The test data is all fake! For the sake of showing achievements, they even tried to improve air quality by using a ball of cotton yarn

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Air samplers are designed for real-time monitoring of air quality. As a **straight-tube monitoring station in Chang’an District, no one is allowed to enter without permission. However, out of a desire to improve their own performance records, the key officials at the Chang’an Branch of Xi’an’s Environmental Protection Bureau forged keys and memorized passwords; they also blocked the samplers with cotton yarn, resulting in abnormal data that caught the attention of the China National Environmental Monitoring Center. Following the police investigation, the individuals involved are currently detained in a detention center. ▲In front of the Chang’an Branch of the Xi’an Environmental Protection Bureau (photo by Li Qirui, reporter from CBN). In April 2015, news came out from the National Environmental Monitoring Work Conference: in response to the prominent issues existing in air quality monitoring, the Ministry of Environmental Protection decided to conduct a special inspection of air quality monitoring data across the country over a period of two years. On October 21, 2016, a staff member from the Xi’an Environmental Protection Bureau said that it was under such strict requirements and cross-inspections from the central government down to the provincial and municipal levels that the Chang’an District Ambient Air Automatic Monitoring Station of the Xi’an Environmental Protection Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the Chang’an District Monitoring Station) resorted to data fraud. 1. The cotton yarn clogging sampler has shown abnormal monitoring data on multiple occasions. According to people familiar with the situation, the monitoring station in Chang’an District is one of the two **directly managed monitoring sub-stations in the city; the data from this station is collected directly by the Environmental Monitoring Headquarters. Any falsification of such data can have significant consequences. According to this insider, as a monitoring station under the direct supervision of the environmental protection department, the management is quite strict; unauthorized personnel are not allowed to enter at all. When the China National Environmental Monitoring Center entrusted a company in Wuhan with maintenance work, no personnel who are not part of the maintenance team are allowed to enter without permission. In February 2016, when the monitoring station in Chang’an District was relocated to the roof of the Power Building in the south campus of Xi’an University of Posts and Telecommunications, Li, who was then the director of the Environmental Air Automatic Monitoring Station in Chang’an District and head of the Xi’an Environmental Protection Bureau, took advantage of the opportunity to assist with the relocation and setup of the station to secretly keep the station’s keys and jot down the password for the station’s surveillance computer. Over the following period, staff members infiltrated the monitoring station in Chang’an District on several occasions, using cotton yarn to block the samplers in order to disrupt the data collection function of the automatic air quality monitoring system at that station. As a result, the automatic monitoring data from that station showed abnormalities on multiple occasions, affecting the proper operation of the **automatic air quality monitoring system. Two instances of misconduct were uncovered, with the surveillance videos deleted from the monitoring station. According to people familiar with the situation, normally the air samplers are left exposed, with their probes drawing in natural air for monitoring. By blocking the samplers with cotton yarn, it’s as if a \"mask\" is placed on them, filtering the air; this prevents accurate monitoring of real-time air quality. In other words, it filters out polluted air. As a monitoring station under the direct supervision of the **headquarters, the Chang’an District Monitoring Station adopts this approach; when there are changes in the data, it draws the attention of the **headquarters, which then sends people to conduct an inspection. To prevent the matter from coming to light, in March 2016, the Chang’an District monitoring station deleted the surveillance videos. On October 21, reporters visited the Power Building at Xi’an University of Posts and Telecommunications. If one doesn’t look closely at the monitoring instruments on the roof, it’s hard to realize that they are used for monitoring air quality. After arriving at the power building, the reporter went up the stairs to the roof. There was a simple house on the roof; through the window, they saw 3 rolled-up quilts on a bed. The room was in a mess, indicating that it had not been inhabited for a long time. On the roof of the second floor of the power building, there is a tall pole; at the top of this pole is a circular sphere. Next to the pole there is a simple structure, and various devices in circular and square shapes are exposed to the air. There are multiple surveillance cameras placed next to these devices. Staff at the power building said that they had no authority over the air monitoring devices on the roof, and sometimes people came to check them without even greeting them. They knew that some time ago the data from the instruments in question was suspected of being falsified, so many police officers and investigators came. They don’t know exactly how the fraud was carried out. It is understood that the individuals involved in the case, including Li, are currently detained in the Xi’an detention center. To ensure the accuracy of the data, multiple layers of safeguards are in place to prevent artificial interference. According to a staff member from the provincial environmental protection agency, multiple layers of controls are indeed established to prevent the artificial manipulation of data: the first layer involves the generation of multiple copies of the same data. When the data from monitoring stations across the country are automatically made public, they are transmitted to the China National Environmental Monitoring Center simultaneously, with no time delay and identical content. All stations automatically collect data and release it in real time, so the air quality monitoring data that everyone sees is the freshest and most accurate. Although monitoring data may occasionally show abnormalities due to instrument failures, professional technicians will check and correct them during subsequent reviews. The second stage is remote monitoring. Once there are abnormalities in the key parameters, the monitoring platform will issue an automatic alert, and environmental protection authorities will send personnel to conduct inspections. If the data from a particular site is significantly different from that of other sites, it is generally not included in the statistical results, and an on-site verification is carried out. The third step is to **conduct flight inspections and cross-inspections on an annual basis. The former involves sending inspectors to the sites directly without notifying the local environmental protection authorities, while the latter refers to mutual inspections between different provinces and cities. In recent years, the public has paid great attention to air quality. According to a staff member from the Xi’an Environmental Protection Bureau, the Chang’an District monitoring station was found to be involved in data fraud during surprise inspections. More than 4 staff members suspected of fraud were taken away by the police. It is understood that after the incident, the director of the Chang’an branch of Xi’an’s Environmental Protection Bureau, as well as the head and deputy heads of the monitoring station, were taken away by the police; the current deputy head who is in charge of operations is also on leave. A reporter from Huashang Daily interviewed an insider in the environmental protection sector. Huashang Daily: Why block the samplers? People familiar with the matter: Because **the relevant department imposes penalties on employees who fail to meet environmental standards; in order to avoid these penalties, those employees block the samplers with cotton yarn, which helps to improve the quality of the polluted air to some extent. Huashang Daily: Knowing that this approach is wrong, why go ahead with it? Person familiar with the matter: There were no similar legal actions taken in the past, so the officials in the environmental protection sector were not aware of the severity of their mistakes. Huashang Daily: Where does the statement \"not knowing the severity of the problem\" come from? Person familiar with the matter: Current laws determine sentencing based on the severity of the consequences caused; it’s difficult to determine what serious consequences arise from clogging the sampler. However, in recent years **greater emphasis has been placed on environmental monitoring, and the corresponding laws and regulations have become more comprehensive. During those years, they used fake environmental monitoring devices; these devices were placed in mineral water bottles. According to reports from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, in April this year, officials from the Fujian Provincial Environmental Inspection Team conducted an unannounced inspection of Fujian Fuhua Food Co., Ltd., and discovered that the sampling tubes of the automatic monitoring equipment at the company’s main wastewater discharge outlet had been deliberately disconnected. The monitoring probes, which should have been connected to the wastewater treatment tank, were instead placed in mineral water bottles filled with clean water. 2. Artificially programmed systems that replace data once it exceeds specified limits. According to a report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, on March 1, 2016, the Hangzhou Environmental Inspection Team conducted an on-site inspection of Hangzhou Yunhui Dyeing and Finishing Co., Ltd., and found that the program of the company’s automatic pollution monitoring system had been altered by its operational management unit. The operating company assists enterprises in setting up the data collection software so that monitoring data with a concentration exceeding 400 mg/L is automatically replaced by previous monitoring data with a concentration not exceeding 400 mg/L. 3. Intentional damage to automatic monitoring equipment for pollutant emissions. According to a report issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in July this year, officials from the Environmental Protection Bureau of Changli County in Hebei Province and the Environmental Inspection Unit of Qinhuangdao City conducted an on-site inspection of Qinhuangdao Sokun Glass Containers Co., Ltd. They found that the smoke sampling heads of the three sets of automatic monitoring equipment at this factory were each fitted with a pipe connector, which was connected to a PVC pipe; as a result, the automatic monitoring equipment for atmospheric pollutants was damaged and could no longer function. 4. Wires are connected to the sampling analyzer, and the monitoring data can be altered at will. According to a report issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection last June, China Cement Factory Co., Ltd. was accused by the public of emitting excessive amounts of waste gas and polluting the environment; however, all the indicators related to the company’s pollutant emissions shown on the environmental protection agency’s monitoring platform were within acceptable limits. An on-site investigation by the Nanjing Environmental Inspection Team revealed that several wires were connected between the analyzer used for data collection and the industrial computer responsible for data transmission, with these wires also linking to the company’s office, allowing for the arbitrary manipulation of monitoring data. - End -