A chemical plant in the northeastern province of Jilin has been ordered to pay a one-million-yuan penalty by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) for polluting the Songhua River, Xinhua reported January 25.

Songhua River is polluted by benzene and nitrobenzene after a blast of at Jilin Chemical Industrial Co. plant at the upper reaches in northeast China on November 13, 2005. [China Daily]

The Songhua River was severely polluted after an explosion at the Jilin Chemical Industrial Co., a unit of PetroChina Co. Ltd. on November 13, 2005. Toxic benzene-contaminated water, flowing down the Songhua, contaminated the ecosystem and led to a water crisis in cities downstream that depend on the river for their water supplies.

The fine, the highest amount a factory can be charged for polluting under current law, comes at a time when the government has resolved to clamp down on such cases of virulent pollution.

What the State Council has called an "especially serious case of pollution", is actually the worst chemical spill the country has seen in years.

Caught between the strong industrial speculations of investors and the grim pressure of environmental protection, the central government has made a shift in policy to give priority to reducing pollution, policies regional authorities were always reluctant to observe in their intense pursuit of a high GDP.

Earlier this month SEPA employed the "regional approval restriction" sanction on four state power corporations and four cities due to rampant pollution. It's the first time in SEPA's history of thirty years to use this rigorous penalty, which bans all other new plants in a certain area until the pollutive factories improve their pollution treatment facilities and fall back into line with environmental regulations.

China's top economic-planning board has ordered "quality growth" in its economic guidelines for 2007, which put unprecedented emphasis on coordination between rapid economic growth and other social factors, especially environmental-friendliness.