Widest Pollution Trail Leads to Farm Fields

(Caixin Online) The enormous task of feeding more than 1.3 billion mouths is one reason why China has reigned for years as the world's largest consumer and producer of fertilizer.

But when fertilizer is overused or misapplied, components such as nitrogen flow freely from farm fields straight into groundwater, rivers and lakes. Likewise, runoff from livestock farming contains nitrogen and phosphorous that can eventually reach – and seriously harm – bodies of water.

Now, for the first time, the scope of China's farm runoff problem has been documented as part of a National Pollution Source Census. The census, for which general results were released February 9, called agricultural pollution a major source of waterway contamination nationwide.

The amount of harmful chemical oxygen demand (COD) tied to agriculture far outstripped that from industrial sources, the report said. Agriculture also was cited as the leading source of nitrogen and phosphorus contamination nationwide.

"Cutting off agricultural pollution sources needs to be elevated to a high position on the environmental protection agenda if China's pollution problem is to be corrected," Zhang Lijun, vice minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), said at a State Council press conference when the report was released.

Hunt for Sources

China has been taking steps to improve the environment for years. The government's 11th Five Year Plan, for example, called for a 10 percent reduction in major pollutants from 2005 levels by 2010.

Despite lofty goals, however, officials have had only patchy information about the ultimate sources of pollution nationwide. So in May 2007, the State Council ordered the pollution source census, led by Wang Yuqing, the government environmental agency's vice director.

About 570,000 people were mobilized to help collect data. The survey sought to document more than 6 million sources of industrial, agricultural and consumer pollution. Participants were also to study pollution control measures.

Wang said it was the first time the State Council had arranged for a nationwide survey of this scale. The plan's raw results were reviewed and approved at an executive meeting of the State Council in 2009 before results were made public in February.

The survey found 30.3 million tons of COD in wastewater, 1.7 million tons of ammonia nitrogen, 23.2 million tons of sulfur dioxide of and 18 million tons of nitrogen oxide in the nation's environment in 2007.

The survey also confirmed some commonly recognized effects of pollution: Emissions of major pollutants were highest in well-developed areas with large populations, and autos contributed to 30 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions, inflicting a serious toll on urban air quality.

Zhang said the survey has paved the way for a pollution source database that in the future would be referenced and researched, providing details according to industry, region and other factors.

Greenpeace, an environmental group, called for the Chinese government to publicly release all data from the survey and let the public play a role in pollution control and prevention.

Wang told Caixin that most survey data would be compiled and released to the public by the end of 2010, after officials set up records for major national and local pollution sources, and build a database of pollution sources.

Biggest Polluter

Since pollution has always been associated with industry, the survey results were somewhat unexpected: Agriculture was found to be the largest source of COD, accounting for more than 40 percent of all discharges. Farms were also found to be the main source of nitrogen and phosphorus contamination.

The survey showed that the livestock and poultry breeding industries are prominent sources of contaminants as well, accounting for 96 percent of COD, 38 percent of nitrogen and 56 percent of phosphorous contamination from agricultural sources.

Li Debo, a researcher at MEP's Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science, said farm pollution has been a well-known but seemingly unavoidable problem. He said improper use of fertilizers and pesticides have contributed to the problem.

Aware of the severity of rural environmental issues, the central government in 2008 concluded the first National Environmental Protection Work Meeting by setting aside 1.5 billion yuan in special funds to support comprehensive projects targeting the rural environment.

But resolving pollution problems in China's vast rural areas will be difficult. Officials may find that 1.5 billion yuan is a mere drop in the bucket that benefits only about 10 million rural residents.

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