China struggles to stem leaking fuel

Workers in northern China dug diversion channels and used floating dams and solidifying agents to try to stop a diesel fuel leak from reaching the Yellow River, the water source for millions of Chinese. More than 700 workers worked overnight to contain a spill that leaked from a pipeline into the Wei River in Shaanxi province after a construction accident in late December. A report from the official Xinhua News Agency put the amount of oil leaked at about 40,000 gallons. The Wei is a major tributary of the Yellow River, China’s second- longest, whose water quality has deteriorated because of factory discharge and dropping water levels. The pipeline’s owner, China National Petroleum Corp., said it had plugged the leak in the pipeline and had removed a large amount of contaminated water, mud and sand. (January 4, 2010)