TAIYUAN - Thirty-eight people have been punished after a chemical
leak contaminated a river in North China's Shanxi province last month, a
working group that is responsible for addressing the incident said
Wednesday.
An investigation by the working group showed that the Tianji Coal
Chemical Industry Group, which is responsible for the leak, and
some local government departments are to blame for the serious
contamination.
Zhao Junyi, an official with the city's environmental monitoring
department, Huangpu Shouyi, director of the environmental protection
department of Tianji and other three people have been transferred to
judicial organs.
Twenty-four managers with the company who were responsible for
supervision have been given Communist Party of China (CPC) and
administrative disciplinary sanctions.
Nine local officials, including Pan Xianzhang, vice-mayor of
Changzhi, Shen Xufeng, director of the Changzhi Municipal Environmental
Protection Bureau and Yang Fujin, the director of Changzhi Municipal
Work Safety Supervision Bureau, have also received CPC and
administrative disciplinary sanctions. Shen and Yang were removed from
their posts.
In addition, Zhang Bao, mayor of Changzhi, has also been removed from his post as a result of the contamination.
Meanwhile, the investigation revealed that the immediate cause of the
leak should be attributed to a poor-quality metal hose that was made by
a Beijing-based company in a chemical plant owned by the Tianji Coal
Chemical Industry Group.
According to previous reports, an initial investigation had revealed
that a loose drainage valve in the plant was to blame for the leak.
The Dec 31 leak of about nine tonnes of aniline into a river in the
city of Changzhi contaminated downstream water in neighboring Henan and
Hebei provinces, resulting in water supply problems.
Changzhi municipal authorities were fou
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