A letter written by Professor Chunmiao Zheng and Dr. Jie Liu of the Center for Water Research (CWR) about China’s groundwater contamination was published in Science on May 17. (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6134/810.1.full). The letter was entitled “China’s ‘Love Canal’ Moment?”

Love Canal is a residential area in New York that suffered serious groundwater pollution in the 1970s. The situation raised grave concerns for the U.S. government at that time and brought in a nationwide groundwater protection initiative.

In the letter, they wrote that in February 2013, a posting in China's burgeoning blogosphere accused business owners in Shandong Province of disposing waste water through injection wells and contaminating shallow groundwater. This seemingly innocuous message, describing a practice that is not uncommon, ignited a firestorm on the Internet. The outburst of condemnation and concern caught many observers by surprise and reached the uppermost echelon of the Chinese government.

Zheng and Liu pointed out that amid China’s severe groundwater crisis, the Internet storm over groundwater pollution perhaps indicates that China’s ‘Love Canal’ moment may have come.

According to Zheng and Liu, groundwater provides about 20% of total water supplies for China, and 50 to 80% of water in water-scarce north and northwest regions of the country. However, the outlook for groundwater quality is bleak. The latest round of water well sampling in 2011 in more than 200 cities and administrative regions by China's Ministry of Land and Resources shows that fully 55% of more than 4700 samples indicated groundwater of category IV or V [on a scale of I to V from the best to poorest quality]. Still, no one knows the true extent and severity of groundwater pollution in China.

They believe that it is imperative that the Chinese government move aggressively and assertively to combat groundwater pollution. The challenges and action of the United States and other developed countries should serve as an example.

The United States alone has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on detecting, monitoring, assessing, and remediating contaminated groundwater since the 1970s, when groundwater contamination of the Love Canal neighborhood in New York brought groundwater protection to the American public's consciousness and the forefront of national priorities.

They suggested that China should formulate and enforce strong groundwater pollution prevention and protection plans, backed by adequate financial resources, sufficient incentives not to pollute, and strong implementation of the existing regulations. They believe this is urgent, as potable water is scarce in the most populated areas and China cannot afford the destruction of its groundwater resources. They hope the Internet storm of 2013 would be remembered kindly by history if it were to become China's "Love Canal" moment.

Related Information
The Center for Water Research (CWR) at Peking University was founded in July 2006 to accelerate the development of water research programs at Peking University. It is aimed at advancing and coordinating water related research at Peking University while promoting and facilitating substantive collaboration with leading international water research centers. More information can be found at http://hydro.pku.edu.cn.

CWR researchers discussing computer simulations of groundwater contamination

CWR researchers collecting groundwater and surface water samples in the field