Nearly 2 million kilograms of fish in a reservoir of the Tingjiang river were poisoned or killed as a result of the leak which occurred on July 11.

By Guo Qiang

The country's largest gold producer was blamed Monday for a wastewater leak that has contaminated a major river in eastern Fujian Province, and the incident is shedding light on the fragility of China's ecological system due to accelerated industrialization.

The Hong Kong-listed Zijin Mining Group suspended its stock trading Monday but shied away from an apology and was absent at a press conference Monday where local authorities in Shanghang county briefed reporters on damage-control efforts.

The leak occurred July 3 and came from a plant at the Zijinshan mine, owned by the Zijin Mining Group, according to a statement sent to the Global Times by the county government of Shanghang, where the group is headquartered.

An initial investigation attributed damage to the contaminant pool's leakage-protection membrane, according to Lan Fuyan, deputy county head, who spoke at Monday's press conference in Shanghang.

"The runoff is composed of acidic copper wastewater and contains no lethal substances," and the county government has urged Zijin to suspend its production and take corrective measures, Lan said, according to the statement.

Following damage-control efforts by the government, since Thursday, the PH balance in the affected waters of the Tingjiang River have returned to 6 to 7.22, and the copper ion content in the waters has been normal, based on the Grade III National Surface Water Quality Standard, Lan said. There are five surface-water standards, with Grade I being the best and Grade V the worst.

Zijin announced the suspension of trading in its H-shares, according to a statement from its official website released Monday. The suspension is related to the contamination, Fan Cheung Man, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for the group, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

Zhou Yongming, a company spokesman, told the Global Times that "the case was under investigation, and it is up to the higher authorities to determine responsibilities."

"If we are found to be fully responsible for the pollution, we will compensate for the damage we've caused, and relevant personnel of the company will be held liable," Zhou said.

"The Zijin Mining Group is a company that dares to face up to its responsibilities. We welcome you to inspect us when you are available," Yao Hong, a spokesman of the company, said in an e-mail to the Global Times Monday.

No human illnesses or deaths caused by the contamination have been reported, but the public has moved quickly to take precautions.

Zhang Jianyong, a resident in Shanghang county, told the Global Times that "I had heard about the reservoir pollution a long time ago, so I only drink bottled water instead of drinking (reservoir) water out of safety concerns." But he said he cannot avoid using the reservoir water to take baths or wash clothes.

Nearly 2 million kilograms of fish in a reservoir on the Tingjiang river have been killed or poisoned as a result of the contamination, reports indicate, and smell of dead fish is noticeable 10 kilometers from the reservoir.

 
Fish farmers in Haokang village, Xiadu town, Shanghang county, Fujian Province look at fish that were killed after being contaminated during the leak of July 12. 

Companies in the spotlight

The Zijin group said on its website that "We pursue gold and silver, but we care more about clear water and green mountains."

But the company was found to be involved in a series of pollution incidents since 2006 in northern Hebei and southwestern Guizhou provinces, according to China Entrepreneur magazine.

As early as May 2009, the Ministry of Environmental Protection blamed Zijin for failing to improve its pollution treatment and control.

Zijin is among 175 Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that were cited as environmental violators in an April report by the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPEA), a Beijing-based non-governmental organization lobbying for environmental protection. The NGO said it had been tracking the HK-listed companies since 2006.

One of the violators is Tsingtao Brewery, China's best-known beer brand, which had more than 20 environmental violations recorded across the mainland from 2004 to 2009, according to the report.

The headquarters of Zijin Mining Group, in Shanghang county, Fujian Province, can be seen in this photo taken on July 12.

Environmental concerns in China have mounted in recent years after three decades of rapid industrialization and economic growth, which has resulted in increasing widespread damage to the country's air, land and rivers.

More than 300 million people in China have no access to clean and safe drinking water, according to a World Health Organization survey.

The most serious polluting case in recent years took place in 2005, when an estimated 100 tons of pollutants containing benzene and nitrobenzene entered the Songhua River in the northeast region due to an explosion at a plant owned by China National Petroleum Corporation, China's largest oil and gas producer and supplier.

To cope with the increasing environmental damage, the central government announced last year that it would invest up to 3.1 trillion yuan ($454 billion) in environmental protection in the five years to 2015, with about one-third earmarked for pollution-control facilities.

The reservoir is now empty, as the fish were all killed or poisoned by a wastewater leak which occurred on July 11.

Ma Jun, director of the IPEA, told the Global Times that the weak enforcement of environmental regulations and the protection of companies by local governments that seek GDP growth have led to unreduced incidents of water pollution.

"Tighter enforcement and imposition of higher fines is key to making environmental violations more costly to companies," he said.

Given that the evaluation system of government officials based on GPD index can't be changed very soon, he added, it is important for environmental protection agencies to require companies to disclose to other stakeholders key environmental information, including discharge methods, the concentration and total volume of emissions.

"The public, especially local communities, should be allowed to participate in the process of drafting environmental regulations and environmental governance," he said.

Song Shengxia and Zhao Zhijie contributed to this story