Tough environmental protection task

Environmental protection volunteers exposed two illegal hazardous waste dumps in the suburbs of Lanzhou, capital of Northwest China's Gansu province, on Monday. Thousands of cubic tons of carbon blocks and waste residue from the electrolyzing of aluminum have been buried under a thin layer of earth or piled up in the open air in two valleys near a village of 2,700 residents.

The carbon blocks, dumped by the State-owned Aluminum Corporation of China Limited's Lanzhou branch, contain large amounts of highly toxic fluoride and cyanide, which are soluble in water, contaminating the groundwater and soil.

The company has vowed to take immediate action to clean up the sites and hold accountable those responsible. But this is not the first time it has been caught illegally dumping hazardous waste.