Liaoning province sees least acid rain in 2017

SHENYANG -- Northeast China's Liaoning province saw the lowest frequency of acid rain on record in 2017 thanks to the reduction in coal use and pollutant discharge, the provincial meteorological bureau said Wednesday.

The frequency of acid rain in the province was 3.82 percent last year, with no severe acid rain recorded. The average PH level of precipitation in the province in 2017 was 6.18, the best in a decade.

Any form of precipitation with a PH level below 5.6 is called acid rain. Precipitation with a PH level of under 4.5 is regarded as severe acid rain. Acid rain is made up of water droplets that are unusually acidic because of atmospheric pollution, most notably the excessive amounts of sulfur and nitrogen released by cars and industrial processes.

Less acid rain last year was a result of improved environmental conditions in the province. Liaoning has been striving to replace kang - a brick bed platform heated by burning coal underneath which is widely used during winter in northeastern China -- with heating facilities using clean energy in recent years. It also increased the use of new energy vehicles in public transport system.

This year, Liaoning plans to demolish more than 2,500 coal-fired boilers, reduce the number of heavy-polluting vehicles, and set up an emissions cap in certain areas to further reduce acid rain.