Several water companies entered the "black list" of the Ministry of Environmental Protection

The continuous fermentation of Lanzhou tap water exceeded the benzene standard event. On the evening of April 13, the Lanzhou City Government announced that the surrounding underground oily sewage was the direct cause of excess benzene in the local free-flowing water channel. It will be carried out by relevant responsible units and responsible persons. Further investigation and evidence collection.

It is worth noting that the Lanzhou incident is only a microcosm of China's fragile water security environment. Because it does not meet the national water quality standards, water companies in many provinces have entered the "black list" of the Ministry of Environmental Protection supervision. At the same time, industrial development is Disordered emissions and serious pollution of water resources.

Progress related units and responsible persons are under investigation and evidence collection

At 17:20 p.m. on April 13, Lanzhou City held the second press conference since the benzene over-accident of the tap water. The report said that the direct cause of the pollution accident was the oily sewage that appeared in the free-flowing ditches between two water plants of Lanzhou Veolia Water Company. The reason for this was that the PetroChina Company near Lanzhou Petrochemical Company had successively established Petrochemical Company in 1987 and 2002. Two leakage accidents occurred in the year, which led to the infiltration of some residual oil and fire-fighting sewage into the ground. The Lanzhou Municipal Government stated that the next step will be to conduct further investigations and evidence collection on the relevant responsible units and persons responsible for causing local benzene over-standard incidents.

This is the official reason for the first time that the Lanzhou City official announced the water pollution incident. It was nearly 48 hours since the Lanzhou City government issued an emergency notice. The Economic Information Daily reporter learned from authorities that the current expert group members have already He went to the scene of the Lanzhou accident to investigate and assess the cause of the incident. “What is worrying now is that Lanzhou does not have a second source of water. The water source is only groundwater. If it has already been polluted to groundwater, it will be more serious than other cities. It will involve urban water supply. In addition, if the pipeline network is greatly affected, Pollution, involving the secondary pollution of urban water supply is not optimistic." The above said.

It is worth noting that this hidden danger of tap water has already surfaced. The tap water contamination site in Jiajiabao Village, Xigu District, Lanzhou City has now started a cordon. The “Economic Information Daily” reporter saw that near this gravity-free ditch, which is about 3 kilometers long, is a factory of Lanzhou Petrochemical. Tanks and staggered pipelines are everywhere, and there are numerous chemical pipelines crossing the free flow channel in the ground. Once a petrochemical plant or pipeline leaks, it will collapse into a free-flowing ditch.

However, this coexistence has continued for many years. Even with the occurrence of two leakage accidents at Lanzhou Petrochemical, such a huge risk has not caused the attention of the water supply companies and the relevant government departments. According to the statement made by Yao Wei, chairman of Lanzhou Veolia, the construction of self-running ditch has been operating for nearly 60 years. After the leakage incident in the 1980s, it was not abandoned. It was repaired and used until now.

Professor Wang Jinsheng, a professor at the Beijing Normal University’s Institute of Water Sciences and a member of the National Environmental Emergency Experts Group, said in an interview with the “Economic Information Daily” reporter that leakage accidents in the 1980s caused some organic substances to seep into the ground as groundwater descended from high to low. Movement, and self-distribution burial depth of 45 meters, is located in the groundwater downstream, blocking the movement of groundwater, the formation of groundwater stagnation area in the side of gravity drainage. The self-distribution ditch is a cement structure, and there is a contraction joint at intervals. After the design life of the free-flow ditch reaches, the contraction joints are aged. The benzene-containing groundwater in the detention zone enters the free-flowing ditch through the contraction joint, and then it pollutes the water quality.

It is understood that Lanzhou Veolia Water Group Co., Ltd. is a state-controlled enterprise in this incident. Its predecessor was the Lanzhou Water Supply Group. In 2007, it accepted the French Veolia Group's share of 1.71 billion yuan, which is 1 times the premium. At 45%, the company is responsible for the supply of 2.4 million people in the four districts of Lanzhou Chengguan, Xigu, Qilihe and Anning. As France's Veolia Group, ranked first in the world's water sector, operates in more than 70 countries around the world, it has been controversial due to repeated water safety problems in Qingdao, Shanghai, and Haikou.

Concern over a number of water companies on the "black list"

From the leakage of benzene from Songhua River to the cadmium pollution in Beijiang, Guangdong, to the excessive benzene incident in Lanzhou, the fact that ruthless facts have been continuously challenged China's already fragile water environment.

The reporter learned that the Ministry of Environmental Protection had conducted special inspections on the nationwide atmospheric and water pollution in the months of February and March. The inspection results concerning water pollution are not optimistic. In particular, the operation results of many urban sewage treatment plants are not satisfactory. The situation of excessive water quality is severe, many do not meet the requirements of the national water quality standards and can easily cause secondary pollution. It is worth noting that it includes the existing sewage treatment plant in Fushun City, Liaoning Province, the second sewage treatment plant in Qingpu District in Shanghai, the West Water Affairs (Jiaxing) Co., Ltd. in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, Tongyuan City Puyuan Hengsheng Water Treatment Co., Ltd., Tongxiang City Shen Water companies in many provinces, such as Waterworks Co., Ltd., have been named by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and are required to make corrections.

"Some unsupervised sewage discharges directly, causing pollution of water sources, and even infiltrating the polluted groundwater. Water companies in many places are virtually useless, and there is no standard for tap water treatment. Tap water in many places cannot be safely used even if it is boiled. The requirements, from the water source to the household faucet, the hidden dangers directly affect and threaten human health.” An authoritative expert from the Ministry of Environmental Protection told the “Economic Information Daily” reporter.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Supervision, there has been a high incidence of water pollution incidents in China in the past 10 years, and water pollution accidents have been over 1,700 each year in recent years. In cities and towns across China, the population of drinking water sources is not safe and the population involved is 140 million people. According to the data recently released by the Ministry of Water Resources, at present, 11% of the water quality of reservoir water sources in China is not up to standard, and about 70% of the water quality of lake water sources is not up to standard. About 60% of the water quality of groundwater sources is not up to standard.

On March 14, the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced that there are 250 million inhabitants of residential areas in China close to key polluting enterprises and roads, and 280 million people use unsafe drinking water. "This result is shocking, but it is also expected." Fu Tao, director of the Center for Water Policy Research at Tsinghua University, said that with the development of China's economy, various industrial wastes and agricultural chemicals have caused serious pollution of water resources in China, but In the water quality of water sources, the water treatment plant processing technology and the aging of the pipe network facilities, etc., although the water quality of the water plant meets the inspection standards, it does not mean that residents can drink safe water.

It is recommended that third-party testing agencies be

Ma Jun, director of the Public Environmental Research Center, said in an interview with a reporter from the Economic Information Daily that both the Songhua River water pollution, Zijin Mining, Guangxi Cd pollution and other incidents were all caused by industrial wastewater discharge. In recent years, heavy chemical industry has been developed everywhere. Many local governments only care about economic development, but they ignore the protection and safety of water sources. On the other hand, our environmental management is still not strict enough and the illegal costs are very low. Many companies prefer to pay fines and are not willing to make efforts in environmental protection. They are all exceeding the standards.

“The Lanzhou incident reflects a chemical company like PetroChina that must establish a more rigorous management system, such as the initiation of a pollutant discharge transfer registration system, so that the discharge of pollutants from such enterprises can be made public to the public and allowed to be monitored by the public. Ma Jun told reporters. At the same time, he also stated that there was a problem of lagging information from the very beginning of the incident. For the government, it needed to strengthen supervision and start an effective accountability mechanism, including a public interest litigation to start a huge amount of compensation for the companies involved, and on the other hand, it must be established. Effective emergency mechanisms, especially those involving public safety, should be disclosed to the public at the first time to reduce harm to the public.

From July 1, 2012, China enforced the latest drinking water standards. The new national standard is in line with international standards, with a total of 106 indicators, which is basically the same as the world’s strictest water quality standard—the EU water quality standard. The standard has increased the drinking water quality index from 35 in the original standard to 106, which has strengthened the requirements for the water quality of organic matter, microorganisms and water disinfection.

An industry expert told the reporter that the standard was formally proposed in 2007 to be enforced in 2012, giving the industry an improvement period of 5 years. However, according to the new standard, more than 90% of the water plants are faced with the situation that they must be rebuilt or upgraded. Involved in the urban water supply pipe network and the secondary water supply and many other links, the average cost of each water company is only about 100 million yuan to transform the cost, many companies can not afford, can only rely on a simple increase in water prices to digest part of the investment costs. Therefore, it is recommended that the government increase public expenditure on water utilities.

The above industry experts stated that to implement the new national standard, the most important thing is to straighten out the water supply mechanism and establish a modern system covering water source protection, water plant production, pipeline network transportation, and sales pricing. Third-party testing organizations should also be encouraged to intervene. Water quality testing is no longer a water company's “self-talk”.