On the afternoon of November 14, 2025, the "2025 Xinyi Environmental Emergency Response Drill" was carried out at the Lanfeng production workshop site. The purpose of the activity was to test whether the "Environmental Emergency Response Plan of Jiangsu Lanfeng Bio-Chemical Co., Ltd.", the "Environmental Emergency Response Plan of Xinyi Chemical Industry Park", the "Environmental Emergency Response Plan of the Xuzhou Xinyi Ecological Environment Bureau" and the "Xinyi Environmental Emergency Response Plan" are scientific and well-developed, to examine the coordination and cooperation of Lanfeng, its mutual-aid units and relevant departments in the event of an environmental emergency, and to improve the capacity to respond to and handle pollution incidents while safeguarding the stability and safety of the ecological environment.
The drill was organized by the Xinyi Ecological Environment Bureau of Xuzhou, hosted by Jiangsu Lanfeng Bio-Chemical Co., Ltd., and co-organized by Jiangsu Jinkong Equipment Xinhengsheng Chemical Co., Ltd. and Jiangsu Xinyi Huqian Wood-based Panel Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Leaders attending the drill included Yan Weicai, Director of the Emergency and Accident Investigation Center of the Xuzhou Ecological Environment Bureau; Gao Weikuan, Director of the Environmental Emergency and Accident Investigation Center of the Xinyi Ecological Environment Bureau; and Guo Ya, Director of the Xinyi Chemical Industry Cluster Management Office, together with visiting guests from related enterprises in the park. More than 100 people took part in the drill, including emergency response team members from Lanfeng's Environmental Protection Department, Safety Department and various plants and departments, as well as emergency team members from Jiangsu Jinkong Equipment Xinhengsheng Chemical Co., Ltd. and Jiangsu Xinyi Huqian Wood-based Panel Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
The drill was under the overall command of Cao Xingzhao, Deputy General Manager for Production of Lanfeng, with Zhuang Yan, Director of Environmental Protection, serving as Deputy Commander-in-Chief.
The drill simulated a leak from the piping of a raw-material storage tank containing dichloroethane (1,2-dichloroethane, EDC) at Lanfeng. In the scenario, an on-duty operator entered the surfactant tank farm for routine inspection when a sudden dichloroethane leak occurred and one on-site employee was poisoned. After spotting the dangerous situation, the control-room staff reported the tank-farm situation via walkie-talkie to Zhang Xinzhi, Plant Manager of Plant No. 7. Zhang Xinzhi arranged for Sun Baicheng to activate the workshop-level emergency response plan. The workshop immediately launched its on-site disposal plan and arranged personnel to plug the leak with sealing clamps; however, due to limited resources, the plugging was ineffective, and one person was poisoned during the disposal process.
Upon receiving the alarm, the dispatcher reported the incident to the fire brigade, company leaders, and the Environmental Protection, Safety, Production, Equipment & Energy, Storage & Transport and Human Resources departments, the medical clinic and all plants, while also informing neighboring enterprises of the situation and requesting support. Members of the company's command headquarters and leaders of each emergency group, together with workshop emergency team members, quickly assembled with emergency equipment upon receiving orders and promptly reported their assembly status.
The company's medical staff performed on-site first aid on the poisoned person. On-site first aid is an important part of pre-hospital care: if cardiac arrest lasts more than 10 minutes, the patient's chance of survival is nearly 100% lost. Therefore, the company conducts planned first-aid training for all employees every year. The poisoned person was sent to hospital at the first opportunity for treatment. After the dichloroethane leak, in order to prevent employees in the production area from inhaling toxic gases, an orderly evacuation was immediately organized: under the direction of the leaders of the evacuation and surveillance group, employees in each production workshop evacuated in an orderly manner to a safe location upwind. The company's firefighters and plant emergency team members carried out rescue operations at the surfactant tank farm (including two members of the leak emergency group who entered the leak site wearing heavy chemical-protection suits to perform plugging operations). In accordance with the environmental emergency response plan, the environmental emergency personnel activated the switchover valves for the fire-fighting wastewater and emergency containment pool and closed the rainwater discharge valves to prevent contaminated water from leaking out; two members used portable detectors to carry out real-time monitoring downwind.
While closing the rainwater discharge valves, the environmental emergency personnel found that a rainwater discharge valve could not be fully closed, allowing a small amount of contaminated water to enter a branch channel. The command headquarters immediately adopted emergency interception measures, using excavators to build an earth dam downstream of the polluted water mass in the branch channel to prevent the spread of pollution from expanding further.
The members of the environmental emergency group used portable detectors to conduct real-time environmental monitoring both within the site boundary downwind and outside the plant boundary. No dichloroethane gas was detected. After 30 minutes of effort, the leak emergency disposal group finally completed the tank transfer.
After the on-site disposal was completed, each emergency disposal group used decontamination tents to wash and decontaminate all the protective equipment and emergency gear they had used.
The emergency rescue team members quickly connected fire hoses and sprayed water mist onto the leaking area from the south side of the leaking tank farm. Workshop emergency team members worked in coordination, setting up multiple water curtains at the incident site to prevent the dichloroethane gas from volatilizing and spreading.
The comprehensive emergency disposal team used sealed drums for toxic and hazardous materials, absorbent felt and other emergency supplies to collect and dispose of the leaked material.
The company transferred the intercepted contaminated water in the branch channel to its wastewater treatment station using explosion-proof pumps and tank trucks for treatment. Residual wastewater was absorbed with absorbent felt, and the absorbent material together with the surface soil were handed over to qualified units for disposal. Regular testing of the deeper soil will be carried out subsequently to ensure that no environmental risks emerge later. The command headquarters required all departments to continue to report information properly. Lanfeng's Environmental Protection Department, in accordance with regulatory requirements, properly treated the wastewater, collected the dichloroethane within the containment berm, conducted an accident analysis, and drew lessons from the experience to avoid similar environmental safety incidents. Other follow-up work was carried out by the respective departments according to their responsibilities.
Based on the overall principles of "unified leadership and graded responsibility; territorial supremacy and coordinated joint action; rapid and effective response and swift containment", the drill adopted a live-fire exercise approach to demonstrate Lanfeng's emergency response process for environmental incidents. Through the unified command of the emergency command headquarters and the coordinated efforts of the comprehensive emergency disposal team, fire-disposal emergency team, production dispatch team, evacuation and surveillance team, medical rescue team, communications and logistics support team, environmental emergency disposal team and emergency rescue personnel, the dichloroethane leak was handled promptly and efficiently, and the drill was a complete success.
