Environmental investigation launched as 300 tonnes of dead pigs found buried in east China hillside
Authorities in Zhejiang recruit independent team to assess site where meat lay rotting for four years
Authorities in eastern China are conducting an environmental impact assessment after 300 tonnes of rotting pig remains were found buried in a hillside, state media reported.
The incident came to light when a resident of Huzhou in Zhejiang province reported a foul smell coming from the site to a member of a team of visiting officials who were on a nationwide environmental clean-up campaign, Xinhua reported on Monday.
An initial investigation by the city government unearthed the decayed pigs, which had been buried in 2013 and 2014 by a medical waste treatment company, the report said.
A former manager of Huzhou Industrial and Medical Waste Processing Company – who is currently serving a prison sentence for a separate, unspecified, crime – was blamed for overseeing the illegal dumping, Xinhua said, without providing any other information about the suspect or what punishment he might face.
The government has employed an independent company to conduct an environmental impact assessment on the site, but this has yet find anything untoward, the report said.
Beijing Youth Daily quoted a resident as saying that people had been complaining about the stench for several years and of the local water source being contaminated.