If you get the Wall St. Journal (not freely available online), check out this story today on page A18 headlined "Polluters in China Feel No Pain." Along with photos of raw sewage and streetcleaners wearing full-face masks, the story details how ineffective existing controls are. One quote:
When a fertilizer plant in southwestern China tried to expand production earlier this month, it inadvertently dumped so much nitrate and ammonia into the local river that the chemicals killed 440,000 pounds of fish, halted farm irrigation in the area and poisoned drinking water for several cities downstream.The punishment -- such a small fine that an official at China's EPA states the polluters write-off the cost as insignificant. Posted by Marcia Oddi at March 24, 2004 11:45 AM