Last month's serious pollution incident is just the lastest in the Middle Kingdom in 2010, as the environmental accident rate goes through the roof, writes Sam Chambers in Dalian
Chinese authorities are pointing the finger of blame for the nation’s worst ever oil spill on July 16 at a local pipeline inspection firm.
The disaster comes at a sensitive time for Beijing as news emerges that China has finally surpassed the US in annual energy consumption.
The spill happened July 16 after two pipelines exploded at an oil storage depot at the port of Dalian run by China National Petroleum Corp, parent of the world’s most valuable company by market capitalisation, PetroChina.
The incident triggered a spectacular blaze that burned for the next three days causing an acrid stench across the northeastern metropolis, a regular winner in polls for China’s most livable city.
Shortly after the explosion, officials said about 1,500 tonnes of oil were spilled into the Yellow Sea off Liaoning province. The slick spread over 946 square kilometres, and stretched as far as 90 kilometres along the coast.
Initial investigations suggest the accident took place on the inner side of a pipeline valve.
Dalian Q. Pro Inspection & Technical Services was working on the pipeline at the time of the accident, initial investigations show, adding oxidising desulfurizer to the pipeline.
It has emerged that as early as 2006, the accident site, Dagushan island, had been deemed an environmental risk by local authorities, having insufficient facilities to combat a serious incident.
The port swung back into operations five days after the explosion, and after 10 days local authorities claimed the clean up was over, something NGOs, including Greenpeace, disputed, pointing to the many still tarred beaches.
The Ministry of Transport has reacted and says it will better combat any future spills.
It is planning to build three large-scale oil spill emergency equipment depots in Dalian, Ningbo and at the mouth of Pearl river, which could be capable to deal with up to 1,000 tons of spilled oil at a time.
The fact that local authorities found themselves caught short on July 16 is unsurprising.
China’s incredible thirst for oil has been unmatched in history and reception facilities are groaning under the strain.
Just days after the explosion the International Energy Agency said China is now the world's largest energy consumer, not the US. The historic shift comes years ahead of forecasts and as China's energy use has more than doubled in less than a decade.
The IEA says China's 2009 consumption of energy from oil and coal to wind and solar power was equal to 2.265 billion tons of oil. The US used 2.169 billion tons last year. Per capita, though, the US still consumes five times more energy.
China, the world’s largest environmental polluter, said the number of environmental accidents rose 98 percent in the first six months of the year, as demand for energy and minerals lead to poisoned rivers and oil spills.
“Fast economic development is leading to increasing conflicts with the capacity of the environment to absorb demands", the environmental protection ministry said.
Across China, air quality deteriorated for the first time in five years in the first six months of 2010, the environment ministry said July 26.
“If China doesn’t address the environmental issues when the economy is growing fast, it might become a destabilizing factor in the society,” Ma Jun, founder of the Institute of Public Environmental Affairs said. “The Chinese public is increasingly aware and vocal about the heavy metal pollution brought on by refineries and smelters.”
“Local governments are trying to develop their economies and the thinking is ‘get rich first, worry about the pollution later,’” Yang Ailun, head of the climate change unit for Greenpeace, said. “The central government is very aware that the current economic model is unsustainable.”
Sam Chambers is co-author of recently published Oil on Water, a book studying how China is shifting the global oil trading patterns.