On April 15, 2005, the Pingnan Green Association, a grantee of Greengrants, achieved an unprecedented victory against the Rongping Chemical Affiliated Company. An Intermediate People’s Court in Fujian Province ordered the company, China’s largest chlorate manufacturer, to pay the people of Xiping nearly $30,000 in reparations for health and environmental damages. The decision came four years after the initial complaint.
In 1994, the management of Rongping Chemical moved a chlorate plant from the provincial capital Fuzhou to Xiping Village. According to an October 2004 article of the Toronto Globe and Mail, the plant was moved because of enforcements of new environmental regulations. The factory manufactures chlorate, which is used in matches, bleach, fireworks, and disinfectant. Since the relocation, the plant has dumped sewage and waste residue containing chromium 6 and chlorine into the Xiping River. According to the China Daily, the plant produces one ton of waste residue containing chrome every day, which ranges in color from bright green and orange to black. The waste contains 20 times the allowable amount of chromium 6, and the plant has also been releasing this dangerous pollutant into the air and soil. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, inhalation of chromium causes shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing, and it can also cause complications in pregnancy and childbirth. Acute inhalation can also have gastrointestinal and neurological affects, and can hugely increase the risk of lung cancer. Contact with this chemical causes painful skin burns and other dermatological conditions.
To prevent the waste from seeping into the river, the company built a wall 2 meters high. However, the wall is ineffective in preventing chrome from being washed off by rain water.
In order to contain the contamination more effectively, health officials said that the factory should build a pond under the wall, in order to collect sewage and allow chemicals to be added to remove the chrome. However, no steps were taken to construct such a pond. The provincial environmental protection bureau suggested that the county government relocate all residents living within 130 meters of the plant. This relocation would involve 24 families and cost the county about 4 million Yuan (US $483,000). With fiscal revenue of only 30 million Yuan (US $3.6 million), the county has not yet been able to afford this relocation.
Pollutants from the plant have ruined rice production in more than 11 hectares of nearby farmland, as well as stunting rice production in an additional 12 hectares, according to the Globe and Mail. Valuable bamboo has been killed, and fruit and nut trees have become barren. The factory leased a local farmerís land and then used it as a dump for powdery yellow and white waste. They told him it was a good fertilizer. Since the arrival of the plant, Xiping Villageís 2,000 residents have experienced symptoms such as headaches, vomiting, nausea, dizziness, itchy skin, dry coughs, teary eyes, and hair loss. Xiping’s residents have to pay for their own medical care. Children have been developing painful rashes and blisters. In a place where the average annual income is less than $300, costly medicines and medical procedures can be financially devastating. According to careful studies conducted by a local doctor, the residents of Xiping’s average life expectancy has dropped from 68.3 years to 59.7. From 1990-1994, the village experienced only one cancer death; a stark contrast to the 17 cancer deaths between 1999 and 2001.
The problem, however, extends further up than just the officials of the Rongping Chemical Affiliated Company, a part of China’s behemoth Fuzhou Yihua Group. The company has protectors in the local government, which is not surprising considering the fact that the county owns 30 percent of the Pingrong United Company, and gets a quarter of its revenue from taxing the plant. Officials refuse to test samples taken by the villagers, claiming they can’t test “unofficial” samples. In order to combat this huge corporation, the villagers formed the Pingnan Green Association. The Pingnan Green Association finally took the unusual step of filing suit against the Pingrong United Company. The villagers donated $1,600 to the lawsuit, but the local police confiscated the money and beat up two of the villagers who tried to resist. At first the lawsuit was completely ignored, but with help from two Greengrants donations, and a free lawyer from the China University of Political Science and Law, the case began to gain momentum.
Media coverage of this case helped to show the Chinese people that they can take steps to protect their environment. Although this victory was significant and the result of years of hard work, it was only a small step in the environmental reform that China must undertake. The factory has improved its production methods and waste disposal, but it still secretly dumps waste in the river and releases dangerous chemicals into the air. Farming is still difficult and the river is still not habitable for fish.
With the support of Greengrants, the Pingnan Green Association has also recently entered the struggle to protect a local wildlife habitat. Working with the Fujian Province Environmental Protection Agency, Pingnan Green is trying to stop the construction of illegal dams in the Mandarin Duck Brook Nature Reserve. On April 27th, 2005, the Protection Agency issued a written decision ordering construction on a power station to stop. However, the company ignored this decision and not only continued the construction, but continued it at faster rate. This nature reserve is an important sanctuary for endangered birds. Pingnan Green hopes to band together with other grassroots organizations in the area in order to have more weight when negotiating with the hydroelectric companies.