Shoddy maintenance work at a state-owned smelting works was blamed for a toxic spill that threatens water supplies to southern Chinese cities, state media said yesterday.
The director of the Shaoguan City smelting works, Zhang Weijian, has been suspended for investigation, said the semi-official China News Service.
Tens of thousands along the Beijiang river in Guangdong province were without potable water after the smelting works last week released excessive amounts of cadmium, which can cause neurological disorders and cancer.
According to the China News Service, staff at the factory breached safety rules by using just one day instead of three days to carry out cadmium waste treatment work, causing over 900 tonnes of the toxic discharge to spill into the river.
"During maintenance work, some staff had wanted to cut short the treatment time of the waste water, therefore, high density cadmium-containing effluent that was way above [safety] standards was discharged," the report said.
Authorities on Friday poured iron and aluminum polymer into the upper reaches of the river at the city of Yingde to induce the cadmium to settle at the bottom of the river.
"The move is expected to ensure a safe water quality at the lower reaches of the river," Xinhua news agency said in a separate report yesterday.
Officials this week had lowered a dam gate and released water from reservoirs upstream in Beijiang to try to slow the flow of the slick and dilute it as it headed towards the metropolis of Guangzhou.
Local environmental protection authorities have said the toxic discharge has caused the cadmium level in the river at Shaoguan to surge nearly 10 times safety levels, seriously affecting water quality in the lower reaches.
The toxic spill was China's second in as many months after a benzene slick from a factory in northeast China cut tap water to millions of city-dwellers for four days last month.
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