Inner Mongolia Huomei Hongjun Aluminium and Electricity Co., Ltd. Main Gate
Recently, our agency received a joint report from nine herdsmen in Arikunduleng Town, Zhalute Banner, Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia, saying that since 2007, Inner Mongolia Huomei Hongjun Aluminum and Electricity Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Huomei Hongjun Company) has discharged a large amount of fluoride in the process of producing electrolytic aluminum, resulting in "odontopathy" in cattle and sheep in the surrounding downwind areas such as Arikunduleng Town. According to incomplete statistics, in recent years, there have been 583 households with livestock diseases in Arikunduleng town, and more than 40,000 livestock have died. Some people also suffer from strange diseases such as "mottled teeth", which have seriously affected the normal production and life of farmers and herdsmen in dozens of square kilometers in this area. Local farmers have repeatedly petitioned to no avail. In this regard, our correspondent went to the field for investigation and interview.
The mysterious death of cattle and sheep is helpless for herders
It is shocking that the teeth of cattle and sheep who died of "different tooth diseases" were uneven in length.
Arikunduleng Town is located in Zhalute Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which governs 10 Gacha and 1 natural village. It is one of the only remaining natural grasslands in Horqin area and is rich in natural resources.
Siqin (a pseudonym) is a local herder who has lived in this beautiful grassland for generations. According to her, just one year after a factory was built, her cattle and sheep began to lose weight inexplicably, and they could not eat grass. When they were hungry, they licked the black soil on the ground. Finally, they could not even drink water and died in a few days.
Siqin recalled that the old man in the village said that he had never seen such a strange thing in his life. More than 400 sheep in our family died one by one. At first, I suspected that the sheep had an infectious disease, so I didn’t sell any. In 2007, I thought that the dead sheep might be fed to dogs. After skinning, I found that the problem was the sheep’s teeth. Generally, the teeth of herbivores used to be flat, which is convenient for grinding forage. Now, the cattle and sheep of Siqin’s family have grown deformed tusks, which is extremely scary. Cattle and sheep can’t eat grass normally because their teeth are uneven. Soon, such strange things happened in many herders’ homes.
It is understood that in 1984, the pastoral area was divided into livestock, and the Siqin family was divided into more than 100 sheep. After 20 years, it has grown to about 1000. According to the recent price of 500 yuan per sheep, 400 sheep are sold annually, and her family’s normal income is about 200,000 yuan per year.
After the occurrence of strange diseases, people who collect livestock also have experience, and they have to look through their teeth when buying and selling. The sheep of local herders can’t sell at a good price, only tens of yuan can be sold cheaply.
Many herders have to sell the sheep’s teeth before they are completely distorted. At this time, the sheep are still lambs, and the price is naturally low. Some herders had to give up their local pastures and rent others’ pastures to graze in nearby Dongwu Banner.
According to the number of livestock deaths filled in by Siqin, 442 sheep and 44 cows died in her family in a few years (the value of each cow is calculated by 5 sheep), and the loss was about 400,000 yuan, while the loss of selling livestock at a low price was about 300,000 yuan. According to the survey, some herders have become poor as a result.
Is corporate pollution the real killer of cattle and sheep deaths?
The aluminum ingots just shipped from the factory are in sharp contrast to the sheep grazing beside the factory.
Huomei Hongjun Company was established in 2005, located in Holingol City, and is controlled by Mengdong Energy Group Company, a state power investment company, which is mainly engaged in the production, processing and heating of electrolytic aluminum.
It is understood that the electrolytic aluminum plant is a heavily polluting industry, and its pollution includes air pollution, industrial wastewater pollution and industrial waste residue pollution. Air pollution includes fluoride, sulfur dioxide, asphalt smoke, etc. Fluoride discharged in the process of electrolytic aluminum is discharged into the atmosphere from pollution sources and acts on plants, soil and water through sedimentation. Fluoride has strong biological toxicity, which is 10-100 times more toxic to plants than sulfur dioxide, and enters livestock through the enrichment of plants.
After fluoride poisoning in cattle and sheep, the last two teeth can grow four or five centimeters, and their mouths can’t be closed. In spring, sheep’s constitution is inherently weak, and it is easy to die from this disease. Excessive inhalation of fluoride can also cause skeletal fluorosis such as osteosclerosis, hyperosteogeny and mottled teeth, and in severe cases, it will lose the ability to work. Fluoride also has a strong stimulating and auxiliary effect on respiratory mucosa and skin. Sulfur dioxide and dust can damage the respiratory tract. Benzene and its derivatives contained in asphalt smoke will damage various organs of the body and cause pathological changes of cells and tissues, including canceration.
Polluted grassland in herdsmen’s mouth
According to farmers and herdsmen, the production of Huomei Hongjun Company has brought great economic losses to the residents of Arikunduleng Town and great harm to the human body in this area. There are only two elderly people over the age of 60 in a Gacha farm in Arikunduleng Town, 50-mdash; Most people over the age of 60 died of cancer.
On August 8, 2016, the reporter came to the industrial park where Huomei Hongjun Company was located and found that the pollution source in the herdsmen’s mouth did not start operation. However, I saw trucks transporting finished aluminum ingots one after another. Subsequently, the reporter contacted Huomei Hongjun Company by telephone to understand the situation, but it has not been connected.
According to informed sources, due to years of petitions from herders, factories now often start at night.
The Environmental Protection Agency said that excessive fluorine content was the cause of death of cattle and sheep.
In April, 2009, Tongliao Environmental Protection Bureau issued the Investigation Report on "Heterodontia" of Livestock in Arikunduleng Town.
Due to the seriousness of the situation, in April 2009, Tongliao Environmental Protection Bureau issued "Investigation Report on" Heterodontia "of Livestock in Arikunduleng Town".
It is pointed out in the report that in April 2009, Tongliao Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center, Banner Water Affairs Bureau, Banner Health Bureau, Banner Environmental Protection Bureau and other departments conducted research on the affected sheep bones, pasture grass, soil, water, urine fluoride content of residents, aluminum plant production, pollution prevention facilities operation, topography, climate and meteorological conditions, grass pasture division and livestock. Tongliao Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center collected relevant samples in Arikunduleng Town: sick sheep bones, pasture grass, soil and water, and entrusted them to the Clinical Laboratory Center of College of Animal Science and Medicine of Inner Mongolia Agricultural University for inspection. The bone fluoride value was 805.15— — 1751.00㎎/㎏, which is higher than the average bone value of fluoride-safe and healthy sheep in reference materials (567.85 ㎎/㎏); The fluorine value of forage grass: 92.30㎎/㎏ for wild grass in Jibei Mountain, Wenduridun, and 142.20㎎/㎏ for wild grass in Aluminum Factory South (farm village), both of which are higher than the annual average fluorine content of forage grass for protecting livestock in reference materials (30.0㎎/㎏). The soil fluorine value is 8.10— 13.15㎎/㎏, higher than the conventional content of water-soluble fluorine in soil (0.1— 1㎎/㎏)。
Based on the results of epidemiological investigation, clinical symptoms and inspection report, Tongliao Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center believes that the onset and death of livestock are not infectious diseases or parasitic diseases, and the high fluorine content in the local environment may be one of the reasons for a large number of chronic deaths of cattle and sheep in Arikunduleng Town, Zhalute Banner.
According to the inspection report, the Zhalute Banner Environmental Protection Bureau entrusted Tongliao Environmental Inspection Station to conduct a detailed investigation and understanding of the production situation of Huomei Hongjun Aluminum Plant, the operation of pollution prevention facilities, the terrain and climatic and meteorological conditions of Arikunduleng Town, the distribution of grassland and livestock grazing, and sampled the pasture. According to the preliminary analysis, the forage grass contains fluorine in different degrees. According to the aluminum factory, the fluorine content in the forage grass is higher in the near area and lower in the far area. In the aluminum factory, the fluorine content in the downwind forage grass is higher and the fluorine content in the upwind direction is lower. At present, Tongliao Environmental Monitoring Station is working out a pollution monitoring plan according to the situation of Hongjun Aluminum Factory and Arikunduleng area, wind direction and speed conditions, and livestock distribution, and plans to monitor the local air, water quality, plants, soil and main pollution sources. Investigate the main pollutants discharged by pollution sources, the emission intensity and the affected area, and investigate and understand the local environmental background value and other related information. For the projects that can’t be monitored in Banner and Tongliao City, it is prepared to entrust an authoritative unit with corresponding qualifications to monitor and analyze, and determine the relationship with the morbidity and mortality of livestock with the relevant departments such as Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau according to the main local pollution sources, wind direction and speed, the distribution of diseased villages and grazing sites, the fluorine content in pasture and the fluorine content in livestock.
Punishment is equal to continuing pollution?
The government’s subsidy to herders is 6.27 yuan per mu, which is far from enough for the loss of cattle and sheep.
On August 9, 2016, the reporter came to Tongliao Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center to understand the situation. The relevant staff told the reporter that the report did have the participation of the control center at that time. At that time, the test done by Inner Mongolia Agricultural University was entrusted, and the odontopathy was indeed caused by excessive fluoride.
The reporter went to Tongliao Environmental Protection Bureau to understand the situation. The office staff told the reporter that according to the regulations, if you want to interview, you must go through the consent of the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee, otherwise you can’t be interviewed.
Subsequently, the reporter went to the Propaganda Department of Tongliao Municipal Committee, and the staff of the Propaganda Department refused to meet the reporter on the grounds of leading them to the countryside, saying that they could go directly to the relevant departments for interviews. So pushing Tai Chi, the reporter is really helpless.
After many twists and turns, the reporter got the administrative punishment decision of Tongliao Environmental Protection Bureau, which showed: "This machine filed an investigation on February 3, 2016 on the case that the power branch of Inner Mongolia Huomei Hongjun Aluminum and Electricity Co., Ltd. was suspected of discharging pollutants beyond the standard. After investigation, the pollutants discharged by your (unit) power branch exceed the national or local emission standards.
On January 27th, 2016, Tongliao Environmental Monitoring Detachment received Tongliao Environmental Monitoring Center’s Report on Online Monitoring Data of Key Pollution Sources in December, 2015 (Tonghuan Monitoring Word [2016] No.4). After the environmental monitoring law enforcement officers of our bureau inquired about the enterprise’s environmental protection professionals, made on-site inspection records and obtained other relevant materials, the following illegal facts have been found out: Huomei Hongjun, Inner Mongolia.
"Your unit the illegal facts are clear and irrefutable evidence. Violation of Article 13 of the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution ‘ If pollutants are discharged into the atmosphere, the pollutant discharge concentration shall not exceed the national and local discharge standards ’ The provisions of the. According to Article 48 of the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution ‘ Whoever, in violation of the provisions of this Law, discharges pollutants into the atmosphere in excess of the national or local discharge standards shall be treated within a time limit, and the competent administrative department of environmental protection of the local people’s government at or above the county level shall impose a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan. The decision-making authority of deadline governance and the administrative punishment required by illegal deadline governance shall be stipulated by the State Council ’ In accordance with the provisions of the "Tongliao Environmental Protection Bureau’s main administrative penalty discretion", it is decided to make the following administrative penalties for your unit in violation of the second item (1) standard of air pollution prevention and control:
"Units 1 and 4 were fined 10,000 yuan, and Unit 7 was fined 10,000 yuan, totaling 20,000 yuan."
"2. According to the Administrative Punishment Law of the People’s Republic of China and the Implementation Measures for the Separation of Penalty Decision and Penalty Collection, your company shall pay the penalty to the designated bank account within 15 days from the date of receiving this penalty decision, and submit a copy of the payment voucher to this organ for the record. If the fine is not paid within the time limit, the organ will impose a fine of 3% of the fine every day according to law. "
It is understood that Zalute Banner Environmental Protection Bureau has also imposed a penalty of 1 million yuan on Huomei Hongjun Company.
According to the herdsmen, the government of Zhalute Banner compensates villagers 6.27 yuan per mu in the name of loss of cattle and sheep every year, and each household can get about several thousand yuan in compensation on average. However, the compensation of several thousand yuan is not enough to buy more forage for one year, not to mention the economic loss of dead cattle and sheep and the harm to personal health. As of the press release date, local farmers and herdsmen are still on the difficult road to safeguarding their rights.
Our society will continue to pay attention to this matter.





































