District gov't to rectify polluting Sinochem plant in Chongqing

The Fuling district government in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and Beijing-based Sinochem Group said on Thursday that they will rectify a local factory that was reportedly polluting crops and livestock in spite of 10 rounds of fines by the environmental protection authorities.

The Shuanggui village in Fuling district has suffered from heavy sulphur smoke and powdered gypsum that comes from Sinochem Fuling Chongqing Chemical Industry, an over 50-year-old State-owned chemical plant, for more than a decade, the China Central Television reported on Wednesday.

The report said the gypsum had spread all over the village, heavily polluting household water and damaging crops and livestock. "The water is contaminated with phosphogypsum. If you boil the water, you will see there is a layer of yellow bubble floating on top of it," one villager said.

The Sinochem factory started to pile its chemical waste phosphogypsum on arable land 14 years ago. At present, the waste has turned into white-colored dunes, spread across an area of more than 1,000 hectares and with a depth of hundreds of meters.

Phosphogypsum contains many radioactive elements, including arsenic, copper, zinc, lead and mercury, and is also a source of contamination for air and water.

The Fuling government pledged to rectify the plant and strengthen environmental supervision on its official Sina Weibo account on Thursday.

Sinochem Group, the plant's parent company, said on its Weibo account on Thursday that they immediately dispatched an investigation team there, without elaborating the details.

The plant has been penalized 10 times by the Chongqing environmental protection bureau within three years, but the maximum fine was only 100,000 yuan ($14,500) each time. The plant has signed several contracts for arable land with the village, which are valid until 2023.