China's Olympic Dreams found Latest Enemy : Green Algae -- To Save Olympic Sailing Races, China
Fights Algae / NYTimes

The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/world/asia/01algae.html

July 1, 2008

To Save Olympic Sailing Races, China Fights Algae

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/01/world/01algae.600.jpg
A barge at Qingdao, site of the Olympic sailing regatta in August, was surrounded by algae last
week. The Chinese have begun a huge cleanup effort.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/01/world/01algae2.large.jpg
Reuters / Two soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army clearing flora on Monday along the
coastline in Qingdao.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/30/world/30algae-2-650.jpg
Agence France-Presse ― Getty Images
Volunteers helped to clean up a huge algae bloom in Qingdao on Monday

By JIM YARDLEY

BEIJING ― With less than six weeks before it plays host to the Olympic sailing regatta, the city of
Qingdao, China, has mobilized thousands of people and an armada of small boats to clean up an algal
bloom choking the coastline and threatening to impede the competition.

Local officials have begun an intense effort to clean up the algae by mid-July. News reports
estimate as many as 20,000 people have either volunteered or been ordered to participate in the
operation, while 1,000 boats are scooping algae out of the Yellow Sea. The country’s official news
agency, Xinhua, reported that algae currently cover a third of the coastal waters designated for the
Olympic competition.

Water quality has been a concern for the Olympic sailing events. Many coastal Chinese cities dump
untreated sewage into the sea, and rivers and tributaries emptying into coastal waters are often
contaminated with high levels of nitrates from agricultural and industrial runoff. These nitrates
contribute to the red tides of algae that often bloom along sections of China’s coastline.

But officials in Qingdao said in recent days that pollution and poor water quality did not have a
“substantial link” to the current outbreak, according to Xinhua. Instead, scientists blamed the
increased rainfall and warmer waters in the Yellow Sea for the bloom. Algae blooms now affect more
than 5,000 square miles of seawater, Xinhua reported.

“We will make all our efforts to finish this job,” said a propaganda official in Qingdao, who asked
not to be named because of the political delicacy of the issue. “Now, forces from the entire
province have become involved.” He said ships and boats have been dispatched from two other coastal
cities, Rizhao and Yantai, to help haul away the algae.

Yuan Zhiping, an official with the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Committee, said Sunday that the
government would try to block algae from floating into the Olympic sailing area by installing in the
sea a fenced perimeter more than 30 miles long.

“I believe we will make sure the Olympics sailing area is clean by July 15 through our efforts, and
make sure the Olympics sailing goes smoothly,” Mr. Yuan said, according to the Shandong News Web site.

Photographs in the Chinese news media showed rickety wooden boats overflowing with green mounds of
algae collected from the sea. One photo showed a young boy crouched on a beach beside piles of the
leafy glop as a dump truck carried off a large load of it. State news outlets reported that 100,000
tons of algae had already been taken out of the water. Much of it was being transported to farms as
feed for pigs and other animals, according to news reports.

Residents of Qingdao and its environs, where about seven million people live, have been anticipating
the city’s Olympic moment for years. One local newspaper reported that 11,000 college students had
volunteered for cleanup duty over the weekend. Several companies had organized teams of employees to
help.

The massive outbreak comes with some sailing teams already in Qingdao preparing for the Olympics.
Photographs in the Australian news media showed an Australian team seemingly stuck in a carpet of
algae during a training run.

In British news media, a British windsurfer who has been training in Qingdao, Bryony Shaw, said the
algae would be an issue if the waters were not cleaned up. “There’s no way you can sail through it,”
she said. “If it’s still here in August, it could be a real problem.”

Qingdao’s situation is another challenge for Beijing’s Olympic organizers, who have committed to
delivering a clean and healthy environment for the Olympics.

Air quality remains a serious concern in Beijing. On Tuesday, the city will begin removing 300,000
high-polluting vehicles, mostly trucks, from local roads. Later in July, the city will institute
temporary restrictions to remove half of all motor vehicles from the streets.

But air quality remains such a large problem that officials are also preparing contingency plans
that could force factories across much of northern China to close temporarily if conditions warrant.

Huang Yuanxi contributed research.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/world/asia/01algae.html