China Environmental Law

Hubei Province has been busy on the environmental enforcement front.  There are two stories out today about Hubei taking it to recalcitrant polluters.

First, Hubei Kexing Medical and Chemical Co. Ltd (”KMC”) was fined 200,000 yuan (about US$29,000) for discharging cyanide into the Hanjiang River, a major tributary of the Yangtze. 

Here are the facts: 

• KMC was named one of Xiangfan City’s 13 heavy polluters,
• was previously ordered to overhaul its operations and relocate from the riverbank,
• defied the orders and resumed production without approval on October 8, discharging unprocessed wastewater, including
• an excessive amount of cyanide was found in about 2,100 sqm of water near the company’s “limber hole” [sic, I think they mean discharge pipe],
• at least 100 dead fish were salvaged from the polluted area, but the pollution was ultimately contained and did not affect drinking water supplies. 

Given this history, the penalty levied isn’t particularly heavy.  The more significant news, in my opinion, is that Wen Ningan, the company’s vice general manager, was been put into detention for 15 days.  This most be an example of the new “administrative detention” which we reported in August ”could await those found responsible for illegally discharging hazardous chemicals into Chinese waters.”  Notice it wasn’t some guy who turned the valve or even the the guy in charge of wastewater who got the detention, but the vice general manager.  Time to start paying attention to those environmental compliance issues, or keep a toothbrush in your briefcase. 

Second, Hubei environmental officials recently closed “thirteen alloy smelting plants which have damaged farmers’ skin and heavily polluted their fields.”  

According to the news report, the smelters in question processed “the highly profitable alloy element vanadium” and released emissions into the environment containing “cadmium and arsenic.”  A batch of illegal smelters had been shut down in the same area in 2006, but they returned earlier this year after being forced out of neighboring Hunan Province.  

An excavator demolishes an illegal smelter in Jiangxintai Village on October 14, 2008. [Xinhua]

Contaminated waste water from the illegal operations apparently entered the irrigation system causing widespread contamination in the largely agricultural county.

“We can only leave the cotton to rot now,” farmer Shi Qiang told Hubei-based Changjiang Times newspaper. “Once we get in the field, we become itchy all over the body. Our skin even swells up and becomes rotten.”

Yikes!

Now here’s a local official I’d like to meet:

“There are still three plants operating right now. We will close them tonight,” Wen Qingsong, deputy head of the Hubei environmental protection bureau, told China Daily by phone yesterday.

“We removed the plants in 2006, but they came back strong this year. The local environmental bureau did its job. We will investigate how many farmers were affected, who is responsible and whether there was misconduct by local officials,” he said. 

Go get ‘em Mr. Wen, and kudos to Hubei Province.