A quick summary of events:
On December 30th, diesel oil was discovered gushing into the Wei River, a tributary of the Yellow River, China's second longest waterway and a key source of potable water for the country's northern population.
The diesel oil (estimated to be about 150,000 liters worth) came from a break in a pipeline owned by China National Petroleum Corporation. Initially press reports said that CNPC claimed a third-party construction outfit caused the break, but more recent reports quoting government officials say the rupture occurred during a CNPC test of the pipeline.
Over the weekend, cleanup teams on the Wei River dug diversion channels and put in a number of floating dams to prevent the oil from flowing into the Yellow River, and they set up several testing stations downstream.
Yesterday (Monday), diesel traces were discovered at the dam in Sanmenxia, a city of 2.2 million located 100 kilometers downstream from the confluence of the Wei and Yellow rivers. The dam has since been shut down and cities further downstream alerted to the possibility that their main source of drinking water has been contaminated.
Some press links to the story:
Xinhua
Wall Street Journal
China's drinking water situation, particularly in the northern part of the country, has been growing steadily more fragile for years now. In 2006, China's environmental authorities concluded that "industrial pollution accidents have been the major culprit behind poor drinking water safety in recent years" and were likely to be a significant factor in future disasters.
The statistics quoted from the 2006 meeting use mind-bogglingly big numbers, like most things in China:
Currently, more than 300 million rural residents, nearly a quarter of China’s total population, lack access to clean drinking water. A monthly report on water quality released by China National Environmental Monitoring Center in June showed that drinking water quality in 16 out of 113 key cities assessed was below national standards. Of drinking water sources, 74, or 20.1 percent of the total surveyed, fell short of quality requirements, while 527 million tons of drinking water, or 32.3 percent of the total, was unsuitable for drinking.
Also noted at the time was the threat of industrial operations, particularly petrochemical operations and their proximity to watercourses:
According to estimates, more than 13,000 petrochemical factories out of the national total of 21,000 were built along the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, two of China’s major water arteries. Most such factories lack strict environmental protection measures, and the consequences of future spills or other accidents would be devastating.
To make matters worse, parts of northern and southern China experienced
a severe drought this year that caused water shortages for millions of people and crop failures.
Environmental pollution is one of the flashpoints for civil unrest in China, and senior officials are not immune to scapegoating:
The accident recalled an earlier disaster in 2005, when a chemical spill in the Songhua River forced authorities to temporarily cut off water supplies for more than three million people in the northern city of Harbin. The spill resulted in the resignation of China's top environmental regulator.
A key official here is Zhang Lijun -- the Vice-Minister for the Ministry of Environmental Protection, formerly the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). So far he's been quite visible in the media in terms of responding to this situation. But many analysts believe that the regulators have little real power under these circumstances given the immensity of the problem.
Not surprisingly, CNPC happen to be the proverbial 800 pound gorilla of the oil industry -- China's largest oil and gas producer and supplier with oil and gas assets and interests in 29 countries. They produce 57.06% of China's total crude oil and 79.5% of its natural gas. In addition to being one of the country's largest SOEs (state-owned enterprises), they're also a publicly traded company on the New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
Whether or not this latest tragedy can be an impetus for better regulation and environmental protection is in question, but given China's economic imperative and the players involved it's unlikely.