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Li Jing

A mainland environmental group has published China’s first soil pollution map to pinpoint pollution sources and gauge the public health and other safety risks that it says the government has yet to fully account for.

Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs said the map was compiled after collecting public information on 4,500 companies and 729 industrial parks, and identifying thirteen sectors that were potential soil pollution sources, including petrochemicals, fertilisers, pesticides, mining, metal smelting, battery production and pharmaceuticals.
Living with a toxic time bomb
Emissions from these sectors tend to contain highly toxic and even carcinogenic substances such as heavy metals, and improper treatment could lead to long-lasting remove soil and groundwater pollution that posed severe public health risks.

The map’s release comes less than two weeks after state broadcaster CCTV claimed that hundreds of students of an elite private school in Changzhou (常州), Jiangsu (江蘇) province fell ill after their new campus opened next to the former chemical plant sites.
Ma said that public awareness about contaminated soil was growing, but was not yet on the same scale as air pollution.
The government so far has only provided very sketchy information
Ma Jun, Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs
“The location of factories and the types of chemicals they used or produced is critical information that must be managed, but the government so far has only provided very sketchy information,” said Ma.
The government released rather vague data on soil pollution in 2014, saying that about 16 per cent of the country’s soil was contaminated following an eight-year survey that cost about one billion yuan. Yet it refused to publish its details, first calling the findings a “state secret”then later saying they were not thorough enough.
Ma said the maps compiled by the IPE were generally in line the national soil pollution survey.
The Environmental ministry had pledged a more detailed survey in 2014, but in a report to China’s legislature last week, minister Chen Jining said once again that a nationwide soil pollution survey would roll out this year, without explaining the delay.
Land Ministry to map the extent of soil contamination by heavy metals
Ma said China’s authorities tended to be uncomfortable releasing pollution data before working out plans to address the problem, fearing it would lead to a “public panic”.
“But as threats of soil and groundwater pollution become more prominent, it’s about time they disclose such information to the public,” he said.
As threats of soil and groundwater pollution become more prominent, it’s about time they disclose such information to the public
Ma Rongzhen, a member of the legal team at Friends of Nature, said the lack of soil pollution data made it hard for activists to sue polluters.
Ma Jun, Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs
On Friday, the group lodged public interest litigation against the three chemical companies responsible for the soil pollution in Changzhou, demanding they remove the hazard and pay for ecological damage.

Changzhou Intermediate People’s Court will have seven days to decide if it will hear the case. Local courts in China sometimes refuse to accept pollution lawsuits to protect local governments.
Hundreds of pupils at school near toxic site in east China fall ill, some with cancer, state TV reports
Ma said without publicly available pollution data , the Friends of Nature had to file an administrative application to demand that the Changzhou government disclose environmental data of the three companies. The group has yet to receive feedback.
“At the moment, there is no specific law to demand companies restore soil they have polluted. But the three companies have violated the environmental protection law by causing social damage,” Ma said.


Are you at risk from China’s polluted soil? Check this map

A view of the toxic site that once homed chemical plants near the new campus of Changzhou Foreign Languages School in Changzhou, s Jiangsu province. Photo: Imaginechina

***PLEASE CLEAR THE COPYRIGHTS BEFORE REUSE*** Gold medal, in the Disaster and Disease News[DDN] category, the 12th China International Press Photo Contest (CHIPP) On August 12, 2015, at the Tianjin Port explosion site at Binhai New District. According to the official statistics, the accident had caused the casualty of at least 165 and 8 persons missing by September 11, 2015 as well as the direct financial losses of 1.5 billion US dollars.

***ONE TIME USE ONLY, PLEASE CLEAR THE COPYRIGHTS BEFORE RE-USE - OTUO*** Parents protest outside the school in January, 2016. SCMP Pictures (UNDATED HANDOUT)

*** ONE TIME USE ONLY *** Mineral waste is pictured. More than 1,200 people living close to a realgar mine in central Chinas Hunan Province have fallen victims to decades-long arsenic refining, local authorities announced following media reports that arsenic poisoning caused at least 500 mine workers to die from cancer. The refinery opened in Shimen County in 1950 after the discovery of Asias biggest deposits of realgar, a mineral from which arsenic is derived. Since then, 808 people living in a community built to accommodate mine workers and their relatives have been diagnosed with arsenic poisoning. Another 400 were found in nearby Heshan Village and 13 in Wangyangqiao Village, the county government said. For years, chemical wastewater, arsenic ash and sulfur dioxide were discharged without processing, severely polluting water and soil within 9 square kilometers and causing severe arsenic poisoning, its statement read. The government has begun a cleanup program, according to the Shan

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First release of such detailed data is a boost for transparency and may help activists whose legal actions are often hobbled by a lack of figures
