Hebei Leting Aquatic Product Suspected of Oil Pollution in the Bohai Sea More Than One Thousand Farmers Want to Prosecute

Recently, netizens broke the news that Leting County, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, was suspected of being contaminated by CNOOC's Bohai Sea oil spill and a large number of scallops were killed. Yesterday, our reporter went to Leting Beach and discovered that there were many crude oil conglomerates and a black stripe of dirt. In the deep sea area of ​​more than 10 nautical miles, about 170 farmers, in the 26 km horizontal sea area, have cultured 170 million yuan of scallop seedlings, of which the super five Chengdu has died and the remaining scallops are only about one centimeter in size.

â–  Visiting the dirt block on the beach. Yesterday afternoon, the reporter went to the beach near the blue bathing beach in Leting County. Only a small number of tourists visited the beach.

Along the beach along the beach, there is a strip of black smudges everywhere. Yang Jizhen, president of the local scallop farming association, said that these are the crude oils left on the beach after the ebb tide. Some foam and fish floats on the seashore still leave plenty of solidified black oil, which is still very soft by hand. After walking barefoot in the seawater, visitors found that some oil stains were stuck on their feet. After walking a few feet in the shallow water area, many flowers appeared. Tourists playing in the sea said that they did not know there was oil.

According to reports, the first thing that found oil on the beach was the farmer Ge Yongqing. Around June 25, he discovered a large amount of petroleum solidified material on the coastline. At that time, he told Yang Jizhen about the situation.

Yang Jizhen said that after receiving a phone call, he observed from the coastline that there was indeed a large amount of petroleum solids, and there were also many black smudges formed by oil. As a result, he immediately reported the situation to the local township government and the Bureau of Fisheries and Other relevant units, and all units also reported the situation.

The reporter saw that caged scallops that fish farmers picked up from the deep sea had very few survivors, and they were very small, only about a centimeter.

Farmers said that the loss was over 300 million. Yang Jizhen introduced that the farming area of ​​Leting is distributed in the three regions of Laomi, Langwokou and Jiaohekou, with a horizontal area of ​​26 kilometers. At present, the number of local scallop farmers is around 170, and the farmers have invested 170 million yuan this year, but at present, 50%-60% of the farmed scallops have all died.

Yang Jizhen said that the scallop seedlings were brought in from Shandong. The seedlings are planted every year in May. According to the normal situation, the mortality rate of 2%-5% is a normal data. He himself also raised 150,000 cages of scallops this year. The cost of each cage is 50 yuan, but more than half of them have already died.

Zhang Yutian, one of the farmers, discovered in July that his breeding scallops had begun to die, and that other growth rates were significantly lower than last year. At this time in previous years, scallops had grown to about 3 cm, but now they are only one centimeter. Size, initially did not realize that the water quality may be problematic, but later learned that there was an oil spill in Penglai, and it was suspected that the death of the scallop may be related to the oil spill.

Zhang Yutian counted the deaths of his scallops and found that more than 70% of them had died. "How much is left in the water?" said Zhang Yutian. He lost about 2 million yuan according to last year's crop. Yang Jizhen explained that the cost of each scallop is about one yuan. As long as the mature scallops are sold for three yuan, according to this statistics, the loss of farmers this year will reach more than 300 million yuan.

The survey has not announced the results for 20 days in the face of such a huge loss, Yang Jizhen said that as scallop farmers, there is no way to take effective remedial measures. If you continue to purchase normal scallops from Shandong and other places, the mortality rate during transportation is unbearable to farmers, and the microbiological content of seawater this year is very low. Even if purchased, the normal growth cycle cannot be completed.

Yang Jizhen recalled that in the Laoting area in 2006, there had been a large number of deaths of scallop seedlings. At that time, the offshore oil pipeline at Shengli Oilfield of Sinopec was subjected to oil theft and the pipeline was perforated, leading to crude oil leakage for several months. Local aquaculture did not resume until two years later. "According to past experience, once an oil spill occurs, it will generally have 2-3 years of impact on water production," Yang Jizhen said frankly.

It is reported that when the County Aquaculture Association reported relevant information to relevant parties on June 28, the county's Environmental Protection Bureau, the Oceanic Administration, and the Fisheries Center set up a special investigation team on the 4th of July to rush to the scene to investigate and extract some of the deaths. The scallop seedlings are sealed and the authoritative department tests the cause of death. Some fishermen call for parties concerned to complete laboratory tests as soon as possible and implement compensation as soon as possible after implementing the responsible entities to resume production.

Qi Yuxiang, deputy director of the Aquatic Center of the Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Administration of Leting County, said that the scallops of this death were all scallop seedlings and immature scallops, so they would not affect human consumption.

More than a hundred fish farmers want to prosecute Conoco. At present, among the county's farmers, 136 have decided to file a lawsuit after the survey results are announced to safeguard their rights and interests.

As to why not all farmers jointly sue, a local farmer told reporters that this kind of prosecution is their self-issuance, which requires them to jointly pay for seawater appraisal and other projects. The cost is not a fraction. Yang Jizhen said that at present everyone has started to prepare. If it is determined that the scallops' massive deaths are indeed related to the oil spill accidents of Penglai 19-3, they will sue ConocoPhillips and other relevant units to recover their losses.

ConocoPhillips China: 60 people have been sent to inspect samples collected by this reporter (Reporter Zhang Yan) Yesterday, ConocoPhillips China did not give a clear statement about the death of Letting scallops in Hebei Province due to oil spillage in the 19-3 oilfield. Sixty people conducted inspections along the coast of Bohai Bay, and the collected samples were sent to a third-party testing agency to determine whether they were consistent with the oil spill components in the vicinity of the Penglai 19-3 Oilfield B and C platforms.

It is reported that after the Penglai oil spill occurred, a small amount of oil particles were found in the Penglai 19-3 oil field at the shallow water bathing beach on the shore of the Dahe River in the middle of the Dahe River in the middle of the Liaoning Province. As for whether the death of Letting scallops in Hebei Province is related to oil spillage in the 19-3 oil field, there is no conclusion yet. The State Oceanic Administration stated that the identification of aquatic products in the Ministry of Agriculture and the Coastal Inspection Team of the Marine Department found that the oil pollution would be brought back to the test, and the related samples were also detected when the oil pollution report was received. Coastal oil pollution that has been discovered has been announced.

In addition, for the handling of oil spill incidents, Conoco said that under the supervision of the regulatory authorities, ConocoPhillips will perform decompression and decompression work on the two oil wells on the B platform, which will reduce the pressure on oil reservoirs that cause oil leakage. This work was carried out under the close supervision of the operators and the regulatory authorities, and it is believed that it will greatly reduce the risk of future oil leakage in the B platform oil well system. The clean-up work is still continuing in the sea near the oil spill. The diver cleared another 22 cubic meters of oil-based drilling mud on the seabed near the C platform, and has now cleared a total of about 114 cubic meters. In order to detect the geology of the seabed, sonar exploration across the entire oil field continued.

Deputy Director of Laoting County Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau:

Temporarily unable to prove that it was related to oil spills yesterday, Wu Shuqun, deputy director of the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau of Leting County and director of the Fisheries Center, said in an interview with reporters that the mortality rate of scallops is higher than in previous years. It is a fact that there are oils on the seashore and the oil condenses into pieces. The fact is that scallops grow. Slowness is also a fact. However, whether the death of scallops is related to oil spills still requires an investigation.

Wu Shuqun said that a large amount of fluorescent algae appeared in seawater this year, resulting in very low levels of micro-organisms in seawater. This is also the reason for the development of scallops and death, because the risk of breeding scallops is high, and before the identification and investigation results come out, Can not explain the scallop death is caused by oil spills.

According to the report of the Environmental Protection Agency, the area of ​​scallop farming in the county is about 350,000 mu, with about 7 million cages. In 2001, the investment of farmers reached 170 million yuan. From the point of view of the scene, there are a large number of granular crude oil blocks along the shoreline that are carried along the shoreline by the waves on the seaside beach, and there are a large number of traces of crude oil that has been treated with dispersants. According to farmers, there was a large number of deaths of scallop seedlings, which began after the discovery of crude oil on the shore. The farmers reported strong and all suspected oil pollution. At present, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Oceanic Administration, and the Fisheries Bureau have all investigated the site and reported the situation, but the specific circumstances are still under investigation.

For the loss of farmers, Wu Shuqun said that although the amount of losses claimed by the farmers is very large, the specific loss has not been counted before the scallop death cause investigation and the identification results were announced.

Laoting tourism also suffered huge loss of huge scallops, which did bring huge losses to local farmers and aquaculture. Moreover, whether the sea area is suitable for large-scale breeding of scallops in the next year is still unknown. However, this is by no means the only loss. Local tourism has also been damaged.

A person in charge of the local government told the reporter that according to the season, this time period should be the peak season for beach tourism. At this time of the year, every day, the number of visitors to Repulse Bay (a seaside resort) reaches 50,000 to 100,000. People, but after the report of oil pollution in Leting Seawater came out, the number of people received every day was very small. “According to the ticket price of 10 yuan per person, only one ticket will be a huge loss, not to mention other tourism revenues.” The official said, in fact, the current number of oil blocks found on the beach is not very large, visitors will not be too much into the water influences.

â–  Background News CNOOC Oil Spill On June 4, CNOOC suffered an oil spill accident in the Penglai 19-3 oil field in Bohai Bay. The oil field was jointly developed by CNOOC and ConocoPhillips, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ConocoPhillips. The party is Conoco China. According to public information, Penglai 19-3 is the largest offshore oil and gas field built in China.

It was not until the beginning of July that CNOOC and ConocoPhillips had announced oil spills. On July 10, oilfields reappeared in the 19-3 oilfield.

At present, in addition to the fine of 200,000 yuan, related damages have still not made progress.

Laoting County Leting County is located in the southeast of Tangshan City, Hebei Province. It faces the Bohai Sea on both the east and the south, and is located on the west coast of the northern Bohai Sea. From the east to the west, the land coastline starts from the mouth of the estuary. There are inward estuaries such as Daozigou, Erchaohe, Laomigou, Changhe, Xinhe and Daqinghe. The coastline is 98.2 kilometers in length.