(page 4 of 5) In 2001, Mr. Zhang appealed to China's top environmental agency, and finally got an answer. He was told to organize a formal complaint. The doctor canvassed the villagers seeking signatures on a petition calling on the factory to stop polluting. He still has the original copy of the petition, on which farmers stamped a red thumbprint next to their signatures in the traditional Chinese manner. Mr. Zhang took soil and water samples and posted pictures of the dying bamboo groves on his Web site. By the next year, the efforts started to bear fruit. The village head came out in support of Mr. Zhang. Villagers held a three-day leafleting campaign outside the county government offices, attracting attention from national newspapers and later a popular investigative segment on state-run national television. That summer, China's central government named Rongping one of the worst 55 polluters in China. A rare victory: A provincial court awarded $85,000 in damages to villagers harmed by chemical pollution in Xiping's river, top. Executives at Rongping Joint Chemical Plant, bottom, say the company has now spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade its waste-water-treatment and chemical-storage facilities. The publicity drew the attention of China's only pro-bono environmental law group. The Center for Legal Assistance for Pollution Victims in Beijing decided to help the villagers bring a lawsuit against the factory. Villagers chipped in to pay several thousand dollars for environmental tests. Whenever they spotted acrid liquid being dumped into the river, they scooped it up in empty plastic water bottles, villagers and lawyers say. Eventually 1,721 villagers joined the lawsuit, the most in an environmental case in Chinese history, lawyers say. Even as national institutions aided Mr. Zhang's fight, he faced resistance and harassment at the local level. He says he was assaulted by a thug while collecting samples and his wife was punched and shoved to the ground by an assailant who visited their home. The county government shut down his clinic, on the ground floor of his house, saying he hadn't properly renewed his license. He denies that and still informally helps villagers who seek his medical help. A county court initially ruled in favor of the farmers but awarded them minimal damages. Both sides appealed and a provincial court handed down its verdict this March.         PREVIOUS PAGE RETURN TO BIO NEXT PAGE