Public prosecutors in North China's Hebei Province have filed a lawsuit against 20 suspects for illegally dumping thousands of tons of hazardous waste, which allegedly caused environmental damage and fatally poisoned a restaurant owner.
Prosecutors found two groups of people had secretly dumped highly dangerous waste including sodium bisulfide, sodium sulfide and hydrochloric acid produced by a Beijing-based State-owned petroleum company and electroplating firms in Hebei, into urban sewage systems or on farmland, thepaper.com reported on Tuesday.
Their illegal dumping was discovered on May 18, 2015, after Li Qiang, a restaurant owner in Lixian county, Baoding was poisoned to death after breathing in toxic gas. The gas was given off by chemicals dumped near his restaurant.
Two tanker trucks dumped highly alkali and acidic liquids into an underground pool near Li's restaurant on May 17 and 18. The pool was connected to the city's sewage system and therefore to Li's kitchen. The chemical waste produced strong poisonous gas, which directly led to Li's death, authorities said.
Investigation shows that a Hebei-based recycling company had transported a total of 2,817 tons of chemical waste from Beijing to dump in Lixian from Feburary to May 2015.
Another group dumped more than 600 tons of chemical in Hebei rivers or pits from August 2014 to May 2015.
The Lixian case may be only the tip of the iceberg. A neighboring city, Xinji, has arrested 45 people in 18 similar cases in the past two years. The suspects have formed complete supply chains to illegally dispose of chemical waste.
Similar cases of gangs transporting and dumping dangerous waste have taken places in other provinces, threatening their environmental security, the reports have said.
The prosecutors are also looking into the possible involvement of government officials and State-owned company officials in such cases.
