Yellow River Runs Red in Lanzhou

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In early December, the Yellow River, China’s second longest, turned red for the third time in three consecutive months. The discoloration, which authorities say was caused by industrial contamination, occurred in the section of the river running through Lanzhou, the capital of western Gansu province and a city of 2 million people.

According to the Lanzhou Morning Post, the pollution was the result of illegal industrial discharges from a paper manufacturing plant, which continues to pour nearly 2,000 tons of under-treated wastewater daily into a local tributary. In October and November, a central heating station that dyes its boiler water to prevent residents from siphoning it off was suspected of causing two similar spills, turning a one-kilometer section of the river red for several hours at a time, Xinhua News reported.

In February, China’s State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) and the Ministry of Supervision temporarily suspended the activities of the offending paper company, urging it to improve its pollution control technology before resuming production. Since then, the facility has invested large amounts of money in updating its wastewater treatment devices and installing automatic systems for monitoring chemical oxygen demand (COD), a measure of pollution, according to the company’s technical engineer.

The engineer argued that the wastewater’s brownish color is not unusual since regulations do not require the monitoring of either color or suspended matter; he also called the non-attainment of outflow standards “excusable” because the company is still under a three-month testing period. Officials with the Lanzhou Environmental Protection Bureau, however, said the company has not yet passed SEPA’s pollution tests and that the agency does in fact require the industry to monitor both color and suspended matter in its outflows.

This latest incident reflects only the tip of iceberg of the worsening pollution situation in China’s rivers, lakes, and canals. According to Pan Yue, vice president of SEPA, some 150 water pollution accidents have been reported on northeastern China’s Songhua River since a benzene spill last November attracted international attention, with one incident occurring on average every 2–3 days. Pollution of the Yellow River is not rare either: in 2004, nearly 100 million tons of wastewater, mainly from municipal and industrial sources, were released into the river’s Lanzhou section without appropriate treatment. In addition, the river suffers from toxic industrial discharges and a daily flood of garbage, Workers’ Daily reported.

A key factor behind Lanzhou’s current river pollution, according to officials at a local environmental bureau, is inadequate investment in the city’s civil infrastructure, which has hampered improvements in the collection and treatment of municipal waste. Lanzhou mayor Jinliang Zhang says the city plans to invest nearly 2 billion yuan (US$255 million) to tackle these issues from 2006 through 2010, the period of China’s 11th Five Year Plan. Progress may be slow, however, as Lanzhou is still struggling to cover an annual budget of 400 million yuan (US$51 million).