For all the big talk that happened at Copenhagen and is happening still afterward, China has to deal with many of the same environmental problems that all the rest of us do- namely, if you are using gas made from fossil fuels it is going to spill at some point. According to Reuters, one of the greatest rivers in the world, the Yellow River, is currently in danger from a 150,000 liter(!) diesel fuel spill that is on its way toward the river from the spill site 70 kilometers away.

That’s a set up for some true environmental heroism, if you ask me. The leak was discovered sometime during the middle of the week last week, and according to pipeline owner China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) in northwestern Shaanxi province, they have been working diligently ever since to make sure that the diesel does not make it to the Yellow River.

First the company closed the pipeline, but some of the leaking fuel did make it to the Weihe River, which empties into the Yellow River some 70 kilometers away. There has been diesel detected in the river up to 33km away from the original leak and there are warnings out for no one to use the water from the river.

"The company has built 23 blocking belts on the rivers and the local government built three more dams to prevent leaked oil from flowing into the Yellow River," said Chinese news agency Xinhua. "A 700-people crew has been working on the clean-up. So far, much of the leaked oil and polluted silt has already been taken away.”

Encouraging news, to be sure, but keep in mind that the company itself (CNPC) is the source for this information. The company is also putting the blame for the leak on a third party construction team that they say caused the damage.

This is not a new thing for China to deal with (well, it’s not a new issue for any industrialized nation to deal with, for that matter), but it does appear to be a growing pain for the rapidly industrializing Chinese landscape. In 2005 an explosion at a chemical plant released toxic chemicals into the Songhua river and cut off water for around 4 million people. I can’t imagine what it would be like if, say, a toxic chemical leak infected the San Joaquin river or Hetch Hetchy and the entire Bay Area was cut off from fresh water supply- what would you do? Truck in bottled water from Oregon?  

I haven’t read anything from the news agencies about how you deal with this kind of travesty, as in how you get water to 4 million people because of a diesel spill, but I can only imagine that the Chinese government will not allow any outside help, and that they will tell everyone outside of China that everything is fine, don’t worry about it everyone, we’ve got it covered.

This is the way of the world in the face of fast industrialization- things spill. And this is one of the greatest plugs for solar or wind energy- you can’t spill sunlight and you can’t lose hold of toxic wind… Let’s move to the clean stuff, everyone…

Photo Credit: j i j i (via Flickr under CCL)