Eight executives from two industrial companies have been detained on suspicion of dumping toxic cadmium into the Long River in the Guangxi Zhungzu region, threatening drinking water supplies for millions of people, Reuters said, citing state media. He Xinxing, mayor of Hechi, named Jinhe Mining and Jinchengjiang Hongquan Lithopone Material as the two most likely sources of the cadmium.

Hechi’s environmental protection chief, Wu Haique, has been dismissed following the contamination, as have six other municipal and district officials, Xinhua said. An investigation is under way. Meanwhile, as pollution levels were reportedly dropping, experts said the river clean-up is expected to last until the end of February, according to NBD.

Beijing is to set up more than 30 PM2.5 fine-particulate monitoring stations by the end of the year, China Daily said. The stations, measuring pollution smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter, are to be installed in central Beijing and surrounding areas, covering all 16 districts and counties.

China has postponed for 18 months its plans to introduce new diesel emission standards covering truck and bus exhaust, The Guardian reported. Studies suggest vehicle exhaust contributes more than 70% of the nitrogen oxides in central Beijing and are the dominant source of roadside PM2.5 levels – and the biggest threat to health.

Guangdong province plans to construct a 198-megawatt offshore wind farm this year and connect it to the grid in 2014, china.org said. The project, in the Guishan waters of Zhuhai, would be the province’s first offshore wind farm. In China, offshore wind development is still in the early stages.

Three people face a hearing in Fuyang, Anhui province, after being arrested for manufacturing and selling more than 10,000 tonnes of fake salt extracted from pesticide residue, China Daily reported. The suspects allegedly set up an industrial salt business in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province, in 2009, buying waste residues from a pesticide factory.

Some 79% of China’s wetlands are poorly protected and the country’s natural wetland reserves have decreased by more than 8,000 square kilometres over the past three decades, China Daily reported, citing a survey by the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Marshes and lakelands have fared worst, and poorly protected areas are located mainly in west and south-west China, some coastal regions and along the Yangtze River.

Multiple levels of government are still working to clean up Tai Lake in Jiangsu province, Xinhua said, following a catastrophic outbreak of blue-green algae in 2007. So far, 2.8 million tonnes of algae have been pumped out of the lake, according to a report in the Guangzhou Daily.

China has begun streaming live video footage of pandas in two reserves in an attempt to raise conservation awareness, Reuters said. High-definition cameras feature animals at the Bifengxia Panda Centre near Ya’an, Sichuan province, according to Explore.org and the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda.