Massive fish kill caused by leak from China copper mine
By Wei Tian, Hu Meidong and Zhu Xingxin in Fujian, and He Na in Beijing (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-16 07:57 Qiu Yonglu knew something was wrong when his fish refused to eat and kept circling their pool. Ten days later, they began dying. On July 12, almost a month later, he finally discovered what had poisoned his fishery when environmental authorities in Fujian province confirmed that toxic waste from Zijinshan Copper Mine had leaked into the Tingjiang River. By that time, Qiu and his neighboring farmers in Shanghang county lost at least 1,890 tons of fish. Tingjiang River – dubbed the “Mother River of Hakkas”, an ethnic group with a large population in Southeast China – flows through four Fujian counties and into Guangdong province. About 2 million people live along its shores. For many, the waterway is vital to their livelihood. According to a statement issued by Zijin Mining Group, one of the country’s largest mining companies and gold producers, the sewage released contained “copper iron but no extremely toxic substances”. “Although copper is not one of the top heavy-metal pollutants, like lead and mercury, excessive copper in the body can damage the liver and gallbladder, as well as the brain,” said Wang Shengrui, a researcher with the State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory for Lake Pollution Control. Copper, he explained, becomes attached to the body of fish and shellfish, which contaminates the food chain, and settles into the mud and sand on the riverbed. The pollution is also irreversible. Unlike chemical compounds which can be decomposed or diluted, once heavy metals are released into water or on land, they are difficult to extract and will have a long-term negative impact on the area, he added. For Qiu and his fellow farmers, the warning came too late. “If we had been told earlier, we would have transferred the fish to safe ponds and saved a lot of money,” complained the 38-year-old, who lost more than 50 tons of his fish because of the spill. He pointed to several empty bottles of fish medicine he said cost thousands of yuan. Fishermen in Shanghang appealed to the authorities for help several days before the pollution announcement. After receiving no response, angry villagers blocked the gates of the county government building on June 23 with tons of dead fish. Officials immediately vowed to launch a thorough investigation into the cause of the problem. “But things turned worse on July 3 as large numbers of fish began to die,” said Qiu. “The surface of the water was covered with layer upon layer of dead fish. We tried to clear them so we could save those alive underneath but they were already beyond salvaging.” …
