Jiangxi water supplies return to normal after gasoline leakage

Officials take urgent action to avoid pollutant flowing into Poyang Lake

Water supplies in Yongxiu county in East China's Jiangxi province resumed on Tuesday amid improving water quality at a Liaohe River intake, local authorities said.

Also, classes will resume in schools on Wednesday, the county's publicity department said.

Tap water for 60,000 people in the county was cut on Monday due to a polluted water intake used by a tap-water company on the Liaohe River.

An initial investigation attributed the pollution to an oil pipeline leak upstream. The pipeline has been shut off and the leak has been sealed.

A river water sample taken Monday night in Wucheng, which is 49 km from the leak, contained 0.531 mg of oily substance per liter, according to the Jiangxi Provincial Environment Emergency Response and Accident Investigation Center.

Another water sample taken at the intake contained 0.2074 mg of oily substance per liter, it said.

It has been confirmed that the substance leaked from the pipeline was 93-octane gasoline. The leak lasted 12 to 18 hours, with 2 metric tons of gasoline leaking per hour, according to an initial investigation.

Local environmental authorities have sent straw, oil-absorbing felt and suction strands to Wucheng to prevent the polluted water from flowing into Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake.

Some schools also let students go home on Monday because of the water cutoff.

Wucheng is at the intersection of five rivers in the province and near Poyang Lake, the country's largest fresh water lake.

Neighboring Duchang county had water supplies cut at 11 pm on Monday over fears that the drinking water had been polluted. After tests showed no signs of pollution, water supplies resumed at 9 am on Tuesday.