Yichun Luming Mining Tailings Leakage Accident: The Hulan River Molybdenum Concentration Achieves the Standard and Does Not Affect Drinking Water Safety
China News Service, Beijing, April 12 (Reporter Ruan Yulin) Monitoring data shows that on April 11, the characteristic pollutant leaking from the tailing pond of Luming Mining, Yichun, Heilongjiang, has been effectively controlled, and the molybdenum concentration of the Hulan River has reached the standard across the board. Experts from the National Environmental Emergency Expert Group said that the molybdenum content in the water meets drinking water standards and will not affect the safety of residents ’drinking water.
According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, at 13:40 on March 28, a tailings sand leak occurred in the tailings pond of Yichun Luming Mining Co., Ltd. in Heilongjiang Province. The leakage of sewage with tailings was 2.53 million cubic meters, and part of it entered the Yijimi River. After the accident, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment immediately started the emergency response procedure, and the working group arrived at the scene of the accident on the evening of March 29 to assist and support the local authorities in carrying out emergency response to the accident.
The Yijimi River is a secondary tributary of the Songhua River. Located in the central part of Heilongjiang Province, it originated from Xiaoxing'anling Pot Helmet and injected into the Hulan River in the east of Qingfeng Village, Qing'an County.
Yichun Luming Mining Co., Ltd. is a large-scale non-ferrous metal mining enterprise integrating molybdenum mining and beneficiation. The data shows that molybdenum is also an essential trace element for humans, and oral intake of molybdenum compounds is not easy to cause poisoning, but excessive molybdenum is extremely harmful to human life and health.
Under the on-site guidance of the working group of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the local government implemented the "pollutant control project" on the Ijimi River and the "pollutant cleaning project" on the Hulan River. .
Song Yonghui, leader of the National Environmental Emergency Expert Group and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, said that the leaked tailings particles are very fine and are not easy to settle when suspended in water. In order to remove the pollutants, after research, the experts determined to adopt the technical route of adding flocculant to precipitate suspended solids and molybdenum pollutants.
Song Yonghui said: "The selected flocculant polyacrylamide and polyferric sulfate are both used in drinking water treatment and will not affect the water environment."
According to Ma Fang, an expert from the National Environmental Emergency Expert Group and a professor from Harbin Institute of Technology, from 3 to 5 April, the emergency headquarters selected three representative areas in the area affected by the leakage incident of the Luming mining tailings pond in Yichun. In cross section, analysis of 109 indicators was carried out. The results show that, according to drinking water quality standards, except for the molybdenum element in the water, the oil and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) meet the requirements. Other substances are not detected or only traces, and no other toxic and harmful substances are found.
Ma Fang said that after emergency treatment, the monitoring data showed that the molybdenum content in the water is less than 0.07 mg per liter, which meets the drinking water standard and will not affect the drinking water safety of residents.
Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment Zhai Qing emphasized that all measures should be implemented in accordance with the requirements of scientific pollution control, precise pollution control, and legal pollution control to ensure that the general goal of “not allowing excessive wastewater to enter the Songhua River” is achieved. (Finish)