U.S. Water News Online
SHANGHAI, China -- China's major waterways already face severe pollution from factories built along their banks and several dozen new construction projects will be halted to protect the water from further threat, a top environment official said.
A review of 127 major chemical and petrochemical projects found many were located too close to major bodies of water, Pan Yue, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Agency, said in remarks seen on his agency's Web site.
"These environmental risks cannot be solved within a short time, as the cost of relocation of the projects is too high," Pan was quoted as saying.
Pan said the environmental agency has suspended approvals of another 44 projects with a total planned investment of 149.5 billion yuan ($18.7 billion) because of their locations.
He faulted officials for pursuing projects unsuitable for local conditions, for operating unsafe port facilities and for a lack of awareness of environmental issues. Impact assessments need to be deeper and more thorough, Pan said.
The inspections of existing chemical facilities, prompted by an explosion last November at a chemical plant that released tons of toxic chemicals in the Songhua River in northeastern China, found 20 with serious environmental safety problems, Pan said.
The projects included oil refining, ethylene and methanol factories involving 60.6 billion yuan ($7.6 billion) in investments. Eleven were located along the Yangtze River, one on the Yellow River and two at Daya Bay, near Hong Kong.
The government has ordered those plants to take immediate action to fix the problems, and allocated 1.62 billion yuan ($202 million) to fund improvements, the report said.
China needs to further strengthen pre-construction environmental assessment procedures to prevent future problems, Pan said.
The environmental agency has repeatedly seen its attempts to close down or stop construction of projects accused of violating environmental safeguards overridden or ignored.
Some areas have reported progress in cleaning up heavily polluted waters, but most of China's canals, rivers and lakes are severely tainted by industrial, agricultural and household pollution. Only a bit more than a third of the 3.7 billion tons of waste water discharged by China's huge cities each year is treated.
The government earlier reported that China has suffered 76 more water pollution accidents since the November spill into the Songhua River.
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