On September 5, 2016, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, the 11th G20 Summit came to a successful conclusion after the adoption of the G20 Hangzhou Summit Communique. The Hangzhou Summit reached a record breaking 29 agreements, which is a global milestone. The "Hangzhou Consensus" formed at this summit has become the engine for sustainable development of the world economy. On the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the successful convening of the G20 Hangzhou Summit, a touching story of private volunteers from Yongkang City, who have been unknown to the public, gradually surfaced to protect the summit.

1、 Xianxi is in distress

On July 15th, 2016, in the early morning. Chen * cai from Ningbo Binhai Petrochemical Co., Ltd. drives Zhejiang B Tank truck H6792, traveling on the G25 Changshen (Jinliwen) Expressway from Lishui to Jinhua towards Yongkang, unexpectedly experienced a major accident of 18 tons of engine oil leakage and serious pollution of river water.

This small stream is called Yongxiang Creek, also known as Xianxi Creek. It stretches for more than 30 miles, passing through Fudian and flowing into the Yongkang River near Xiweng and Wengbu, then merging into the Wuyi River, and merging into the Wu River, Lan River, Fuchun River, and Qiantang River. It travels a hundred turns and a thousand turns along the way, heading towards the East China Sea.

At this moment, the city of Hangzhou on the banks of the Qiantang River is eagerly preparing for the Hangzhou G20 Summit, an international conference that has been held since the founding of the People's Republic of China, with a large scale, standardized reception, and high security level. Imagine, at a critical moment before the summit, these 18 tons of blue and watery lubricating oil drifted to the banks of the Qiantang River. If the countries participating in the preparation for the international conference were to learn about it, what adverse effects would it have? Will the concept of China's environmental and ecological governance proposed at the G20 summit be questioned?

The author excerpts a similar case from publicly available information - the consequences of the ConocoPhillips oil spill: the ConocoPhillips oil spill, which occurred on June 11, 2011, at the Penglai 19-3 oilfield jointly developed by ConocoPhillips and CNOOC in the United States. The oil spill mainly covers the nearby sea area, with an impact range of about 60 kilometers northwest of Penglai 19-3 Oilfield. The cumulative pollution of 5500 square kilometers of seawater caused by the oil spill directly led to a decrease in water quality from Class 1 to Class 4 for 870 square kilometers of seawater. More seriously, it causes great pollution to the water quality of the surrounding waters, with the water quality dropping from Class 1 to Class 4. The harmful substances produced during the process of oil pollution decomposition are first absorbed and accumulated by marine organisms, and then transmitted through the food chain, posing a threat to human health. After the accident, the emergency department used oil disinfectants to clean up the oil stains. ConocoPhillips was accused of inadequate handling of the Bohai oil spill. In April 2012, ConocoPhillips and CNOOC paid a total of 1.683 billion yuan to compensate for the losses caused to marine ecology and farmers by the oil spill.

After a major oil spill accident occurred in Penglai 19-3 Oilfield in Bohai Bay on June 11, 2011, until August 23, 2011, (according to the "Sea Water Quality Standards", Class 1 is excellent and Class 4 is poor). On September 2nd, the State Oceanic Administration determined that the 19-3 oilfield development enterprise - ConocoPhillips Oil Company failed to thoroughly investigate the risk points of oil spills and completely seal off the oil spill sources, and ordered the entire Penglai 19-3 oilfield to stop injection, drilling, and production operations. At the same time, the State Oceanic Administration stated that in response to the marine ecological damage caused by the oil spill accident, it will file an ecological claim against ConocoPhillips in accordance with relevant provisions of the Marine Environmental Protection Law. (Source: China Ocean Disaster Reduction Network)

Will the current oil spill in Yongkang City lead to serious environmental pollution and adverse effects? Will it affect the water quality of the East China Sea? Will all levels of departments and the people in Yongkang, with a high sense of honor and responsibility, capture this butterfly and prevent disasters and accidents before they happen?

The perpetrator Chen * was completely unaware of the development of this accident, which could potentially cause extremely serious environmental pollution and have a very close connection with the highly anticipated Hangzhou G20 Summit.

2、 Taking orders in the face of danger

At 7:50 am, after several rounds of phone calls, the rescue instructions were finally issued to the environmental pollution control emergency rescue team of Yongkang Zhongyi Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. through Lv Ziyun, the person in charge of the 110 Command Center of Yongkang Public Security Bureau, requesting emergency linkage rescue.

This rescue team was established in 2014 under the guidance of the second level emergency departments in Jinhua and Yongkang. It is a social organization dedicated to environmental pollution control and emergency rescue. Zhongyi Company is a new material company with patented technologies for the invention of FG adsorption particles, oil containment booms, adsorption pads, and other products related to oil and chemical spills.

At exactly 8 o'clock, Hu Wujun, the captain of the emergency team of Zhongyi Company, brought more than ten rescue team members and emergency supplies such as Zhongyi FG oil containment booms, adsorption pads, adsorption bags, adsorption particles, and fishing nets to the scene of the accident. Tong Ansheng, Director of the Emergency Management Office of Yongkang City, Lv Ziyun from the Municipal Public Security Bureau, relevant officials from the Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau and Highway Administration also arrived at the scene of the accident.

Previously, emergency response to marine oil spills in China often overlooked environmental impact factors. In order to cope with public opinion pressure and avoid huge economic compensation, some accident responsibility units use chemical oil disinfectants to treat polluted water areas and nearshore areas. Oil suppressants do not eliminate oil, but mix it with seawater to make it invisible. The severity of the harm to secondary water environment, aquatic animals and plants caused by improper disposal even exceeds that of untreated pollution.

So, comrades who participated in the oil spill emergency rescue stated that the handling of the oil spill accident must not repeat the same mistake, leaving hidden dangers to society and the G20 summit.

At this point, almost all of the 18 tons of engine oil in the tanker truck had leaked into the drainage channel under the highway. The driver involved in the accident once blocked the channel with soil and refused to physically absorb and clean up the residual oil in order to reduce losses. He waited until 12 noon before the accident unit dispatched a vehicle to retrieve less than 2 tons of contaminated oil.

At 1pm, the situation suddenly changed: due to the oil staying in the channel for more than 10 hours, the oil began to leak into underground water sources, forests, and farmland through channel cracks, and spread with the water to Yongxiang Creek, which is 100 meters away. If these oil pollutants enter the Yongkang River at a flow rate of 5 meters per second, within 100 minutes, they will reach the Wu River, drift into the Lan River in two hours, reach the Fuchun River in four hours, and reach the Qiantang River in eight hours. The subsequent oil pollutants will continue to drift downstream, forming a 200 kilometer long oil pollution belt that pollutes the coast of the East China Sea.

Hu Wujun promptly reported the sudden danger to the higher authorities, which touched the hearts of local unit leaders in Yongkang and the people of Yongkang. After learning of the further development of the danger, the emergency rescue chief Zhu Zhiang and other relevant personnel from the city's emergency office, environmental protection bureau, etc. rushed to the scene. Hu Wujun, Tong Ansheng, Lv Ziyun and others proposed the following rescue plan on site:

1. Quickly remove the contaminated oil from the highway surface through physical adsorption and restore the road to traffic as soon as possible;

2. In the downstream section of Yongxiang River, oil suction barriers are pre installed, with upstream interception and downstream containment to control the spread of oil pollution and prevent secondary disasters;

3. Processing objective: To control the oil spill within the scope of Yongxiang River and Shangyuan Dam as much as possible without blocking the water flow. The entire process adopts an environmentally friendly mode of physical adsorption to eliminate the adverse effects of oil pollution on the water environment.

After 30 minutes, the oil spill on the highway surface was treated with adsorbed particles, and on-site personnel wiped the road surface with paper towels, leaving no obvious oil stains on the paper. 9: At 40 o'clock, the closed road section was unsealed and released.

3、 Horror moment

After 9:40 am, Hu Wujun led the rescue team to search and survey downstream along Yongxiang River, and finally found the "Shangyuan Dam" about one kilometer away from the oil spill site. It is more suitable to set up multiple FG oil booms to intercept the oil spill in advance before a large amount of oil spills come, in order to prevent the spread of oil pollution downstream under the danger of continuous water flow.

At 10 o'clock, the brown blue floating oil had already seeped out of the groundwater and flowed downstream to more than ten acres of lotus fields, seedling fields, and ponds. It flowed along the canal to Yongxiang Creek and spread downstream. The entire Yongxiang River surface is floating with oil stains five to ten centimeters thick, and the rescue work has entered a more difficult stage.

The scorching sun is mercilessly roasting the earth, tormenting people's tolerance. The smell of lubricating oil penetrates the senses of rescue personnel in the scorching sun; In the chest deep, oily river water, the team members' clothes have been mixed with sweat, oil, and river water, tightly adhering to their skin, making it difficult for them to sweat and breathe normally. This is a test of willpower, a final battle in a race against time! Without the incentive of honor or the promise of money, the team members have only one simple belief: in order to ensure the safety of the Hangzhou G20 Summit, we must not allow oil pollution to flow out of Yongkang.

After 1 pm, the oil pollution on the river surface accumulates more and more, and the white adsorption particles absorb the oil and turn yellow brown. A bag of adsorbent material originally weighed 10 kilograms, but after absorbing oil, it was picked up and put back into the bag, weighing 50 kilograms. With just a dozen or so people, it is obviously impossible to salvage all the oil absorbing particles on the nearly 1-kilometer-long and 50 meter wide river surface that are filled with oil pollution in a short period of time. The emergency team members were exhausted and standing in the river, shaking and trembling. Even worse, the weather forecast predicts heavy rain at night.

2pm in the afternoon. There is a faint thunder coming from the horizon, and the clouds in the southwest direction are constantly accumulating and surging. In case of rainstorm and flood, it is possible to break the oil absorption fence and flush the oil pollution and oil saturated particles into the Yongkang River. The situation is critical. If the Shangyuan Dam is not protected, Yongxiang River is in danger, Yongxiang River is in danger, Yongkang River is in danger, Yongkang River is in danger, Wujiang River, Lanjiang River, Fuchun River, and Qiantang River are all in danger!

Someone recruited a large number of employees with a daily wage of 800 and asked them to participate in the rescue. The employees shook their heads and walked away as they watched the oil pollution fill the river. Another group of volunteers arrived and also left the scene.

Thunder echoed like heavy hammers hitting the rescue personnel on the scene. How can we collect the oil pollution in the creek as soon as possible? At a critical moment, a bold idea flashed through Hu Wujun's mind: a temporary emergency sewage tank of about 100 cubic meters must be excavated on the left bank riverbank above the dam, and then a channel must be dug to divert the oil absorbing particles filled with oil into the sewage tank for temporary storage and further processing.

At the critical moment, Hu Wujun immediately reported to the responsible comrades of Zhu Zhiang and other departments, demanding that the following emergency measures be taken immediately and implemented overnight:

1. Implement the provision of emergency lighting power supply;

2. Please reinforce the "Qianxi Rescue Team" to assist in collecting oil containment booms and adsorbing particles on the water;

3. Take preventive measures and ask the village cadres in Jiangnan Street to be responsible for guarding the facilities and preventing accidents caused by human factors.

At 3 pm, Zhu Zhiang made a decision on site and implemented these measures separately.

A large excavator arrived at the scene before dark, and the power company added several small suns to illuminate the rescue site like daylight. The excavator kept roaring non-stop, and in less than two hours, a hole was dug on the left side of the embankment, and the temporary sewage tank operation was also completed.

Dong Chenfa, the captain of the water rescue team of the Millennium Rescue Team, led more than 20 members to rush to the rescue with two rubber boats at 3 pm in the afternoon. After the hard work of the Millennium Rescue Team, at around 11 pm, more than ten tons of oil absorbing particles floating on the river were finally surrounded by oil absorbing towing booms and directed into a temporary sewage storage tank.

Finally, the oil pollution in the river was blocked upstream, and not a single drop of oil fell downstream. The next morning, as the sun began to shine, I followed the sunlight to observe the upstream river water, gurgling and flowing without a single drop of oil pollution.

4、 Qiantang is safe and sound

From the accident on July 15, 2016 until the end of September, Hu Wujun led the Zhongyi rescue team to persist in the Yongxiang River oil spill site, continuing to use Zhongyi adsorption particles for environmental remediation. There is not a single star of oil droplets visible on the downstream river surface. Previously, the contaminated oil that was urgently imported into the temporary sewage tank was repeatedly adsorbed with FG oil absorbing particles and packaged in bags. The environmental sanitation department mobilized more than 10 sanitation workers and spent a full 3 days to clean and transport over 400 bags of nearly 30 tons of oil contaminated particles. According to the predetermined plan, these oil stains will be sent to the garbage incineration power plant for fuel utilization and treatment. According to multiple monitoring of the water quality of the Yongkang River downstream by the environmental protection department, no residual oil components have been found.

According to incomplete statistics, the rescue operation lasted for more than 60 days and did not violate any chemical oil disinfectants. The entire process used physical adsorption mode to clean up more than 1000 meters of polluted water in the Yongxiang River section, covering an area of about 20000 square meters; Clean up approximately 300 square meters of road surfaces and bridge slopes contaminated by oil spills; Approximately 20 acres of contaminated forest and farmland will be cleared, improved, and restored for ecological purposes; Recycling approximately 30 tons of FG mixture for harmless treatment of adsorbed oil pollution; Ensuring the water environment safety of downstream cities, especially residents on both sides of the Qiantang River, in terms of water use, aquatic flora and fauna. The entire rescue operation adopted safety and environmental protection measures, breaking the record of similar rescue operations in China in the past.

The major oil spill cleanup and rescue mission on July 15th has finally come to an end.

After experiencing a hundred days of horror, the "Xianxi" like a fairy ribbon is still clear, flowing peacefully and quietly; The picturesque Yongkang River has escaped danger, and the Wujiang and Lanjiang river systems have also escaped danger.

Fuchun River and Qiantang River are safe and sound, and the G20 summit is safe and sound!

Authors: Zhang Zehong, Hu Wujun