Oil spill pollutes tributary of China's Yellow River

Yahoo News 3 Apr 10;

BEIJING (AFP) – A tributary of China's Yellow River has been polluted by an oil spill, state-run media reported Saturday, in the latest environmental accident to threaten the nation's drinking water.

About 1,000 tonnes of oil sludge has contaminated farmland and the Luohe River in northern Shaanxi province after a recycling pool at a sewage treatment plant collapsed last Sunday, the China Daily said.

More than 2,000 people have been scrambling to clean up the mess and eight containment belts have been set up downstream from the spill, the English-language newspaper said.

"At present the sludge in the river has been effectively controlled and we will make efforts to clean up the contamination in the farmland and valley," local government official Wang Hongli was quoted as saying.

AFP calls to the local environmental protection bureau went unanswered.

More than 30 years of unbridled economic growth have left most of China's lakes and rivers heavily polluted, while the nation's urban dwellers also face some of the world's worst air pollution.

More than 200 million Chinese currently do not have access to safe drinking water, according to government data.

In January, two tributaries of the Yellow River were "seriously polluted" by an oil spill after a pipeline operated by China's largest oil producer, China National Petroleum Corp., ruptured.

In that incident up to 150,000 litres of diesel spilled into the Chishui and Wei rivers.