Environmental authorities in Weifang City of Shandong Province yesterday denied online accusation saying they were helping chemical companies avoid scrutiny while offering a big reward to anyone reporting companies illegally discharging waste deep underground.
A snapshot of an emergency notice reportedly issued by Weifang environment watchdogs to local chemical companies has been spread widely online. It informed the companies of visits by reporters and asked them to control waste discharge.
The incident follows online claims that many chemical companies have used high-pressure injection wells to discharge waste sewage over 1,000 meters deep for years, seriously polluting underground water.
The notice said a TV news crew from China Central Television had arrived to carry out an undercover investigation.
The environmental authorities required in the notice that the chemical companies keep their sewage treatment stations working normally and ensure zero waste discharges. They also asked the companies to make sure the quality of treated sewage would meet the province's standards, while no liquid or other waste was allowed to be poured into rainwater pipelines.
"The security workers must not stop the TV news program's cars and their reporters from entering the factory from each entrance, but they should inform the environmental officials immediately," the notice reads. It gave telephone numbers of two contact persons, who could not be reached yesterday.
Xie Zhenxi, leader of Weifang environmental supervision team, told Nanfang Daily yesterday that "the environment bureau has never issued such a notice to local companies." Xie said he didn't know the source of the notice online.
Meanwhile, although the city government told Xinhua news agency on Sunday that they had investigated 715 companies but so far hadn't found any polluting the underground water, netizens are raising doubts. They asked how officials could investigate so many companies in less than 48 hours.
"The watchdogs started a citywide investigation last Friday and they checked 715 companies by Sunday. Even if they worked around the clock in the 48 hours, they could only have stayed at each company for less than 20 minutes," a netizen said.
In response, the government said a total of 69 teams including 320 officers participated in the investigation, covering the entire city to finish the mission in such a short time.
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