Environmental official challenges pollution report

The Xiangjiang, the major river in Hunan province, has been reported to be seriously polluted with heavy metals, but the provincial environment protection department said the report is not scientific.

The report from an environmental protection charity organization and issued on Nov 15 said that the arsenic level was 715 time higher and the cadmium level 206 times higher in many parts of the Xiangjiang than recommended levels.

"My team spent more than 500 days investigating the pollution in 10 cities along the river from September 2013 and compiled the report using 164 samples of soil, rice, water and other substances," said Gao Liang, the main investigator of the Changsha Shuguang Environmental Protection Charity Center, a non-governmental organization established in August 2013 and headquartered in Changsha, capital of Hunan.