Excellent Water Quality Rate Observed in Our City's Offshore Water Areas this summer

From: Lianyungang Daily Updated: 2023-09-21 04:32

On September 20th, it was learned from the Municipal Ecological Environment Bureau that according to data from the National Marine Environment Monitoring Department, the excellent water quality rate in the offshore waters of Lianyungang in summer reached 100%, with Class I water quality of 87% and Class II water quality of 13%. There were no Class III or IV seawater qualities, making it the best among three coastal cities in Jiangsu Province. It is also the first time that all waters have achieved excellent water quality in summer since the introduction of monitoring data.

It is known that the environmental situation in the offshore waters is an important indicator for the annual high-quality development of the marine environment assessment in our city. At present, the national marine environmental monitoring department has 18 assessment points in the offshore waters of our city, and sampling and monitoring are conducted once a year in spring, summer and autumn. Due to its location at the border of Jiangsu and Shandong, there are two major flood discharge channels, Xinyi River and Xinshu River, in our city. During the flood season, nearly 80000 square kilometers of flood water from the upstream is discharged into the sea, with an average annual inflow of about 9.869 billion cubic meters. It is known as the "flood corridor", and the water quality in the coastal waters in summer is generally worse than in spring and autumn.

Yangshan Island in late summer has beautiful scenery, with white waves beating against the rocks by the seaside. As one of the most representative sunrise attractions in our city, citizens and tourists come here every day. In recent years, in order to solve the problem of marine pollution, Lianyun District has carried out comprehensive remediation of the marine environment in the region. “It is the first time I come to Yangshan Island, I feel great. The seawater here is clear and the scenery is beautiful.” said Wang Xuan, a tourist from Huai'an. The evolution of Yangshan Island is a microcosm of our city's emphasis on land and sea coordination, collaborative governance, and reduction of pollution and nitrogen. In order to protect the marine environment, our city has issued the Offshore Area Pollutant Reduction and Water Quality Improvement Work Plan of Lianyungang City in 2023, which specifies 19 pollutant reduction projects. The city has reduced the planting area of direct seeding rice by 5582300 acres, built three urban domestic sewage treatment plants and completed a total of 574 administrative villages' domestic sewage treatment, with an additional sewage treatment capacity of 100000 tons/day.

There are more than ten rivers flowing into the sea within our city. Improving the marine environment requires attention to the water quality of these rivers that enter the sea. To this end, our city has implemented the rectification of 256 sewage outlets into the sea and the total nitrogen control of 12 rivers entering the sea under the regulation of "One River, One Policy". We monitor 17 key sewage outlets into the sea and 37 gates and dams of rivers entering the sea on a monthly basis. At the same time, a special operation was carried out to clean up the drifting debris in Haizhou Bay, mobilizing more than 5000 volunteers to clean up over 5600 tons of various shores and drifting debris. A total of 2391 salvage and transportation ships were dispatched, navigating 80523 nautical miles, salvaging 18198.325 tons of Enteromorpha prolifera, and utilizing 3724 tons of Enteromorpha prolifera as a resource.

In addition, our city has continuously highlighted the vitality of the marine environment through marine ecological restoration. Our city has coordinated a marine ecological compensation fund of 12 million yuan, which is used for marine proliferation and release. In the past six months, a total of 1.793 billion fish, shrimp, and crabs have been released; the construction of the "Beautiful Bay" has been accelerated and 15 marine engineering environmental protection facilities have been completed and accepted. The creation of the "Beautiful Bay" in the Qinshan Island of Ganyu and Liandao-Port Area of Lianyun has passed provincial expert evaluation and on-site verification. The goal of "clear water, clean beaches, flying seagulls, men and sea living in harmony" in Haizhou Bay is quickly taking shape.