150 Tons Of Diesel Spills Into Yellow River Tributary - Water Restrictions Likely In Some Areas

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Chinese environment officials are rushing to build three temporary barriers on the Yellow river after failing to contain an oil slick in a tributary of the country's second largest waterway.

Despite overnight efforts by 700 workers to dig diversion channels, the contamination belt — which was 13 miles long at its peak — has tainted the giant Sanmenxia reservoir, the state media reported today . Some areas have been forced to suspend water supplies according to the Xinhua news agency, as the spill spread from the Wei tributary in Shaanxi province to the Yellow river in Henan province.

Separate reports said the major downstream cities of Zhangzhou and Kaifeng would not be affected as they have alternative water supplies. The oil spill occurred last Wednesday when 150 tonnes of diesel leaked from the Lanzhou-to-Chengsha pipeline owned by the China National Petroleum Corporation, but it did not become known publicly until Sunday.

After the leak, the state-owned firm and environment ministry dispatched teams to the area to try to control the leak before it entered the Yellow river, which sustains 140 million people with water supplies for drinking, irrigation and industry. As well as diversion ditches, they used 27 floating barriers to try to isolate the diesel so that it could be removed or soaked up with absorbent materials.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/04/oil-spill-china-yellow-river