Notice on Strengthening Environmental Supervision of Hazardous Wastes to Curb the Trend of Illegal Discharge, Dumping, and Disposal of Hazardous Wastes

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Notice on Strengthening Environmental Supervision of Hazardous Wastes to Curb the Trend of Illegal Discharge, Dumping, and Disposal of Hazardous Wastes – Lu Huan Ban Han [2015] No. 181 To the Environmental Protection Bureaus of All Cities: Recently, incidents of illegal transfer and dumping of hazardous wastes have been detected in cities such as Linyi, Jinan, and Zibo in our province, posing threats to environmental safety and undermining the environmental rights of the public. In Zhangqiu City, Jinan, the dumping of hazardous wastes resulted in the poisoning and death of four workers on site. To prevent environmental risks and ensure environmental safety as well as the health of the public, the following measures are hereby issued to strengthen environmental supervision over hazardous waste: 1. Conduct a comprehensive inspection of enterprises involved in hazardous waste handling. Environmental protection bureaus in various cities should immediately organize the county-level environmental protection departments under their jurisdiction to complete a thorough inspection of enterprises that generate or handle hazardous waste by the end of November 2015. During the inspection, it is necessary to focus on the judicial interpretations issued by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, as well as on typical cases that have been investigated, along with legal requirements. This will help to strengthen legal education and awareness among enterprises involved in the handling of hazardous waste, thereby urging them to operate and produce in accordance with the law. 　　For enterprises that generate hazardous waste, it is necessary to rely on environmental impact assessment reports, acceptance documents, production processes, etc., and to use the standardized management indicators for hazardous waste as a basis for conducting thorough inspections throughout the entire process – from generation, storage, transfer, to disposal. The focus of these inspections should be on whether the records related to hazardous waste management are timely and detailed, whether the storage areas for hazardous waste meet the required standards, whether transfers and dispositions are carried out in a proper and safe manner, whether emergency response plans are appropriate and have been filed with the environmental protection authorities, and whether responsibility for the environmental management of hazardous waste is assigned to specific individuals. For enterprises that handle hazardous waste, key inspections focus on whether the hazardous waste collected is disposed of in accordance with relevant standards ； Whether the types and total quantities of hazardous waste to be disposed of fall within the scope permitted by the hazardous waste management license ； Are there any cases of resale or the like? Once a problem is identified, it must be addressed immediately. 　　The environmental protection departments of various counties (cities, districts) should further improve the process of enterprises’ reporting and registration of hazardous waste in light of these inspections, establish and improve enterprise environmental management records, and effectively address issues such as inaccurate reporting, unclear information on the volume of hazardous waste, and irregular management practices. For the key enterprises and issues identified, the environmental protection departments of each county (city, district) should promptly issue notices requiring rectification within a set time limit, and impose strict penalties in accordance with the law. It is necessary to work together with the public security authorities to crack down severely on illegal acts of discharging, dumping, and disposing of hazardous waste, as a warning to others. 　　II. Strengthen supervision over enterprises’ work in preventing and controlling environmental risks. Environmental protection bureaus in various cities should organize the environmental protection departments of counties (cities, districts) to conduct random inspections or surprise checks on enterprises within their jurisdictions that handle hazardous waste, focusing on the prevention of environmental risks as well as the identification and resolution of potential environmental safety hazards, through various methods such as on-site inspections, comprehensive audits, special audits, cross-inspections, and sudden checks. A inspection work plan should be developed, with a competent team assigned to conduct thorough checks on each item related to the risk assessment of sudden environmental incidents in enterprises, as well as the identification and resolution of environmental safety hazards. Enterprises dealing with hazardous waste that pose environmental safety risks should be urged to make immediate corrections ； If it is not possible to complete the rectification tasks immediately, a dedicated person should be assigned to carry out close monitoring and to ensure that all emergency measures are strictly implemented. Information on enterprises with serious environmental safety hazards that fail to address them properly should be included in the social integrity records, and reported to the industry regulatory authorities, investment supervision authorities, securities regulatory agencies, as well as relevant financial institutions. In cases where there are serious environmental safety hazards and it is difficult to carry out the necessary rectifications, it is advisable to recommend that the local authorities order the suspension of operations or closure of the facility, in order to completely eliminate those environmental safety hazards. 　　III. Strengthen organizational leadership and strictly implement responsibilities. Environmental protection departments at all levels should attach great importance to the environmental management of hazardous waste in order to effectively prevent environmental risks. It is necessary to adhere to the principle that the top leader bears overall responsibility while the responsible supervisors bear specific responsibilities. Relevant departments and units should be organized to clarify roles and responsibilities, and measures such as joint inspections and grid management should be employed to implement the accountability system at each level. On-site inspectors must keep detailed records of the inspection findings and the corrective actions required at the site. It is necessary to effectively strengthen environmental emergency management, so as to ensure that in the event of an environmental emergency, teams can arrive at the scene as quickly as possible, and to guarantee that any hazardous waste generated by such emergencies is disposed of safely and properly. 　　The environmental protection bureaus of various cities are requested to prepare written reports on the implementation of this notice by December 20, in three copies, and submit them to the provincial department. During this period, the provincial department will conduct random inspections or on-site audits in various locations. Contact person and phone number: Solid Waste and Soil Department, Geng Tianyu, 0531-66226692; Emergency Response Department, Fu Zhaoping, 0531-66226771. 　　　　Office of the Shandong Provincial Department of Environmental Protection November 4, 2015