The environmental watchdog in Nantong, a city of eastern Jiangsu Province, is beset by corruption allegations as local prosecutors have started to investigate more than 10 officials within three months in relation to a series of notorious pollution incidents.

The Nantong Environmental Protection Bureau was placed in the spotlight after residents in Qidong, a coastal city administered by Nantong, protested in July, pressuring officials to scrap plans for a discharge pipeline from a Japanese paper mill to the sea.

Environmental inspectors under investigation also are believed to have taken bribes to protect a hospital that illegally processed medical waste to be recycled for making plastics, as well as having turned a blind eye to an increase in waste dumping from lucrative projects, China Business News reported yesterday.

Prosecutors in Nantong refused to unveil the list of officials believed to be corrupt or any details since the investigation is still under way.

Several high-ranking officials, including Yin Guoxiang, former head of Nantong No.2 People's Hospital, and Lu Boxin and Gu Aidong, former chief and deputy director of environmental watchdogs in Nantong and Qidong, respectively, resigned in June from local people's congresses, an announcement showed. It was not known whether they were among the officials under the criminal investigation, the newspaper said.

Local records show solid industrial waste grew from 1.41 million tons in 1997 to nearly 4 million tons in 2010 as chemical factories sprouted.

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