Many of Beijing's 490 garbage dumps are going to be cleaned up as the city reports ground water near some of them has been contaminated with bacteria many times greater than the safe level.

The city will close and dig up garbage dumps that are less then 5,000 square meters which fail to meet environmental standards. The waste from the old dumps will be transported to environmentally sound garbage dumps.

In 2004, the city generated 4.91 million tons of garbage with 3.93 million tons disposed in environmentally sound landfill sites and 980,000 tons dumped directly on local lands. On average per Beijingers each dispose of 820 grams of garbage a day.

A recently released report from the city's environmental and geological departments shows that garbage dumped in the open air or buried in unsanitary dumps has polluted the soil and groundwater.

The capital city's government is now going to set up groundwater monitoring systems over large garbage dumps.

Tests show that groundwater near 14 monitored dumps has been contaminated, with bacteria far above the safe level, said the report.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2006)