A resident scoops up a bowl of polluted water in Zigui, Hubei province. (China Daily)
Posted on 07/21/2008 6:59:44 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
The month-long algae outbreak on a tributary of the Yangtze River, blamed on large numbers of phosphor mines and processing factories, has sent an alert to environmental authorities to raise water treatment standards in the Three Gorges Dam area.
Large areas of algae bloomed on June 16 on a 25 km section of the Xiangxi in Xingshan county, Hubei province, forcing thousands of residents to stop drawing water from it, the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.
Cai Qinghua from the Institute of Hydrobiology under the Chinese Academy of Science, said: "This is the first time the Three Gorges Dam area has seen such a blue-green algae outbreak.
"The pollutants from many phosphor mines and chemical plants in the upper reaches of the Xiangxi River resulted in water deterioration."
An excess of blue-green algae removes oxygen from the water, killing fish and other aquatic life, which then decay and release toxins. Smelling foul, the water cannot be consumed by human and animals.
After the algae was found in the Xiangxi River, the local government took measures to improve water quality monitoring, including banning residents from taking water from the river, preventing fishing and organizing people to collect algae.
The algae expansion has slowed, Xinhua said.
Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told China Daily that besides checking on industrial polluters along the river, the environmental watchdog should reset wastewater treatment standards in the dam area.
"Construction of the dam has slowed the velocity of many rivers in the area, which weakens the self-purification capability of water body," Ma said.
"It is another reason why the Xiangxi River has rampant algae.
"The amount of pollution emissions the dam area is able to purify naturally should be recalculated. With a big reduction of pollutant emission budget, the pollution credits need to be allocated again," he said.
Ma also said wastewater treatment plants should strengthen treatment capability of phosphor and nitrogen.
The Xiangxi and six tributaries of the Yangtze saw algae blooms last year because of excessive amounts of pollutants pumped into them, a report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection said.
A resident scoops up a bowl of polluted water in Zigui, Hubei province. (China Daily)
reminds me of the problem i’m having with the kid’s pool in the backyard.
Mmmm. Lime Jell-O... sludge.
just wait until the leopard snails show up.
Lovely, just lovely. I can see why China was the top pick for the Olympics./s
They should be doing the same thing we should be doing with the plume at the mouth of the Mississippi...harvesting it, and using it for fuel.
Yes, and it’s abosolutly, totally, mandatory, that the US place “fart diapers” on all cows, because Algore says that we are the main evil contributors to bad air!
TOTAL HORSE_S#@T!
Everything I’ve seen and read about Three Gorges Dam leads me to make the from-the-hip prediction that it will somehow, someway be the scene of a monumental disaster before too long.
I was thinking that all that millions of tons of concrete on top of a earthquake fault line might do something, and I think it did just recently.
I have to agree...the stories i’ve read about it, since it was built, cause me to suspect that architectural principles were compromised, and corners were cut in it’s construction.
I hate to think of what would happen to everything down river if one of the major sections of it collapsed.
Delightful
Send Algore over there. China could definitely fix that problem for us.
Yummo, a piping hot bowl of Commie pesto soup. I’m sure the North Koreans long for such a protein rich treat.
Damn this “government.”
Looks like the West Branch of the Neshaminy Creek back when I was a kid in PA. Gov’t run sewage plant was just basically an open pipe, no treatment.
Clean water came in from the North branch and mixed with stuff that looked just like that from the West. Green for miles downstream.
Common cause, the government is not accountable. Even when they are fined who the he77 do you think actually pays it?
I took a trip out there the other day and was totally disappointed. I could have sworn the travel agent said, “Three gorgeous dames”!
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