VietNamNet Bridge - The Thanh Hoa provincial authorities on November 1 decided to allow the Nghi Son Petrochemistry Company to discharge its wastewater into water sources in the Nghi Son Economic Zone.

Under the decision, the discharge will occur in coastal waters in Hai Yen commune of Tinh Gia district.

Nguyen Van Thi, head of the Nghi Son Economic Zone’s Board of Management, said the agency is working with the provincial environment department and relevant agencies on the company’s proposal to allow it to rinse the pipeline.

On June 9-11, the Nghi Son Oil Refinery tried to rinse the 35 kilometer oil transmission pipeline. The refinery pumped sea water mixed with 31,708 liters of hydrosure and 1,588 liters of coloring matter into the pipe, and then discharged the water directly into the sea.

The General Directorate of Environment said that pipeline rinsing violated the law, which did not come in line with the project’s report on possible impact on the environment.

In principle, the wastewater must not be discharged directly into the environment, but must undergo oil sludge decanting and treatment with chemicals before neutralants are pumped into the pipe. Only after all these steps can the waste enter the sea.

The total volume of waste water from the rinsing process was 75,100 cubic meters, of which 42,000 cubic meters were discharged to the sea, while 33,000 were still kept in the pipeline.

In related news, on September 8, over 47 tons of caged fish farmed by 21 out of 66 households in Nghi Son Bay suddenly died en masse. 

Scientists came to the conclusion that fish died because of outbreaks of hairoi-creratium furca existing in the sea water, or the algae bloom phenomenon.

The analysis of the water sample taken from the waters, where mass fish deaths were found, discovered hairoi-creratium furca causing a red tide with density of 8 million cells in every liter of sea water. 

The water sample taken from the Nghi Son refinery’s port area also contained that kind of algae.

Scientists came to the conclusion that fish died because of outbreaks of hairoi-creratium furca existing in the sea water, or the algae bloom phenomenon.

Dang Hung Vo, former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, in an interview with Dat Viet, said that no plant was allowed to discharge waste water directly to the sea. 

“It is illegal,” he said. “We must not let the Formosa story be repeated, no matter what.”

He said that it was the oil pipeline rinsing activity which caused the red tide phenomenon, or the algal bloom, and killed fish en masse in the waters of Hai Yen commune in Tinh Gia province.

Nam Lich