Massive water pollution detected near livestock burial sites

[unreal.livejournal.com]

A large number of underground water sources near livestock burial sites nationwide have shown high rates of organic contaminants, the Environment Ministry said Tuesday, raising concern over widespread environmental pollution caused by livestock disease and culling.

The ministry and a state water research center said they have jointly examined water quality at about 3,000 underground water sources within a 300-meter radius of animal burial sites across the nation to see whether they were affected by the massive burial of animals.

According to their first assessment, 143 sources showed high rates of bacteriological contamination beyond water quality standards set by the environment authority.

"The first round of analysis showed that a considerable number of underground water sources contained pollutants beyond the standard," said an official at the National Environmental Research Institute (NERI). "We are analyzing details of whether the water sources were polluted by leachate from the burial sites or contaminated from waste water from nearby cattle sheds."

The results were released after South Korea last week eased a nationwide alert against foot-and-mouth disease, which has cost some US$2.6 billion over the past four months. Since the first case was confirmed in late November, the government has slaughtered 3.4 million livestock.

The ministry said it will notify nearby residents not to use the contaminated water. It will also conduct additional inspections to identify specific materials and announce the detailed results as soon as possible, officials noted.

Abnormal levels of nitrogenous compounds generally indicate pollution, as most of the nitrogen found in water originates from the decay of the remains of plants and animals.

Source: koreaherald

Comments

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Doing a massively dumb thing will backfire, news at 11.

[loverboy.livejournal.com]

WHAT A SURPRISE

[colour-of-faint.livejournal.com]

It's easier to just cremate the animals. :/

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

I don't think they had cremation ovens for thousands of animals. But instead of massive cullings they should have gone for massive vaccination spree right after the disease was first detected.

[colour-of-faint.livejournal.com]

idk, it was just a suggestion. jesus.

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

idk, no need to be so offended. I wasn't personally attacking you. jesus.

[missklutz16.livejournal.com]

truth. the pictures of them dumping and burying thousands of potentially live animals were so sad and disturbing.

[kiwilovekiwi.livejournal.com]

duh. should of seen this coming.

[pinefir.livejournal.com]

if they were doing a massive dumping the least they could do was properly bury the pigs and by properly i mean totally expecting the fact that the sheets are gonna tear, therefore they need a clay layer of some sort that hardens so tha ti town't go tot the groundwater table

[hyonimilk.livejournal.com]

No way.

=|

[earthequality.livejournal.com]

Mad for all the citizens who have to deal with this on top of everything else. :/

[riot-o-curls.livejournal.com]

oops, looks like those darned plastic sheets to hold all those buried alive animals don't work after all. shit, and here i thought plastic wasn't supposed to be biodegradable. herp derp.

[untrueo.livejournal.com]

4.1 MILLION ANIMALS! Are you kidding me? It understoodable but dang that is insane.

[jaded-skys.livejournal.com]

I'd rather them go through the same thing they put millions of scared, confused animals through and have them burried alive as well.