A Historical Investigation Of The Pollution Events In Guanting Reservoir In The 1970s

In the early spring of 1972, a school of dead fishes were unexpectedly foundfloating everywhere in Guanting Reservoir, which was an important water source ofBeijing. At the same time, some residents in the surrounding areas also appeared instrange unexplained symptoms after they ate the fishes purchased from GuantingReservoir. Coinciding with "Cultural Revolution", this unexplainable event was notpublicly reported, but it still interested the public and caused many fictitious rumors.It also shocked the top leaders of China. The authorities launched an investigation tothe cause of this event and discovered that the Guanting reservoir had been seriouslypolluted by the factories upstream in the basin. Accordingly, the authorities launcheda large-scale movement in order to control the pollution. The industrial pollution inGuanting basin is an epitome of the environmental situations of China in 1970 s, ofwhich the basic reason is the strategy of heavy industry priority development.Materializing the “Three Simultaneities” System, the environmental science and theenvironmental system, this event has a profound influence on China’s environmentalprotection?This paper is consists of the Introduction and the main body which is divided intofour parts.The Introduction consists of the purpose of this study, the research status, theresearch ideas and methods, the definitions as well as the disadvantages of this paper.The first, second and third parts of the main body presents the sequence of thisevent, including the occurrence, the public responses, the preliminary investigation,the emergency control measures and the subsequent treatment to the pollution, as wellas the results of treatment. The fourth part of the main body is the analysis to thebackground, the cause and the historic significance of this event, by presenting theenvironment problems of China in 1970 s, the strategy of heavy industry prioritydevelopment implemented from 1950 s and the originations of China’s environmentrelated fields in this event.