Failed to Designate Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek River Pollution Areas as 'Special Disaster Zones'

Pyeongtaek City "Deploys 'Activated Carbon Adsorber' for Contaminated Water Control"

The designation of a 'special disaster area' for the polluted river regions in Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek following the hazardous material storage warehouse fire in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, has been canceled.

On the 30th, Pyeongtaek City announced that the Ministry of the Interior and Safety had notified them of the denial regarding the request to designate the Cheongbuk-eup and Oseong-myeon areas, which are polluted sections of the Gwanricheon stream, as special disaster areas. The ministry reportedly explained the reason for denial, stating, "This incident is not considered a disaster requiring urgent recovery and support."

Earlier, Pyeongtaek City had requested the government on the 14th to designate the area as a special disaster zone, anticipating that enormous budgets would be required for polluted water treatment, containment and restoration work, and soil and groundwater management. If designated as a special disaster area, up to 80% of the damage recovery costs can be supported by national funds.

However, despite the cancellation of the special disaster area designation, the city plans to concentrate administrative efforts until the end to manage the incident, including polluted water containment.

To this end, the city plans to deploy an 'activated carbon adsorption device' for polluted water containment. The activated carbon adsorption device is a device that removes pollutants by utilizing the adsorption power of activated carbon, and the city expects it will help remove the color and other aspects of the Gwanricheon stream, which currently emits a bluish hue.

Experimental results of the 'Activated Carbon Adsorber' (center) conducted by Pyeongtaek City to treat river pollution water. It is confirmed that the blue color of the polluted water (right) has disappeared.
[Photo by Pyeongtaek City]

The city explained that it has completed on-site testing of the activated carbon adsorption device and, based on discussions with related organizations such as the Ministry of Environment, has requested the Korea Environment Corporation to support its large-scale enforcement. The city expects the activated carbon adsorption device to be able to treat about 2,000 tons of polluted river water per day.

Mayor Jeong Jang-seon said, "We will continue to cooperate closely with related organizations and do our best to manage the incident," adding, "In particular, we expect the speed of polluted water treatment to improve significantly with the deployment of the activated carbon adsorption device."

Meanwhile, as of the 29th, Pyeongtaek City has treated 61,000 tons of polluted river water. Earlier, on the 18th, the Ministry of Environment announced that the concentrations of specific water quality hazardous substances at nine inspection points in the polluted section of Gwanricheon had improved to within the allowable discharge standards across all sections.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.