On the afternoon of January 5, the main urban area of Handan City in Hebei Province was suddenly cut off due to water pollution caused by an accidental aniline leakage in the upper reaches of Shanxi Province. The focus of the incident soon turned to the upstream pollution report. Why was the accident reported five days after it happened? What has Changzhi Municipal government and enterprises done to deal with the crisis in the past five days? In recent days, "the delayed reporting of pollution in the upper reaches leads to the suffering of the people in the lower reaches" has aroused great concern and strong doubts from netizens.
Upstream: what happened when aniline leakage accident was delayed for 5 days?
The reporter's investigation shows that the "information late" of the aniline leakage accident is very obvious: at 7:40 on December 31, Lu'an Tianji Group, located in the upstream, found the aniline leakage; on the afternoon of December 31, Changzhi Environmental Protection Bureau received the report from the enterprise and submitted it to the municipal government, and decided to deal with it by itself; on the morning of January 5, Shanxi provincial environmental protection department received the notice from the Ministry of environmental protection; on the afternoon of January 5, Shanxi Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau received the notice from the Ministry of environmental protection The government received a report from Changzhi City. It was also on the afternoon of the 5th that Changzhi City informed Hebei and Henan about the situation.
Changzhi Mayor Zhang Bao admitted on the morning of the 7th that "the December 31 accident was not reported in time". According to the "emergency plan for environmental emergencies in Shanxi Province" and "emergency response regulations of Shanxi Province", the Shanxi provincial government should receive a report on such a major pollution leak at the latest on the same day.
So, what did the local government and enterprises do in these five days? Zhang Bao explained that although it was not reported in time, Changzhi Municipal and county governments and enterprises did a lot of work to control pollution in the past five days, including immediately starting the emergency plan, taking measures such as "blocking, dredging, clearing, blocking, monitoring and reporting", cutting off the source, intercepting and controlling the spread, and increasing water quality monitoring.
Wang Junyan, Secretary of the Party committee of Tianji Group, said that when aniline leakage was found at 7:40 on December 31, 2012, the enterprise immediately stopped production, drained the wastewater containing aniline to the dry reservoir area, set up warning signs in the reservoir area, and set up emergency monitoring on both sides of Wangjiazhuang exit section in the west of Zhanghe River.
On January 1, 2013, three new monitoring points, namely, Shihui section, Hongqi Canal and Qingnian cave, were added. Warning signs were set up in Lucheng city and Pingshun County, where the Zhuozhang River flows, informing the surrounding villagers that it is forbidden to use the river water and eat fish and shrimp in the river. Two activated carbon intercepting dams are added in the upstream of zhangkou.
On January 2, a new canal of more than 800 meters was excavated at the outlet of the reservoir to prepare for the standard water discharge. The water network of Wangjiazhuang in zhangkou section was sprayed with lime milk. On March 3, the sewage containing aniline in the lower reaches of zhangkou was treated innocuously.
On April 4, 100 tons of limestone and 100 tons of coke were put into Wangjiazhuang, and a coke dam was built at the upstream of Hekou bridge. Coke and activated carbon were laid along the river section at the upstream of zhangkou. The monitoring data showed that the aniline content in Wangjiazhuang section reached the highest point, 720 times higher than the national standard.
At 11:00 on May 5, Lu'an Tianji coal chemical group reported about 8.68 tons of aniline leakage to the Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. Changzhi Municipal government reported to the provincial government at 17:00, and the provincial government immediately informed the State Council and the downstream Hebei and Henan provinces.
Monitoring data showed that the aniline content in Wangjiazhuang section at the junction of Shanxi and Hebei reached the highest point on the 4th, 720 times higher than the national standard.
Downstream: sudden water cut-off leads to water rush
The delayed report of the pollution accident in the upper reaches of the river has brought disaster to the lives of the people in the lower reaches. The reporter saw from the Internet that as early as around 18:00 p.m. on January 5, some Handan netizens published the situation of their own water cut-off on the Internet, and asked each other for information. Finally, they found that most of their families had cut off water.
"It is reported that the water supply in a large area of our city today has not been informed by the relevant departments, which has brought a lot of inconvenience to people's production and life," Handan City Association said on its microblog Netizens no longer crazy, we are old, said: "my family did not notice the water cut-off, toilet is a problem, the last notice of water cut-off, my family received so much water did not stop, this time directly stop."
Due to the lack of any early warning of the water cut-off, many people panic and rush to shops to buy drinking water overnight. "Without warning, the water supply in the whole city was cut off, and the mineral water in the supermarket was robbed. There was a little panic..." Netizen Mo Si says on the net message. Zhang Dongliang, a microblog user in Shanxing Hebei Province, said: "Handan began to cut off water supply in large areas in the evening of January 5. It is said that the water supply has been cut off for a week, and people are afraid to buy water overnight. At present, supermarkets and water stores in Handan have been snapped up."
The netizen Le Zhi Le appealed on his micro blog about the water rush of Handan citizens: "now there is no water supply in the whole city. People on the main road are carrying Nongfu mountain spring. The water in the supermarket has been bought out, and even the pulse is gone. My aunt can only buy a few bottles of soda water. My mother says it's OK. There are two bottles of water at home! The government is transferring water... "
Handan Municipal government announced at more than 9 p.m. on the 5th that it received a notice from the relevant departments of Shanxi Province on the afternoon of the 5th that an accidental discharge of pollutants occurred in Shanxi Province of Zhuozhang River in the upper reaches of Zhanghe River, which was the main reason for the water cut-off. At the same time, we inform the public that the government has decided to use another water source to supply water. The water quality is safe. Please rest assured.
Reporters in Handan City on the 6th saw that the tide of grabbing water has gradually subsided. In front of a small shop named Haite, it was full of unopened mineral water. The owner told reporters that many people came to buy water last night, but there was already water at home this morning, so fewer people bought water, but still more than in the past. A water delivery shop owner surnamed Hao said: "in the past, more than 70 barrels of water were delivered every morning. On the morning of the 6th, more than 170 barrels were delivered."
After the standby water source was used in Handan City, due to the long transmission distance and the aging of pipeline equipment, Handan city took timely measures such as adding pump pressure to ensure the urban water supply. By noon on the 6th, more than 85% of the residents in the main urban area had resumed normal water supply.