Thousands of tons of harmful slime dumped into sand pits

A polluter was handed a prison term on Friday in the capital's most serious environmental protection case to date.

The sentencing followed a trial during which the court heard that thousands of tons of sewage sludge containing heavy metals and bacteria had been dumped into suburban pits in groundwater protection areas between 2002 and 2007.

Five people faced charges connected with causing major environmental pollution.

Mentougou court sentenced the principal offender, He Tao, from Beijing Huanxingyuan Environment Protection Technology Ltd, to three and a half years in prison and fined him 30,000 yuan.

Liu Yongxiang and Jiang Xiaobing, who represented the pits in which He dumped the waste, were given suspended sentences.

Two others facing charges, who were also involved in the pit contract, were exempted from criminal responsibility for minor crimes associated with the incident.

The court heard that more than 6,500 tons of waste sludge was found in two sand pits on the banks of the Yongding River in May 2008.

The strong smell it caused had driven villagers to contact the local environmental protection agency.

Investigations revealed that the sludge had come from the capital's Qinghe Sewage Treatment Works and Jiuxianqiao Sewage Treatment Works, which had contracts with He's company for the disposal of sludge.

Testing of samples from the pits showed that the waste contained heavy metals as well as bacteria that could have led to outbreaks of infectious diseases.

He had mainly trucked the sludge to suburban areas such as Daxing district and Pinggu district where it was sold to local fruit growers to be used as fertilizer.

However, when the roads were muddy because of rainy weather, he decided to dump the sludge into the sand pits in Mentougou district.

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The owners of the sand pits received between 50 yuan and 100 yuan for each truckload of waste, according to Beijing Evening News.

The incident became the capital's top environmental pollution case relating to an incident in which serious damage was caused, said the indictment.

A report from the Environment Impact Assessment Center of the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences shows that it cost more than 80 million yuan to abate the pollution in the pits and more than 100 million yuan will be needed to deal with the long-term environmental pollution.

Procuratorate of Mentougou district is also seeking 80 million yuan in civil compensation, the first such action in the city. The civil compensation case will be tried separately.

The group of five indicated that they agreed with the judgment and said they did not plan to appeal.

The two polluted pits were covered with earth in September 2009 and the area was planted with trees and is now being used as a park.

Waste sludge from the city was usually used for farming or directly dumped into lowland areas before 2008, according to Beijing Evening News.

Neither practice is allowed today under the law.