By staff reporter Yu Dawei

From Caijing Online

The director of a chemical factory in Yancheng confessed on the evening of February 23 that he told his staff to pour 30 tons of wastewater into a nearby drain, which ran into the river and polluted the water supply.

A Yancheng resident discovered “a strong smell in the water, like pesticides,” when he turned on the faucet early on the morning of February 20. “[I knew] something must be wrong,” he said.

Within hours, the whole city was engulfed in a horrible stench, which was later confirmed to be a chemical leak at a factory near the western water station of Yancheng City, which is in northern Jiangsu.

There are three water stations in Yancheng City, among which the western water station is the largest with a capacity of 115,000 tons of water a day. Shutting down the western water station cut the city’s total water supply in half, leaving almost the whole western region in drought.

The Yancheng government launched a water supply emergency plan on February 20, asking the eastern water station to operate at its full capacity for the 600,000 Yancheng residents. It asked local water resource offices to open the sluice gate of the source river, speeding up the current to the sea and pushing out the polluted water. The government also stopped part of the industrial water supply and provided bottled water and deep well water to local residents.

On February 22, the water no longer smelled, and the western water station began operating on a trial base, after the water tested negative for pollution.

The Yancheng western water station resumed operation at 2 AM on February 23, three days after the chemical contamination.

According to the Yancheng government, the chemical factory will be moved out of Yancheng. The top managers of the factory will be punished, and the water supply of the western water station will be closely supervised, government officials said.

The western water station has always been the focus of the city’s water supply management because its water source is located at the river delta, where industrial wastewater amasses. The river has relatively little capacity to dilute the wastewater, and is at risk of contamination from over the 10 million tons of chemicals carried on ships in the source river.

Full article in Chinese: http://www.caijing.com.cn/2009-02-23/110072523.html