Shandong removes alarm on Yellow River pollution
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-01-15 11:16

East China's Shandong Province have lifted alarm on pollution in the Yellow River, China's second longest, as the pollution slick has flown into the sea.

The Shandong provincial government also decided on Saturday to remove ban on getting water from the Yellow River section in the province.

Tests by the provincial emergency response team showed that the 100-km-long pollution slick caused by a diesel leakage had completely flown into the Bohai Sea as of Friday. Thus the provincial government lifted alarm on the pollution Saturday.

A diesel oil leakage took place on Jan. 5 at a power plant in Gongyi, central China's Henan Province, discharging six tons of diesel oil into the Yellow River's mainstream.

The pollution slick entered Shandong Province in the afternoon of Jan. 7.

Shandong provincial government closed all sluice gates along the river to guarantee the safety of drinking water for local people. Government sources said that closure of sluice gates did not have much influence on local people's life, but did affect industrial production in some places.

Experts said that the pollution slick did not have great impact on the ecological environment in the river or on fish and shrimps, which usually live near the bottom of the water in Winter.

Sources with the Shandong provincial marine and fishery bureau said that the pollution slick would not have great impact on the sea water near the estuary of the Yellow River, as test results show that oil content in the pollution slick is only a bit higher than the standard.