土壤污染是中国的棘手问题 Ground operation

The chemicals warehouse explosions in the port city of Tianjin last month reached straight into Yan Hongmei’s apartment, fracturing her mother’s pelvis when a window frame crashed on to her bed. A few days later, rain sprinkled the city with foamy yellowish flecks. The day after that, thousands of dead fish turned riverbanks into a silvery-white mass.

上月发生在中国港口城市天津的化学品仓库爆炸，直接波及颜红梅的公寓，窗框掉在她母亲的床上，砸折了母亲的盆骨。几天后，雨后的天津出现黄色泡沫斑点。次日，数千条死鱼将一大片河岸染成银白色。

“They say there are no problems now, but what about the future? What if our children will be affected down the road?” she said as she begged officials to buy her home. “We are afraid of the pollution posed by chemicals. Even though they say there is no pollution and it is safe, we still believe pollution exists.”

“他们说目前没有问题，但是以后呢？如果我们的孩子将来受到影响怎么办？”在请求政府回购其住房时，颜红梅称，“我们担心化学品造成的污染。即使他们说现在没有污染、现在是安全的，我们仍然认为存在污染。”

The fallout in Tianjin — from air, to water, to soil — is mirrored in industrial pollution across China. The thick smog that blocks the sun and causes hospital admissions to rise, often dubbed the “smog-ocalypse”, makes headlines worldwide. Rivers sometimes inexplicably turn red, plagues of dead fish can materialise overnight and algae blooms turn lakes bright green.

天津事件产生的冲击波——从空气、水、到土壤——反映了整个中国的工业污染问题。遮天蔽日的浓雾造成入院就诊人数上升，并成为世界各地的新闻头条，常被冠以“末日之雾”(smog-ocalypse)的称号。有时河流会不明原因地泛红，死鱼疫情可能在一夜间出现，或者藻类将湖水变为翠绿色。

But soil pollution — invisible, its effects lingering long after the original polluter is gone — may be the thorniest problem of them all.

但是，土壤污染可能是最为棘手的污染。这种污染是看不见的，在初始污染源消失后，其影响还会持续很久。

Faced with public discontent, Beijing has started to address air pollution by modernising factories and moving coal-consuming industries away from cities. By 2020, many major waterways are supposed to meet new drinking water standards. Some of these remedies may be counter-productive, since moving polluting factories to the hinterlands can have the perverse effect of fouling air, soil and water closer to river sources.

面对公众不满，北京方面已开始通过对工厂进行现代化改造、并将燃煤工业迁至远离城市的地方来解决空气污染。按照规划，到2020年很多大型水道将达到新的饮用水标准。其中一些补救措施或许会适得其反，因为将污染工厂迁移至内陆地区可能在更接近江河源头的地方污染空气、土壤和水，产生反效果。

Yet the government is only now beginning to grapple with soil pollution, after years in which experts struggled to bring attention to the issue.

不过，中国政府刚刚开始应对土壤污染问题——在专家们多年呼吁关注这一问题之后。

In 2004, workers digging Beijing’s Songjiazhuang subway station were poisoned by gases leeching from an abandoned pesticide plant. That sparked China’s first regulations on decontaminating abandoned industrial sites. Recent incidents, including cyanide contamination after the Tianjin blasts, are raising public awareness.

2004年，有工人在北京宋家庄地铁站施工时中毒，毒源为一家废弃农药厂里残留的气体。这导致中国首次对消除废弃工业遗址污染工作进行监管。近来的事故，包括天津爆炸之后的氰化物污染，提高了公众意识。

“China has entered its Love Canal era,” says Lan Hong, a professor at Renmin University’s School of Environment and Natural Resources, who is drafting a plan to finance China’s soil pollution clean-up. The 1970s discovery that the Love Canal neighbourhood near Niagara Falls was built on toxic waste led to the US “Superfund” for brownfield sites.

“中国已进入了自己的拉夫运河(Love Canal)时代，”中国人民大学环境学院副教授蓝虹表示。她正在草拟一份为中国土壤污染清理工作融资的方案。1970年代，人们发现尼亚加拉大瀑布(Niagara Falls)附近的拉夫运河社区建在堆放了有毒废弃物的地块上，导致美国政府建立了迫使污染企业清理场地的“超级基金”制度。

China needs Rmb7tn ($1.1tn) to clean up soil pollution, equivalent to one-third of its entire foreign exchange reserves, if it uses practices developed in the US and Japan, Ms Lan estimates. “China can’t afford it,” she says.

蓝虹估计，若采用美国和日本发展的方法，那么中国需要为清理土壤污染投入7万亿元人民币（约合1.1万亿美元），这个数字相当于中国外汇储备总量的三分之一。她说，“中国花不起这么多钱。”

The Chinese central bank estimates that the environment ministry’s targets for cleaner air and water alone require Rmb2tn a year over the next five years, although the central bank wants “green financing” to relieve government coffers. A soil pollution action plan in the works will also involve significant budget allocations during the next five-year plan from 2016-2020. Otherwise, Ms Lan says, at current spending of about Rmb40bn a year, sorting out soil pollution “will take us 1,000 years”.

中国央行估计，单单是环境部的水和空气净化目标就需要在未来5年内每年投入2万亿元人民币，不过中国央行想要使用“绿色融资”来减轻国家财政压力。一份拟议中的土壤污染治理方案也要求在2016至2010年的下一个五年计划期间安排可观治污预算。蓝虹说，按照当前每年投入约400亿元人民币的水平，治理土壤污染“将需要1000年”。

Redevelopment concerns

重建担忧

“Green financing” only goes so far. Investors can charge for treated wastewater, but there is little return on soil remediation. “The biggest challenge is financing. Where’s the money coming from?” one businessman says.

“绿色融资”能够解决的问题是有限的。投资者可以对废水处理收费，但是土壤修复没什么回报。“最大的问题是融资。钱从哪来？”一名商人称。

One funding source is developers who, according to World Bank studies, should be willing to clean up contaminated urban sites to raise the value of their land. But that idea has yet to bear fruit. A special fund was created for one flagship site, the blackened former campus of Shougang Steel in Beijing, after Shougang balked at spending $800m to rehabilitate the land.

世界银行(World Bank)的研究显示，其中一个资金来源是房地产开发商，他们应该乐于清理受污染的城市土地，以此抬高其土地的价值。但是，这个想法尚未结出果实。有一个特殊基金为一个标志性场地——受污染的首钢前北京厂区——创建，此前首钢拒绝支出8亿美元来恢复土地。

When housing has been built near reclaimed sites, there are scant profits for developers. China’s largest clean-up project to date, a former coking plant in Beijing, is ringed by low-income apartments housing Beijingers forced out of historic hutong neighbourhoods. Bitter residents spend three times their subsidised rent on bottled water.

当改造过的场地附近建造住宅后，开发商的利润不足。中国迄今最大的清洁项目——北京一个前焦化厂的厂区——如今被低收入住宅区环绕，居民是被迫离开历史悠久的胡同社区的北京人。如今，这些不满的居民掏出三倍于房租补贴的钱购买桶装水。

Yet even if urban industrial sites do begin to sprout luxury apartments, soil pollution will still blight rust belt towns and prime farmland. “The US and Europe have a lot of brownfield sites but China is different, because a lot of its agricultural land is polluted,” says Chen Tongbin, director of the Center for Environmental Remediation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

然而，即使豪华公寓高楼开始在城市工厂原址拔地而起，土壤污染问题仍将困扰衰败的工业城镇和基本农田。“美国和欧洲有很多棕地（brownfield，待重新开发的城市用地——译者注），但是中国的国情不同，因为中国连很多农业用地都被污染了，”中科院(Chinese Academy of Sciences)环境修复中心(Center for Environmental Remediation)主任陈同斌称。

Despite the challenges China faces in cleaning up its soil, some give it credit for doing far more than most other developing economies. The former Soviet Union is full of abandoned industrial sites while pollution from mining and factory waste is a growing problem in Africa and Asia.

尽管中国在清理土壤的问题上面临挑战，但是一些人对于中国比其他多数发展中经济体做得更多给予肯定。前苏联满是废弃的工业厂址，而采矿业和钢厂废弃物造成的污染正成为非洲和亚洲日益严重的问题。

“The country that’s furthest along in all this is China. The steps they have taken are far beyond any other country outside of the west,” says Rich Fuller, president of soil remediation specialists Pure Earth.

“在所有这些问题当中，走得最远的就是中国。他们采取的措施远多于其它任何非西方的国家，”专业从事土壤修复的Pure Earth公司总裁里奇富勒(Rich Fuller)表示。

Beginning in the 1950s, central planners built heavy industrial plants deep in the countryside. Winds and rain carried black smoke and dust into surrounding towns. Worse, irrigation canals distributed wastewater from mines and smelters into fields miles away. When economic reforms kicked off in the 1980, farmers over-applied pesticides and fertiliser to combat stunted yields from dead soil.

自上世纪50年代开始，中央规划者便在遥远的农村建造重工业工厂。大风和雨水卷携着黑烟和灰尘进入附近的城镇。更糟糕的是，灌溉渠把来自矿区和冶炼厂的废水排入数英里外的田地中。当上世纪80年代经济改革拉开帷幕后，农民过度使用杀虫剂和化肥，以此提高贫瘠土地的收成。

A growing recognition that soil pollution contaminates water, which in turn pollutes farmland, has forced Beijing to speed up its soil pollution plan, rather than tackling air, then water and leaving soil for last.

随着有关方面日益认识到土壤污染会进入水中、进而污染农田，北京方面正加快土壤污染治理方案，而非先治理空气污染、之后对付水污染、把土壤污染留在最后处理。

In 2011, Caixin magazine shocked the nation with its cover photo of a rice plant, the grain turned a silvery metallic colour. It revealed that rice from southern Hunan province, the top producer, was contaminated with cadmium.

2011年，《财新》杂志以一张水稻的封面照片震撼了整个中国。照片中的稻米带有银白金属色。这揭露了湖南省南部（大米产区）所产大米被镉污染的情况。

The report hit a nerve with city dwellers already anxious about food safety and persistent smog. “The effects of pollution and of the misuse of agricultural inputs like pesticides and fertiliser will become the next big stage in the food safety debate,” says Xu Liqing, who researches food safety and environmental issues at Jiangnan University School of Business.

该报道触动了城市居民的神经，他们已经为食品安全和持续雾霾而备感焦虑。“污染以及滥用杀虫剂和化肥等农业投入品的影响，将成为食品安全辩论的下一个重大议题，”江南大学商学院研究食品安全和环境问题的徐立青称。

Worried about sales of rice and other crops, Hunan’s provincial government has been vague about where exactly the contamination lies. It is not alone.

担心大米和其他农作物销售的湖南省政府，对具体的污染地点一直含糊其辞。这并非个案。

In 2014, China finally published a $150m national soil pollution survey from 2006-2011 that had been classified as a “state secret”. Officials and experts were “really tense” before the report’s release, one insider says, fearing it would harm agricultural trade. Hunan’s reputation for “cadmium rice” has hurt sales, many believe, even though official statistics show output has risen since the Caixin report.

2014年，中国最终公布了斥资1.5亿美元、于2006-2011年所做的全国土壤污染调查，而该调查之前被列为“国家机密”。一名内部人士称，报告公布前，政府官员及专家“真的很紧张”，担心这会有损农业贸易。很多人认为，湖南的“镉大米”名声已经影响了销售，尽管官方统计数据表明，自《财新》发表那篇报道以来，湖南的大米产量有增无减。

The findings were alarming: nearly one-fifth of arable land was contaminated. There was no indication of how the contamination was distributed, or where the hotspots are.

结果令人震惊：近五分之一的可耕种土地受到了污染。公布内容并不包括污染的分布情况，或者哪里是问题最严重的热点。

The fern gently spreading its fronds at Mr Chen’s office at CAS represents another hope. Phytoremediation — the use of plants to suck heavy metals from fields and paddies — promises a cheap and effective solution. It also carries risks. The crop must be burnt and buried, or the heavy metals will re-enter the soil. Rice is particularly suited to absorbing heavy metals, but what if someone sells the tainted crop?

在陈同斌的中科院办公室里，轻缓伸展叶子的蕨类植物提供了另一种希望。植物修复(phytoremediation)——使用植物从旱田和稻田里吸收重金属——有望成为一种廉价有效的解决方案。它也带有风险。作物必须被焚烧并掩埋，否则，重金属将重新进入土壤。水稻尤其适合用来吸收重金属，但有人出售被污染的大米怎么办？

Some badly contaminated villages are switching to ornamental crops, like flowers or saplings, that cannot be eaten. That preserves agricultural income but does not address health risks. And it cannot be applied broadly without denting food production.

有些污染严重的村庄转而种植不能食用的观赏性植物，比如花和树苗。那种做法保留了农业收入，但并未化解健康风险。这么做也不可能大规模推广，否则会严重影响粮食产量。

Slower, cheaper options carry hidden costs. The longer it takes to treat a plot, the longer that land is idle. Even the generous cost estimates developed by Ms Lan of Renmin University do not include compensation for lost harvests.

更慢、更便宜的选项附带隐藏的代价。处理一块土地所需时间越长，土地的闲置时间也越长。即便中国人民大学的蓝虹得出的慷慨的成本估算，也没有包括对耕地闲置的补偿。

That means that Chinese farmers might oppose removing the pollutants that are slowly seeping into their own bones and blood. Even stunted crops can be sold, and many in the countryside have no other source of income.

这意味着，中国农民或许会反对清除那些正慢慢渗入他们自己的骨骼与血液的污染物。即使长得不大的作物也可以卖出去，而许多农民没有其他收入来源。

Relocation issues

搬迁问题

A decade ago, heavy metal concentrations in the Xiang river prompted Hunan’s government to relocate metals processors from two cities, Xiangtan and Zhuzhou, to protect drinking water in the capital, Changsha. Upstream cities like Hengyang enthusiastically welcomed the factories as a boost to growth.

10年前，湘江重金属污染促使湖南省政府将金属加工厂迁离湘潭和株洲，以保护省会长沙的饮用水安全。衡阳等上游城市为推动经济增长，踊跃接纳了这些工厂。

Last year, children living near one Hengyang plant tested for high levels of lead. The city pledged to move it again, to the other side of town.

去年，居住在衡阳一家工厂附近的孩子们被检测出血铅含量超标。衡阳市政府承诺要再次搬迁这家工厂——迁到该市的另一头。

Poisoning by lead, cadmium or other metals particularly harms the young. Riots by parents of poisoned children add social unrest to the long list of reasons for covering up the extent of soil pollution. “Access to information is currently limited for the bottom 40 per cent, who are known to be relatively more exposed to degraded or highly polluted areas than other population groups,” the World Bank wrote when it provided a $15m grant this April to clean up former pesticide factories.

铅、镉等金属中毒对青少年的危害尤其大。地方政府已经有许多理由掩盖土壤污染程度，如今又有了一条：防止中毒患儿家长闹事引起社会不安定。世界银行(World Bank)今年4月提供150万美元清理原农药企业。世行表示：“目前40%的底层民众获得信息有限，相较于其他人群，这部分人更易受到退化或污染严重地区的危害。”

The “bottom 40 per cent” are the only people living in the village of Zhengjiang, tucked between an abandoned chemicals compound and the high levees of the Xiang river in Hunan. Crops used to die when heavy rains washed soot from the complex into the fields. Now they grow better, explains Mr Yang, a local scrap dealer, while his mentally handicapped teenage assistant grins behind him.

正江村位于湖南省境内，它夹在一座废弃的化工厂和湘江高耸的堤坝之间，“40%的底层民众”是该村的唯一居民。过去每逢天降暴雨，烟灰就随着雨水渗入田地，导致农作物死亡。当地一名废品收购商杨先生表示，现在它们长得好多了。他身后有一名十几岁的智障少女咧嘴笑着，她是杨先生的助理。

Zhengjiang’s first plant opened in 1980. Soon 20 different processors spewed smoke into the air and fouled the river and fields. “Back then, no one cared if it was poison or not. They only wanted the money,” Mr Yang says.

1980年，正江村首家工厂开业，不久后又开了20家加工厂，它们将滚滚浓烟排向空中，将工业废水排入河流和田地。杨先生说：“那时候没人关心它们是不是有毒。人们只想要钱。”

Eight years ago, a provincial environmental team arrived to test the village well. They were so horrified that they cemented it up. Yellow bubbles used to appear in boiling water, says a shopkeeper whose wife, daughter and baby granddaughter have stuck with bottled water ever since.

八年前，一个省级环保小组来村里检测水井。检测结果令他们大为震惊，以至将村里的水井用水泥封了起来。当地一个店主说，以前烧开水时能看见黄色的气泡，他妻子、女儿和外孙女一直坚持喝瓶装水。

The chemical plants left Zhengjiang two years ago. “They went somewhere in the mountains, where people aren’t crowded up against them like here,” Mr Yang says. Remediation plans posted online by the Xiangtan government include transforming the area into a “service industry hub”. One retired village cadre was vaguely aware of plans to relocate. No one else had been told.

两年前这家化工厂搬离了正江村。杨先生说：“它们搬到山里去了，那儿的人不会像这儿的村民一样合伙反对它们。”在湘江政府网上公布的整治计划中，有一条是将该地区转变成“服务业中心”。只有一名退休的村干部对搬迁计划有模糊印象，其他人都没听说过。

A few months ago, the villagers noticed a team testing the ground. One said he was testing for soil pollution. Villagers have not heard anything since.

几个月前，村民发现有一些人在检测土地，其中一人说他们是在检测土壤污染。村民们至今没听说任何下文。