On March 25th, the Department of Ecology and Environment of Hunan Province issued a notice on emergency response to abnormal thallium concentration in the Leishui River Basin (Chenzhou Leiyang section): On March 16th, 2025, the thallium concentration in the cross city section of Leishui, Chenzhou Leiyang in Hunan Province was 0.13 micrograms/liter, which was abnormal (referring to the specific project standard limit of 0.1 micrograms/liter for centralized drinking water sources in the “Surface Water Environmental Quality Standards”). Under the guidance of the Emergency Management Office of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Hunan Province and Chenzhou and Hengyang have initiated emergency response measures, and the pollution sources have now been controlled. After the incident, Chenzhou City and Leiyang City successively launched emergency response measures for sudden environmental incidents, organizing sampling, monitoring, and traceability investigation of the entire Leishui River basin. On March 17th, after verification, it was determined that the pollution source was a cement production enterprise located in Suxian District, Chenzhou City. The main reason is that when the company recently dismantled the kiln of the old production line, the thallium dust inside the kiln was washed away by rainwater and flowed into the external water body through the rainwater discharge outlet. In recent emergency response, Chenzhou City has focused on pollution source control, organizing the transfer of wastewater from the involved enterprises to heavy metal wastewater treatment plants for disposal. Measures such as site anti-seepage treatment, construction of emergency pools, bricklaying of cofferdams, and laying concrete on the main water ditches in the factory area have been taken to eliminate hidden dangers at the source of pollution. Under the guidance of technical experts at the provincial and ministerial levels, the cities of Chenzhou and Hengyang have implemented measures such as source control and interception, the use of thallium removal agents for treatment, strengthened water volume regulation, and monitoring of water quality indicators along the affected sections of the Aoshang River, Chenjiang River, and Leishui River downstream of the enterprise, to ensure the safety of drinking water for the public. Monitoring data shows that since March 16th, the thallium concentration in the effluent of various water plants downstream of the incident has been within the limit of 0.1 micrograms per liter in the “Sanitary Standards for Drinking Water”, and the water supply safety has not been affected. At present, the disposal work is being carried out in an orderly manner.
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