MCLC: dead pigs in the Huangpu

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: dead pigs in the Huangpu
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Source: NYT (3/11/13):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/world/asia/thousands-of-dead-pigs-found-i
n-chinese-river.html

Thousands of Dead Pigs Found in Chinese River
By EDWARD WONG 

BEIJING – More than 2,800 dead pigs have been found in a major river that
flows through Shanghai, igniting fears among city residents of
contaminated tap water, according to state news media reports on Monday.

Some reports said the pigs had probably been dumped by farmers into the
Huangpu River, which slices through the heart of Shanghai. Officials were
trying Monday to determine who exactly had dumped the pigs, which were
first discovered last Thursday. The numbers increased quickly over the
weekend, and the total is expected to grow as search barges looking for
pigs return to Shanghai.

Shanghai Waterworks, which manages tap water in Shanghai, said Sunday
night that the water still met drinking standards, according to Xinhua,
the state news agency. Shanghai officials said the group was now
monitoring the water quality by the hour.

A sample of the river water tested positive for porcine circovirus, which
officials said can be found in pigs but does not spread to humans, Xinhua
reported. “So far, water quality has not been affected, but we have to
remove the pigs as quickly as possible and can’t let their bodies rot in
the water,” Xu Rong, the director of Shanghai’s Songjiang District
Environmental Protection Bureau, told Global Times, a state-run newspaper.

Mr. Xu said samples of the dead pigs had been sent to an agricultural
commission to determine what killed them. Officials will have answers
within three days, he said.

Many Chinese are expressing growing concern over air, soil and water
pollution. In recent weeks, several official news organizations have run
articles and editorials casting a spotlight on pollution of some of
China’s major waterways. In one prominent case, a 39-ton chemical spill on
Dec. 31 from a fertilizer factory in Shanxi Province affected two other
provinces downstream. Local officials delayed reporting the chemical spill
for five days.

A statement issued Monday by the Shanghai government and posted on its Web
site said that there were piglets as well as adult animals weighing
hundreds of pounds. Residents in Songjiang District, the area southwest of
downtown Shanghai where most of the pigs have been discovered, said this
was not the first time they had seen dead pigs in the Huangpu River. But
this time, the number was higher than in the past, according to the city
government’s statement.

A preliminary inquiry has found that the dead pigs originated in Zhejiang
Province, which is south of Shanghai and upstream on the Huangpu River.

Songjiang District officials said they were gathering all the dead pigs in
one place to safely dispose of them, Xinhua reported. Officials are trying
to track the source of the pigs from marks on their ears.

Photographs of the carcasses floating in the river have circulated widely
on the Internet. One photograph on the Web site of Global Times showed
sanitation workers in orange vests and blue uniforms lifting carcasses
from Hengliaojing Creek with long wooden poles.

The accompanying report, citing a Shanghai news Web site, said the first
batch was discovered Thursday in Hengliaojing Creek, near a water
treatment plant in an area that is a protected water resource.

Officials began sending out barges on Saturday to collect the carcasses.
Global Times said 12 boats were now involved in the recovery efforts.