He posted a link to the provincial environmental department's website on his micro blog Monday, which shows petition cases the department has dealt with in 2011. The first case in Weifang is about a chemical plant dumping polluted water into the ground through a well, affecting crops nearby.
Although an investigation result in this case was not found on the website, Deng still perceives the information as an official acknowledgment of such pollution in Weifang.
"Groundwater pollution is hard to notice compared with surface-water pollution. And local residents don't get easy access to the chemical plants for firsthand proof," said Deng.
"But they can tell that the water from the well tastes weird, and the rate of cancer in their villages is significantly high."
Zhu Chunquan, China program officer of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an international environmental NGO, said the Weifang government should ask local enterprises to publicize the records of the daily amount of wastewater and the method they have been using to treat it, and where they dump it.
Other environmental experts also suggested that officials should take water samples from the groundwater near the chemical plants, and compare laboratory test results with those of the plants' wastewater to see whether the two have the same ingredients.
"Pollution in groundwater in China is a fact and deserves attention from the government," Deng said.
Information published on the official website of the Land and Resources Ministry showed that groundwater in 129 cities out of the 196 cities investigated was found polluted, according to research by the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in 2006.
The main reason for groundwater pollution given by the ministry's website is the pumping of industrial sewage directly into the ground.
Deng said he has been receiving online messages tipping off groundwater pollution in several other cities in Shandong province, and even in other provinces since he forwarded the first post.
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