Life of Guangzhou - Shenzhen Maozhou River Polluted by Heavy Oil

Heavy oil from a power plant has contaminated a section of Maozhou River, one of the city’s five major rivers, the Daily Sunshine reported yesterday.

The contaminated section extended nearly 35 kilometers and the heavy oil would eventually flow into the sea after it overflowed from a pond at Dongbao Power Plant in Bao’an District due to the downpours of recent days, the report said.

The heavy oil started to flow into the upper reaches of the 42.6-kilometer Maozhou River at around 8 a.m. Tuesday and was temporarily blocked by a collapsed bridge. The contaminated reaches were at least 10 meters in width with the sticky, smelly dark brown oil as thick as 2 centimeters at some points, witnesses said.

The pollution was confirmed to be heavy oil after technicians with the Gongming environmental protection office conducted tests on water samples. The source of the contamination wasn’t found by technicians until 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The Bao’an industrial waste management station has been entrusted with removing the oil from the river. By 5 p.m. Tuesday, about 300 kilograms of oil had been absorbed by four carpets spread over the river and six extraction pipes. However, most oil had already been discharged into the lower stream which would finally flow into the sea, said the technicians.

The power plant has been ordered to help clean up the contaminated river. The loss caused by the contamination is not yet known.