Beijing investigates and deals with more than 2,000 cases of environmental violations. Enterprises dig underground canals to discharge pollutants privately.
Blue and white paint sewage is soaked in the sewage pit hidden in the vegetable field.
The staff of the ecological environment department in Changping District are sampling and testing the treated sewage of a university.
The new campus of the university, which has been put into use for less than two years, has discharged 23 times more sewage than the standard; The paint workshop hiding in residential houses discharges dye wastewater into the seepage pit in the vegetable field outside the courtyard wall … … In the first half of this year, Beijing’s ecological and environmental departments carried out a series of comprehensive law enforcement actions, investigated and dealt with more than 2,000 cases of illegal stationary source environment, and fined more than 84 million yuan. Especially for serious environmental violations, such as seepage and sewage discharge, environmental law enforcement departments transferred 21 cases of public security administrative detention and 5 cases of suspected crimes to criminal detention, which effectively cracked down on environmental violations and promoted the improvement of the city’s environmental quality.
Recently, the Municipal Environmental Monitoring Corps announced ten typical cases of environmental violations in the first half of the year. The reporter sorted out some cases, interviewed front-line law enforcement team members and listened to them introduce the investigation and handling of the cases. It is understood that while strictly investigating illegal activities, the environmental department also actively coordinates the competent departments of the industry to promote the solution of problems such as insufficient disposal capacity, backward process equipment and low management level of sewage units such as hospitals, and realize the discharge of pollutants up to standard.
Case 1
Harmful wastewater from coating company illegally discharges vegetable fields
In recent years, with the promotion of environmental law enforcement, people’s awareness of environmental protection has been greatly improved. Under the supervision of the general public, polluting enterprises hidden in private houses and courtyards in the urban-rural fringe have no hiding place. In April this year, a citizen reported that a mysterious enterprise in Pingjiatuan Village, songzhuang town, Tongzhou District might steal sewage.
"The domestic sewage in the village has been collected and disposed of centrally, and it is likely that there are other problems in the water quality when enterprises steal sewage." Wang Gang, head of the monitoring group of key pollution sources of Tongzhou District Ecological Environment Bureau, told reporters. On April 12th, the law enforcement team of Tongzhou District Ecological Environment Bureau conducted a surprise inspection in conjunction with the police of Tongzhou Public Security Bureau’s Environmental Food and Drug Brigade Detachment and the staff of songzhuang town Municipal Government.
The company named Beijing Lvmeikang Coating Technology Development Co., Ltd. is located in a private house in Pingjiatuan Village, mainly engaged in color coating processing. In the process of processing, it is necessary to clean the mixing tank, which will produce wastewater of various colors. However, law enforcement officers did not find waste water in the room. Where did the waste water flow?
After careful search, law enforcement officers found that the cement floor of the workshop had traces of being re-covered after being demolished. So, I followed this trail and searched eastward until I came to a small dish outside the courtyard wall. Pull open the floating soil on the surface of the vegetable field, and a covered seepage pit is exposed. This pit is less than two meters deep and about one meter in diameter, and it contains blue and white sewage and sludge. "These sewage are hazardous wastes and must not be discharged into the seepage pit like this!" Law enforcement officers immediately ordered the enterprise to stop processing operations and seized the equipment.
According to the Criminal Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases of Environmental Pollution, and the Measures for Linking Administrative Law Enforcement with Criminal Justice of Environmental Protection, Tongzhou District Bureau of Ecology and Environment transferred the case to the public security department according to law. The reporter learned that the relevant responsible person has been criminally detained.
Case 2
The sewage discharged from the new campus of the university exceeded the standard by 23 times.
On April 16th, the law enforcement team members of Nankou Environmental Monitoring Brigade of Changping District Ecological Environment Bureau came to a new campus of a university in Nankou Town to conduct routine supervision and inspection of sewage treatment facilities. This new campus was only completed and put into use in 2017, and a sewage treatment station was built on the campus, which can treat up to 2,000 tons of sewage every day. "Generally speaking, the equipment and technology of new sewage treatment facilities should be the most advanced, and there should be no problem in meeting the standards." The head of the brigade, Yong Yong, told reporters.
Law enforcement and monitoring personnel enter the equipment room and take samples from the treated pool with buckets for testing. As soon as the water came, KouYong frowned. "At least with the naked eye, the treated water is close to pure and transparent, which is not much different from ordinary tap water, but the water sample is obviously a little yellow."
After more than 20 days, the monitoring results showed that there was something wrong with the water quality. Kou Yong said that according to Beijing Comprehensive Discharge Standard for Water Pollutants, the concentration of ammonia nitrogen must be lower than 1.5 mg/L. However, the concentration of ammonia nitrogen in the sewage treated by the school is as high as 37.1 mg/L, which is 23 times higher than the standard. The punishment procedure was started immediately. According to the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, the Changping District Bureau of Ecology and Environment ordered the unit to stop the illegal behavior immediately and imposed a fine of 180,000 yuan.
Kou Yong said that this university attached great importance to the situation of exceeding the standard and immediately put it into rectification. On May 20th, the ammonia nitrogen concentration has dropped to 0.355 mg/L after sewage treatment. According to the staff, the reason for exceeding the standard is that the process parameters of the equipment are not adjusted in time, and the membrane treatment is abnormal, resulting in the sewage treatment not reaching the standard. "No matter what the reason, as long as there is a pollution problem in the inspection, it must be punished strictly according to law." Yan Yong said.
Case 3
Wastewater from tableware disinfection enterprises seeps into the ground.
Nowadays, many restaurants offer sterilized tableware packaged in integral plastic film. These tableware are cleaned and disinfected by some specialized enterprises, and the cleaned sewage should be treated in a centralized and standardized manner. However, there will still be enterprises that violate the rules in this regard.
In March this year, Fengtai District Bureau of Ecology and Environment, together with the public security and water affairs departments, conducted an on-site inspection of Beijing Aojiekang Tableware Disinfection Co., Ltd. located in Zhaoxindian. This enterprise is large in scale and has an independent factory. The wastewater generated after disinfection first passes through two sedimentation tanks, then flows into the reservoir, and then is transferred to a third party for treatment.
Law enforcement officers found that this reservoir is about 4 meters long, 2.5 meters wide and 3.5 meters deep, and its capacity is not small. In contrast, the two sedimentation tanks are much smaller, with a side length of less than 1 meter, and yellow sewage is still soaked in them, and the smell is unbearable. Will there be problems under the sewage? The law enforcement officers did not take a look at it, but drained all the water in the sedimentation tank. The hidden problems really emerged.
The bottoms of these two sedimentation tanks are only lined with ordinary bricks without anti-seepage coating. "This means that the waste water from washing dishes can directly leak into the ground from the cracks in the bricks, causing pollution." Song Hening, head of a major case group of Fengtai District Ecological Environment Bureau, told reporters that law enforcement officers immediately ordered enterprises to stop production and monitor the pollution of sewage. Fortunately, the sewage has not yet reached the standard of hazardous waste.
Song Hening said that illegal discharge of pollutants by means of concealed pipes, seepage wells, seepage pits, etc. is an illegal act that is harmful to the environment. In addition to administrative punishment, the ecological and environmental department can also transfer the case to the public security department. If the discharge of hazardous waste reaches a certain amount, it is suspected of committing a crime. According to the relevant provisions of People’s Republic of China (PRC) Water Pollution Prevention Law, Fengtai District Ecological Environment Bureau imposed a fine of 100,000 yuan on the company and transferred the case to the district public security department. In the end, the relevant person in charge of the enterprise was sentenced to administrative detention.
Extended reading
Upgrading pollution control facilities in municipal hospitals
In recent years, the ecological and environmental departments at all levels in this city have intensified their supervision over the discharge of pollutants from medical institutions and universities. In last year’s special law enforcement inspection, the city’s ecological and environmental departments investigated and dealt with 67 environmental violations in 59 units, with a total fine of 8.83 million yuan, mainly in medical institutions. The reason why medical institutions have become high-risk places for environmental violations is summarized by the Municipal Environmental Monitoring Corps.
Sang Zhidong, the chief of the Third Supervision Section of the Corps, told the reporter that through analysis, some medical institutions have a weak awareness of environmental protection and insufficient internal attention. At the beginning of the investigation, a hospital only entrusted the staff of a third-party company to cooperate with law enforcement because of the excessive discharge of wastewater. After repeated requests by law enforcement team members, the official staff of the hospital came forward to accept relevant inquiries. In addition, some hospitals were built earlier, and the treatment technology of environmental protection facilities is backward, which is in urgent need of renovation. The Municipal Environmental Monitoring Corps randomly sampled 15 units, and 5 units exceeded the standard in suspended solids and chemical oxygen demand, accounting for as much as 30%. The main reason was the backward technology. Among them, in a hospital founded in 1955, the wastewater treatment facility was only a simple process of flocculation and sedimentation+disinfection, and it did not have biochemical treatment function, which was far from meeting the current medical wastewater discharge standards.
At present, in view of all kinds of problems found in daily law enforcement work, the Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment has actively communicated with the municipal medical management department and organized coordination meetings for many times to jointly study and solve specific problems. The reporter learned that the municipal medical management department has allocated funds to promote a number of municipal hospitals to upgrade pollution treatment facilities.
Sang Zhidong told reporters that this year’s special law enforcement inspection for universities and medical institutions is underway. It has been found that one university and four medical institutions have excessive water pollution discharge, with a total penalty of 670,000 yuan, which has dropped significantly compared with the same period last year.
related news
Record of the whole process of law enforcement of municipal fixed pollution sources
Previously, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Recording System of the Whole Law Enforcement Process of the Administrative Law Enforcement Publicity System in the Ecological Environment System and the Legal Review System of Major Law Enforcement Decisions". The opinion requires that the whole process of administrative law enforcement be recorded by means of words, audio and video, filed and preserved according to the norms, and a management system for the whole process of law enforcement records should be established and improved. The reporter was informed that Beijing has recorded the whole process of law enforcement in the enforcement of fixed pollution sources.
Zhao Zhiwei, head of the Municipal Environmental Monitoring Corps, said that the environmental law enforcement team in Beijing should record the whole process from entering the scene to obtaining evidence. At present, the corps has established a spot check system, which has a spot check ratio for the law enforcement record process.
Zhao Zhiwei said that for environmental violations, the whole process of law enforcement records of law enforcement team members is also one of the supporting evidence. The second phase of the mobile law enforcement system has also been launched this year. Law enforcement officers can basically cover the whole process of law enforcement by entering the law enforcement information after entering the market. The system also has the functions of photographing, latitude and longitude positioning and so on. (Beijing Evening News reporter Zhang Hang Wen Bingtu)