallows to Capistrano, blue-green algae returns to Tai Lake.  The algae lacks the punctuality of the swallows, however, arriving it seems earlier and earlier every year.

In past years blue-green algae would appear in Lake Tai in July or August but last year it was detected at the end of May. This year the algae season has arrived even earlier. By the beginning of April, [Vice Director] Lin’s office [the Lake Tai Basin Administration] had already detected blue-green algae spreading across large areas in the west and south of the lake. He said the high density of nitrogen and phosphorus in the lake, favorable temperatures and slow moving currents had triggered the growth of the algae. Lin said Lake Tai would almost certainly be hit by another massive outbreak of blue-green algae this year, adding that his office is closely monitoring the ecological condition of the lake.

The algae is the result of “eutrophication, (an increase in chemical nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous), creating a perfect environment for the algae to flourish.”

The algae is green and slimy (the picture above is a “file photo,” so I can’t guarantee it’s this year’s algae), but that’s not the real problem. The algae produces microcystins, a natural toxin that can cause all sorts of terrible maladies. If you enjoy eating the occasional fish or other aquatic creature don’t read this article: .

The situation got so bad last year you may recall that the drinking water supply for 2+ million people was suspended for over 10 days.  These were not happy times for local residents:

Citizens are complaining that the tap water is so putrid that they can not wash with it. “The tap water stinks and has a yellowish color, the whole family has not taken a shower for two days,” said Shi Xiuying, a resident of Nanchang District. . . .

“The water quality is far beyond the limits of drinking water treatment. It should be treated in sewage plants,” said Zhou Liusong, a worker at the Nanquan Water Plant.

Efforts to clean up the lake began at least as early as 2002, but the initial “actions” produced disappointing results:

In August 2002, Wuxi officially launched a water treatment project that is a part of China’s national high technology research and development program. This project aims to research polluted water treatment and water quality improvement for Taihu Lake. It also includes bettering the water quality of the lake sections where people draw their drinking water. In the next three years, researchers obtained 134 patents, issued 434 essays and got 2 authorities-approved technological achievements. Unfortunately, none of these accomplishments has helped raise drinking water quality.

Taihu Lake is the drinking water sources of many areas around it so it is a key task to make sure that its water can meet quality standards, Professor Wang [Director of the Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences of Nanjing Normal University] said. No matter what technological achievements are achieved, what measures are taken, they do not count at all if the safety of drinking water cannot be assured, he added.

“Under current unfavorable circumstances, we should not spend our energy doing research on those basic theories,” he said. “I hope that researchers should take the best interests of the general public into consideration and focus on solving the problems of the quality of drinking water sources to keep people from harms caused by environmental pollution.”

Well put Professor Wang! The post-2007 outbreak measures appear more practical:

China has ordered all towns around Taihu, . . . to establish sewage treatment plants and insisted that chemical factories meet a new water emission standard by the end of June 2008.

Towns must set up sewage treatment plants and are forbidden from discharging untreated sewage to Taihu Lake and to rivers in the Taihu valley. Existing plants must install nitrogen and phosphorus removal facilities before the [June 2008] deadline, according to the plan. Chemical factories that fail to meet the new water emission standard risk suspension. They will be shut down permanently if they still fail to meet the standard by the end of next June.

In addition:

Chemical plants will be asked to pay 10.5 yuan (1.4 U.S. dollars) for each kilogram of COD, short for chemical oxygen demand, a major index to measure pollution, according to a pollution payment plan made by the Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau.

The prices of COD per kg are set at 5.2 yuan, 1.8 yuan and 2.3 yuan for dyeing, paper-making and brewing factories, respectively, the plan says. “The high prices will force polluting companies to upgrade their treatment facilities and reduce waste,” said Zhu Tiejun, the bureau’s deputy director. Currently, the polluting factories only pay about one yuan for the treatment of their waste by special plants. According to Zhu, the plan will first cover 266 key polluting factories near the lake. Based on the practice, fees will also be imposed for the discharge of other pollutants, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, from 2009.

Don’t expect any short term miracles, however; provincial officials are determined  “to eradicate water pollution from Taihu Lake over a period of 15 years.” It will apparently take that long for them to work their way through all those essays.

In the meantime, the mighty Yangtze has been called in again to help:

In an attempt to defeat the algae, water from the Yangtze River has been diverted to Lake Tai in order to raise the water level and speed up currents. A total of 1.19 billion cubic-meters of water will be diverted to the lake this year.

That’s a lot of water!

This story will continue to develop over the summer, and we will keep you posted on what, if any, legal actions are taken post-June 30.