2 officials dismissed, 1 suspended after landfill investigation

Two officials in Zunyi city, Southwest China's Guizhou province, have been dismissed and one suspended from work after an inspection team found and exposed the illegal disposal of landfill leachate.

On Dec 14, Bozhou district government announced the punishment of the officials who were in charge of the landfill. Xu Yongfa, director of the Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau of Bozhou, was suspended from his position. Guo Fanghong, the Bureau's deputy director, and Yang Minkang, the Bureau's section chief of municipal administration, were dismissed.

An inspection team from the central government was dispatched to revisit Zunyi. On Nov 10, the team started the supervision on Bozhou district of Zunyi. As the prime targets of this inspection, the landfill and its leachate treatment station were found to have secretly discharged the leachate from the landfill.

Leachate is any liquid material that drains from land or stockpiled material and contains a high concentration of harmful substances that may enter the environment. Because the cost of treating leachate is very high, the local Comprehensive Enforcement Bureau organized some sanitation workers to transport the leachate a few kilometers down the road and pour it into the rainwater pipeline - more than 100 tons of leachate was discharged into the pipeline every day.

The Zunyi government convened a meeting on Dec 15, and decided to overhaul the local environmental issue.