The city of Dalian, in Liaoning Province, China sits on a peninsula that juts into Bohai, a bay that made news two summers in a row for oil spills caused by offshore drilling. I spent four days here together with staff of Blue Dalian, a grassroots environmental organization that seeks to protect Dalian’s regional water resources – including the Bay of Bohai and the Biliu River, which provides drinking water for Dalian City. Pacific Environment has supported Blue Dalian since it started, in 2007, with funding, mentorship, collaborative campaigning, and training.

Harvesting Seaweed in Dalian

On my trip, we spent two days in a rental car following the Biliu River up to its headwaters in the neighboring municipality of Wangfu Zhen. For two years, Blue Dalian has been raising the alarm about uncontrolled gold mining in the upper Biliu Watershed.  The miners here use cyanide and other toxic chemicals to leach gold of out rock drilled from the hills surrounding the Biliu River. Gold leaching ponds are often located right next to the river, each containing thousands of tons of toxic mud. An earthquake, severe rain, or other accident could easily compromise retaining walls, spill the toxic sludge into the Biliu River, and poison downstream water sources including the reservoir that Dalian residents drink from.  Such accidents have occurred all over the world, including the recent Cadmium spill in Guangxi, China.

Blue Dalian’s initial strategy included investigating the problem and reporting their results. Last year, they produced Poisoned River: Gold Mining along the Biliu River and distributed this report to officials, community groups, and schools. The Dalian Municipal government has been slow to respond; one environmental official showed concern early in the campaign but was later transferred to another position.  Media has been sympathetic, but without evidence of existing harm being done, they have hinted the story won’t become marketable until an accident actually occurs. Local farmers have felt some impacts, such as livestock falling ill and orchards that no longer bear fruit. But they are worried about confronting the mining companies, most of which are controlled by powerful local government officials and have deep connections in their communities.

Sludge tailings on Biliu River

On my visit to the area, I was surprised to learn that Dalian and Bohai are also home to the Hong Yan Nuclear Power Plant, the world’s largest nuclear power plant, with six reactors currently and two more coming soon. Following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year, fears of a nuclear accident in China led government planners to suspend plants under construction and temporarily close others to undergo safety system reviews. Responding to increased local concern about the Hong Yan, Blue Dalian printed and distributed a citizen’s guide to nuclear safety.

Besides the dangers posed by a potential nuclear accident, the reactor cooling mechanism increases the temperature of the surrounding sea water by 6 degrees, which melts the ice shelves that provide breeding grounds to China’s only seal species, the spotted seal. Other seashore projects such as a trans-provincial coastal highway, offshore drilling, and poaching of seals for zoos and for “seal penis medicine” have reduced the local breeding population to about 1000 seals.

On a tour of the Dalian peninsula and Biliu River, we stopped at a dump on Bohai Bay which services the “Opening Up Zone” of Dalian City. A hotspot for birdwatching, we also hoped we might spot a spotted seal in the wild. No such luck; but in addition to several kinds of gulls and ducks, we caught sight of a white-tailed eagle resting on a distant slice of sea ice.

Garbage dumped into the Biliu River

Last year, Blue Dalian teamed up with ten other local and national organizations and successfully convinced planners to re-route the trans-provincial coastal highway around sensitive breeding habitat. But the species is still in peril, and this year, Blue Dalian and Pacific Environment will investigate potential new risks to the boundaries of the spotted seal nature reserve. We will promote policies that ensure that future development projects cannot so easily bypass nature reserve boundary protections.