China Environmental Law

I know its hard to keep the incidents of environmental poisonings straight in China. Today’s post involves the more than 300 children living in the shadow of a lead and zinc smelting facility in Fengxiang county, Shaanxi province who have been reported with levels of lead in their blood so high they were exhibiting symptoms of lead poisoning.

The Shaanxi Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting Factory was contacted yesterday by China Daily regarding this problem and were told by a factory employee, surnamed Liang that “he believed the factory would present a ‘reasonable’ explanation and solution to the poisoning.”

Well the factory issued a statement today, and I will let you be the judge of how “reasonable” it is and whether it presents any solutions.  Here’s the China Daily report:

The factory blamed for the lead poisoning of more than 300 children is refusing to take responsibility for the incident in Shaanxi province.

[F]actory officials said the local government’s slow relocation of those villagers caused their ill health.

The local government allegedly promised the factory owners it would relocate 581 nearby households when it invited the company to settle at the industrial park in 2003.

But the relocation has been slow due to lack of funds, and only about one third have been moved.

“The local government should take care of the victims,” the director of the factory’s administrative office, who only gave his surname Mao, told China Daily yesterday.

“The agreement between the government and our factory says the government took responsibility for the relocation work when our project started in 2003.”

The government moved about 200 households in 2005 and 2006 as scheduled, but the relocation process was stopped in 2006, leaving about 400 households where they were, the director said.

“So it’s the government’s fault not having moved away all the nearby households,” Mao said.

The law states that lead and zinc smelting factories are not allowed to be in operation if there are people living within one kilometer of their operations.  However, when the Dongling smelter began operations in 2005, with the blessing of the local authorities, more than 400 families still lived within a kilometer of the site.

The local government is by no means blameless, and has promised to give free treatment to the effected children (that is the least they could do).  But how effective is treatment if these children continue to get a big daily dose of lead?  In these circumstances, the callous tone of the factory’s statement is pretty shocking.  Production should be stopped at this facility until the nearby residents are moved.  Liability can be sorted out later.  Is there really any question that this is the only defensible solution?