Spills Remind China that Polluters Must Pay

An oil pipeline explosion at the port of Dalian on July 16 spilled about 1,500 tons of crude oil into the sea. The next day, on the other side of the planet, BP managed to cap a leaking oil well that had dumped millions of tons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a three-month period.

The Dalian leak was by far the smaller of the two oil spills. Nonetheless, crude seriously polluted the Bohai Sea. And the incident alerted China to the potential for future environmental disasters, as well as the need for vigilant oversight of companies involved in businesses with pollution risks.