26 November 2018

…Quanzhou city authorities on Sunday confirmed that 69 tonnes of the petrochemical C9 – a by-product of the oil refining process – had spilled into the local seawater, far in excess of the originally claimed seven tonnes. Two officials have been sacked for negligence, in addition to the arrests of seven people for their roles in the incident…

Now the Quanzhou city government says senior executives at Fujian Donggang Petrochemical Company deliberately deceived local authorities about the extent of the contamination. Three of those arrested are employees of Donggang Petrochemical while the other four were working on the tanker, the Tiantong No 1… “The incident was mainly caused by the negligence of the petrochemical company that led to a failure of chemical safety regulation,” the Quangang government said. According to the government’s latest investigation, Donggang Petrochemical failed to mention that the tube connecting the tanker and the refinery was full the night before the leak and all of its contents – around 32 tonnes – had ended up in the sea.

The government investigation also found the petrochemical firm had lied about how much C9 was in the tanker, adding another 30 tonnes to the total contamination. …Fisherman and villagers…are still waiting for compensation.