Cost of illegal waste discharge = 8 months in prison + 100,000 in fines

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“I knew that discharging waste pollutants was wrong, but I didn’t realize it was a crime! Yang Zisong, the manager of the Tashan used battery smelting plant in Shenyang, Liaoning, along with two others, became the first people in Liaoning to be convicted of environmental pollution crimes due to their illegal discharge of pollutants. On July 21, the Hunan District People’s Court announced the verdict in this environmental pollution case. The Shenyang Tashan Used Battery Smelting Plant was ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 yuan, while Yang Zisong was sentenced to 8 months in prison along with a fine of 100,000 yuan. Shock: Thousands of tons of hazardous waste are discarded carelessly. The Shenyang Tasan Waste Battery Smelting Plant is located in Fengji Village, Chenshang Town, Sujiatun District; it covers an area of 10 mu, and its facilities include a building for dismantling waste batteries and another building for lead smelting. Online information indicates that the factory was established on November 6, 1997, with Mr. Wang as its legal representative. Concerns arose regarding the factory’s environmental pollution, which ultimately led to attention being paid to it, on June 9, 2014. At around 5 p.m. that day, the Environmental Protection Corps of the Liaoning Provincial Public Security Department, in conjunction with the Environmental Supervision Bureau of the Liaoning Provincial Environmental Protection Department, conducted a surprise inspection of the factory, where they found more than 30 employees dismantling used batteries. The police seized a total of 1,131.17 tons of dismantled lead-acid battery components that had been discarded carelessly in the open at the scene. Upon investigation, lead-acid batteries that have been disassembled, crushed, or broken down and then collected separately all fall under the category of hazardous waste. Monitoring: Illegal discharge by a black factory. It was found that on March 26, 2007, Wang Moumou and Yang Zisong signed a site lease agreement, under which Yang Zisong was granted the rights to use the premises and facilities of the Shenyang Tasan waste battery smelting plant for a period of 10 years. From 2011 to June 2014, while serving as the person in charge and supervisor of the factory respectively, Yang Zisong, Yang Zizhou, and Wen Lihai engaged in illegal activities related to the recycling, dismantling of used lead-acid batteries, and the production of recycled lead, without obtaining a license for handling hazardous waste issued by the provincial environmental protection authorities. During the production process, Yang Zisong and two others instructed staff to pour the wastewater generated from dismantling used lead-acid batteries into the drainage ditch next to the factory, and to pile up the discarded lead sheets inside the factory premises. According to measurements taken by the Sujiatun Branch of the Shenyang Environmental Protection Bureau, the pH value of the wastewater discharged by the Shenyang Tashan Used Battery Smelting Plant is 0.79, which indicates that it is a strong acid and does not meet the standards for wastewater discharge. Verdict: The factory owner was sentenced to 8 months in prison for polluting the environment. On June 10, 2014, the police arrested Yang Ziyu and Wen Lihai, the managers of the factory, at the scene. Subsequently, the special task force seized Yang Zisong’s personal bank assets, successfully persuading him to turn himself in voluntarily. Meanwhile, the 1,131.17 tons of hazardous waste seized by the public security authorities were assigned by the Shenyang Environmental Protection Bureau to the Sujiatun District Environmental Protection Bureau for disposal, and the latter is currently working on finding an appropriate way to handle it. The Hunan District People’s Court held that the Shenyang Tashan Used Battery Smelting Plant had illegally disposed of hazardous waste without obtaining a license for handling such waste issued by the provincial environmental protection authorities, and its actions constituted the crime of environmental pollution. The defendants Yang Zisong, Yang Zizhou, and Wen Lihai, as the directly responsible supervisors at the Shenyang Tasan Waste Battery Smelting Plant, played a leading and organizational role in the commission of the crime of environmental pollution by the unit; their actions all constitute the crime of environmental pollution. On July 21, 2015, the Hunan District People’s Court issued its judgment, finding the Shenyang Tashan Used Battery Smelting Plant guilty of environmental pollution under the law and sentencing it to a fine of 100,000 yuan; Yang Zisong was sentenced to 8 months in prison along with a fine of 100,000 yuan; Yang Zili was sentenced to 6 months in prison, with the execution suspended for 1 year, and a fine of 50,000 yuan; Wen Lihai was sentenced to 6 months in prison, with the execution suspended for 1 year, and a fine of 50,000 yuan. Regulations: 25 situations fall under the law regarding environmental pollution. An official revealed that the Eighth Amendment to the Criminal Law, which came into effect on May 1, 2011, revised and improved the provision on the crime of serious environmental pollution accidents as stipulated in the criminal law; it expanded the range of pollutants, simplified the criteria for constituting a crime, and changed the original offense of serious environmental pollution accidents to the offense of environmental pollution. This case is the first case in Liaoning in which a person was sentenced for environmental pollution since the Criminal Law Amendment (VIII) criminalized such acts. In June 2013, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued the \"Interpretations on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases Involving Environmental Pollution,\" which further refined the criteria for determining criminal liability in cases of environmental pollution. Under this interpretation, 14 scenarios—including the installation of secret pipelines or the use of seep wells, sinkholes, cracks, karst caves, etc. to discharge, dump, or dispose of radioactive waste, waste containing pathogens of infectious diseases, and toxic substances—are considered to constitute serious environmental pollution; such acts are punishable by up to three years in prison or detention, along with a fine or solely a fine. At the same time, this interpretation also lists 11 situations, including those resulting in death or severe disability, as having particularly serious consequences; such cases are punishable by fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, along with a fine.