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Dalian's Gooey Summer
Dalian's Gooey Summer
UPDATED: August 9, 2010 NO. 32 AUGUST 12, 2010
Slippery Situation
There's still no telling how serious the spill near Dalian City will be
By LI LI
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SAFETY MEASURES: On July 18, border policemen in Dalian help to evacuate fishing boats from a wharf near a burned oil tank after an oil pipeline explosion in Xingang Port (REN YONG)

Produced by Huishengda Petroleum Technology Co., the desulfurizer was strongly oxidizing, the investigation's report said. A subsidiary of CNPC had authorized the two companies to conduct the operation.

The joint investigation accused the involved parties of failing to scientifically verify the safety of the oxidizer. The report also said the involved parties failed to use standard injection procedures and identify risks promptly.

Lax management and ineffective oversight were also blamed for the accident as relevant departments failed to stop the injection operation in time.

The report also noted that a concentration of large tanks storing hazardous chemicals added to risks.

On July 23, the State Administration of Work Safety and the Ministry of Public Security urged Chinese ports to ramp-up safety measures ahead of loading, unloading and transporting oil and other hazardous chemical products.

The State Council, China's cabinet, issued a circular on the same day, urging local governments and companies to strengthen work safety and enhanced supervision.

Speaking at a press conference on July 26, Liu Xicai, Director of Dalian Oceanic and Fishery Administration, said that Dalian's aquatic farms located in waters south of the city have not been contaminated while no fishing boat from Dalian will fish during a fishing moratorium. "Seafood shipped from Dalian won't be affected by the oil leak at all. I can guarantee you their safety on behalf of Dalian Oceanic and Fishery Administration," said Liu.

"So far we've found nothing unusual from the marine ecosystem parameters in that area," said Wang Fan, head of an investigation on marine ecosystems near the oil spill area organized by the Institute of Oceanology under Chinese Academy of Sciences, on August 2.

The investigation, conducted from July 25 to 29, collected data from nine offshore observation stations, covering areas up to 30 nautical miles off the coast, including the 10 square km of heavily polluted sea near Xingang.

After a field survey on the oil slick near Dalian on July 30, Chen Lianzeng, Deputy Director of the State Oceanic Administration, said the accident had rung a bell for China to prevent similar ocean-polluting oil spills in the future. Chen suggested that government tighten the inspection on projects that might affect the marine ecological systems and enhance the emergency response capacity in case of marine oil spills.

City of Dalian

(CFP)

Lying on the east coast of Eurasia and the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsular in northeast China, Dalian stretches from 120°58' to 123°31' east longitude and 38°43' to 40°10' north latitude, covering an area of 12,574 square km. Dalian is the second largest city of Liaoning Province. With the Yellow Sea on the east, Bohai Sea on the west, Dalian is the marine gateway of north China. It is also an important port and a trade, industrial and tourism city. The permanent population of Dalian at the end of 2009 totaled 6.17 million.

Dalian's old city is 2,415 square km and this area abounds with mountains and hills, while plains and lowlands are rarely seen. The terrain, high and broad to the north, low and narrow to the south, tilts to the Yellow Sea on the southeast and the Bohai Sea to the northwest from the center. Mountain regions and long eroded foothills are widely dispersed within the region. Plains and lowlands are only interspersed near the confluence and in some valleys. Karst topography and sea erosion topography are everywhere.

Dalian's GDP in 2009 was 441.77 billion yuan ($65.0 billion), increasing by 15 percent over the previous year calculated at constant prices. Dalian's total output of aquatic products in 2009 was 2.3 million tons, up 5 percent from the previous year.

A 10-day international beer festival has been held in Dalian every summer for 12 years, attracting hundreds of thousands of beer lovers from around the world. Every September Dalian hosts the Dalian International Fashion Festival, where major Chinese and international fashion brands showcase their new products and find buyers. Other major festivals in the city include Dalian International Marathon, China International Software & Information Service Fair and Dalian International Auto Show.

(Source: www.dl.gov.cn)

Timeline

At 6:20 p.m. on July 16, an explosion hit an oil pipeline 0.9 meters in diameter and triggered an adjacent smaller pipeline to explode near Xingang Port, Dalian.

On July 17, the oil spill cleanup operation started.

On July 20, maritime authorities lifted a partial ban on maritime traffic at Dalian.

On July 22, CNPC said the exploded pipeline connecting Xingang Port and its Dalian Petrochemicals resumed normal operation; the first oil tanker berthed at Xingang Port since the blasts.

On July 23, the State Administration of Work Safety and Ministry of Public Security released the results of a joint investigation.

On July 29, Xingang Port resumed full operations.

(Source: Xinhua News Agency)

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