The myth of Zero-emission In the last 15 years, a large number of heavily polluting factories have been built under the guise of zero-emission in Northwestern China, most of which are mining and chemical factories. As a result, The northwestern China whose climate is dry and ecology is fragile is facing a huge environmental crisis now. At first glance, it’s incredible that heavy industry could develop in such regions extremely lacking in water. Most of the factories located in the edge of deserts, gobi and semi-arid grasslands. Even they can get water by diverting water or digging wells, where to discharge wastewater? To address this problem, the industrialists excavated so-called evaporation ponds to accept sewage. They claimed that through strict treatment procession of biochemistry and membrane technology, the sewage would turn into clean high-concentrated saline water, then all they need to do is to evaporate brine in the sun to make salt. The Evaporation ponds were built during a boom period for coal-chemical processing industries that began since 2004. By including pond projects in factory-building plans, companies could promise to achieve zero emissions goals, including zero-liquid discharge, and thus win government approval for their projects. Effluent was supposed to flow from factories into ponds where the water would evaporate, leaving behind little more than salt.