Discovering a gas well in Lang Son: 'Already known 50 years ago'

Gas fields for nearly 50 years were discovered in Coc Nam village, Tan My commune, Van Lang district, Lang Son. Over the past ten years, this well still has a strong smell of gasoline, even when people flock to each other to use it. This phenomenon has caused the attention of many people, but from then until now, the authorities have not yet come to verify the incident.

There is gas in the well water

Gas wells have another name is Bo Lai well . Local people and local authorities are not sure when the well was built. However, the availability of gas wells according to local people has appeared since 1960 - 1965, which is about 45-50 years old.

Luong Thi Thom, a person living right next to the gas well, said : Only around Bo Lai well there is gas in the area, and other wells are only about 10m away and still use normally and there is no smell strange. At first, people only smelled water smelled like gasoline, oil, and saw strange scents appear. These petrol and oil scum existed for decades, until the 1990s, but the smell of gasoline and oil still exists.

People who use gas in their wells still use it in their daily life

Although there are gasoline and oil in the well water, people still use daily activities such as bathing, washing, watering green vegetables . When using laundry detergent to dry, the smell of gasoline also goes away, well water So is watering green vegetables. Ms. Thom said that because of using well water, no one died, so keep living normally.

Mr. Sam Van Thanh, a resident living near the gas well, told me : Before, when the gasoline and oil were not finished, the bad smell from the wells was strong, even the houses like his family were about 70m away but still Smell the smell of gasoline and oil. Some old people who could not sleep at night had to evacuate to grandchildren 's homes in other localities to live. On rainy days, the amount of water dissolves greatly, so the smell in the well is better, but still very uncomfortable.

Get to gas

Mr. Sam Van Thanh recounted: When he was thirteen, fourteen years old, he went to the well twice a day to collect water with gasoline and oil. At first, he and the people here feared that the gas well was burned, but later found that the water was still used without any problems, and there was oil to burn and gradually became familiar.

The fact that Coc Nam villagers have taken away petrol and oil for a long time is a real thing. Mr. Hoang Duc Phung, Head of the Office of Natural Resources and Environment of Van Lang district, affirmed that. On a small day, he was also able to collect gasoline and oil and filtered light oil instead of kerosene.

Talking with us, Mr. Lanh Nghiep Du, vice chairman of Tan My commune People's Committee said: The amount of gasoline, oil flowing out of gas wells was about 1970s-1980s. By the late 1980s, Coc Nam appeared The unusually heavy rain caused flooding, the gas well was sunk deep in the water. Therefore, it is possible that a large amount of gasoline and oil are dissolved in water. After such intense rains, the scum of gasoline and oil rarely appeared, but the smell was still very strong and lasting until now. Thousands of households in Coc Nam village and neighboring villages find water with scum and gasoline smell but still very clear, so they still use for living for decades.

Although the gas phenomenon appeared strange, there were no authorities to check the situation. Mr. Hoang Duc Phung said that the district has not received any reports from the commune regarding the gas well, so it has not sent a team of officials to check. If there is an inspection, the district is not capable of testing water samples, so it depends on relevant departments such as the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Lang Son Province, Department of Health . .

Due to lack of inspection, the district cannot conclude how petrol and oil affect people's health, so it is best that people should not use this well water for daily activities. avoid well water that can harm human health in the long term.

Mr. Thanh also put forward the hypothesis of having an underground oil field, when people drilled this well, they drilled the oil circuit, so the new well had stains of gasoline, oil and a strong odor.

According to our records, the 3km radius of the Bo Lai gas well has no fuel plants.

According to Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Hoe, Vietnam Association for Environmental and Natural Protection , petroleum is an artificial product. If the above gas well is detected, there are only three possibilities. The first is that there may be broken underground petroleum pipelines leading to oil infiltration into the ground. The second is that gasoline from the tanks of the business is leaked and it is possible that the business or someone dumps waste into the environment including gasoline and oil. The first thing to do is to track down the source of stupid oil dispersal and fix it right away. In addition, it is recommended that people should not use water contaminated with petrol and oil in their daily activities.