Ministry asks for quick action to mitigate effects.
China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) on Wednesday confirmed there are two large pits of sewage in North China, urging the local government to conduct examination of underground water and ease the impact on the neighborhood.
Xiang Chun, head of the NGO, told the Global Times that the two pits in Dacheng county are located in suburban areas, while the one in Jinghai district in Tianjin, which covers an area of 150,000 square meters, is in the middle of farmland.
According to the MEP, Dacheng government said that the two pits were caused by digging years ago and was polluted in 2013 by illegal pouring of sulfuric acid.
The government has been dealing with the polluted pits all the time, but the pollution control work hasn’t been done yet.
These pits have been there for almost six years, but they did not cause us any inconvenience because they are nowhere near residential areas, a villager surnamed Chen from Zhaofu township told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Water in these pits is rust-colored and in some areas, the water’s pH level has already reached 1, said Xiang.
The pH scale measures the acidity or alkalinity of a liquid, and ranges from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral and anything below 7 acidic.
In 2014, an industry owner surnamed Li in East China’s Anhui Province was sentenced to six months in prison and fined 10,000 yuan for using sewage pit to discharge pollutants, because his behavior severely damaged the environment, the China Environment News reported in 2015.
Groundwater pollution is more serious in North China than other parts of the country because the ground water level in this area is relatively low, which makes it easier for the pollutants to reach groundwater, Ma said.