Environmental inspections: Regional environmental problems in Jiangsu have not been fundamentally resolved, posing significant environmental risks

First, there are still shortcomings in implementing the **environmental protection policies and decisions. **The target responsibility document for air pollution control signed with Jiangsu Province requires that the province achieve negative growth in its total coal consumption by the end of 2017. However, in the assessments of air pollution control efforts conducted in the province during 2014 and 2015, the requirement to control total coal consumption was not included as part of the evaluation criteria for various cities. Efforts to protect the Yangtze River have not been robust enough; in 2015, among the 41 major tributaries flowing into the Yangtze River in Jiangsu province, 20.5% of the water samples fell into the poor quality category of Class V, a figure that was 6.9 percentage points higher than in 2014 and 11.4 percentage points higher than in 2013. The water quality at the Nanjing control gate and the Ge Village Bridge section in Zhenjiang has deteriorated significantly. In October 2013, the State Council issued the \"Guiding Opinions on Resolving the Problem of Severe Overcapacity,\" which called for strict control over new steel production capacity. However, since 2013, Jiangsu Province has failed to enforce proper controls on such new capacity; companies such as Yancheng Lianxin Steel, Xuzhou Tiegang Casting, Suining Ningfeng Steel, and Guanxing Rollers built or continued to build steel production facilities in violation of regulations. Jiangsu Province still faces the issue of relatively lenient assessment mechanisms in implementing the shared responsibility of Party and government, as well as the dual responsibilities associated with each position, in terms of environmental protection. In October 2015, Jiangsu Province established that environmental quality \"must only improve and cannot deteriorate\" as a red line for responsibilities at all local levels. However, when assessing the performance of various regions in terms of ecological civilization development in 2015, no specific measures were taken to address the issue of declining water quality at the Qiqiaoweng site in Nanjing and the Zhaotun site in Kunshan ； No clear requirements have been established regarding issues such as the occupation of green spaces or illegal construction in Wuxi and Taizhou, which violate the regulations on ecological red lines. During the assessment of responsibilities for Taihu Lake management from 2013 to 2015, no requirements for rectification were issued to the responsible entities and individuals associated with 11 rivers, including Zhihu Port and Wujin Port, whose levels of total phosphorus and total nitrogen did not meet the established management targets.

Second, environmental risk issues have not been effectively resolved. There are currently over 6,300 various chemical manufacturing enterprises across the province, with an occupancy rate of only around 30%; in some areas, this rate is even as low as about 10%. The inspector found that there are 125 enterprises in the chemical industry cluster of the Lingang Industrial Zone in Guanyun County, all of which are engaged in activities related to pesticides, dyes, and intermediates – sectors that are explicitly prohibited, restricted, or subject to strict controls as specified in the planned environmental impact assessment. The Yancheng Coastal Chemical Industrial Park violated the requirements of planning and environmental impact assessment by introducing a large number of projects related to dyes, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, etc., during its second-phase development. Among these, the Zhouwei Acid project operated by Santai Chemical, which was registered with the Yancheng Economic and Information Commission in 2015, still used the iron powder reduction process that has been explicitly ordered to be phased out. Enterprises in the Lingang Industrial Zone of Guanyun County and the Chemical Industry Park of Guannan County in Lianyungang City have serious problems with illegal sewage discharge, resulting in severe pollution of surface water in the surrounding areas. The chemical oxygen demand levels at Qiwu Sluice and Dajui Dagu exceed the standards for Class IV surface water by approximately 50 times and 8 times, respectively. There are 30 centralized drinking water sources in the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River; 12 of these were inspected on-site, and 8 of them had environmental violations. In the Yangtze River Yao Port in Wuxi, the Langshan Water Plant in Nantong, as well as in the first- or second-class protected areas for drinking water sources such as Zhengrunzhou and Jiangxinzhou in Zhenjiang and Danyang, there are chemical docks, aquaculture facilities, or shipbuilding yards that are prohibited by law. Coupled with the frequent transportation of hazardous chemicals along these routes, the environmental risks are particularly significant. After the implementation of the Regulations on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution in the Tongyu River Basin in Jiangsu Province, five cities—Yancheng, Lianyungang, Taizhou, Nantong, and Yangzhou—continued to build over 70 large-scale livestock and poultry farms in areas designated as first-class water protection zones. Some of these farms even lacked pollution control facilities, posing a risk of environmental contamination. The capacity for handling hazardous waste across the province is insufficient, and issues such as the excessive storage of hazardous waste, its illegal transfer, and illegal dumping are prominent. In addition, some polluted sites in Jiangsu Province pose significant environmental risks, requiring enhanced control capabilities.

Third, ecological and environmental problems are prominent in some areas. The situation regarding air pollution control in Xuzhou is severe, yet many high-emission projects continue to be constructed in violation of laws and regulations. Especially after the implementation of the new Environmental Protection Law, companies such as Zhongtai Energy Technology, Longshan Coking, and Dongxing Energy have still built coking plants illegally, having a significant impact on the local air quality. Neither the municipal nor the county-level authorities in Xuzhou have taken effective measures to address this issue promptly. Yancheng City and the relevant districts and counties have long allowed various illegal development activities to take place within the Yancheng **-level Rare Bird Nature Reserve. Large-scale collection of mud snails has persisted in the core area of the reserve. The land area of the buffer zone amounts to 622,000 mu, of which 471,000 mu has been developed for aquaculture, agricultural cultivation, and other purposes. Pollution problems in some industrial parks in Lianyungang are extremely severe, with a constant stream of complaints from the public. In 2015, among the 15 major rivers flowing into Taihu Lake in its basin, nitrogen levels in 10 of these rivers and phosphorus levels in 9 of them failed to meet the water quality targets set by the State Council for pollution control in the Taihu Lake basin during the 12th Five-Year Plan period; livestock and poultry farming posed a serious pollution problem in the basin. Among the more than 9,000 large-scale livestock and poultry farming enterprises, about one-third lack pollution control facilities. In the first-class protected area of Taihu Lake, there are 161 such farms, and around 80% of them lack such facilities. The Overall Plan for the Comprehensive Improvement of the Water Environment in the Taihu Lake Basin requires that the control project on the west bank of the Wangyu River be completed by the end of 2015, but work has not yet begun, which severely hinders the effective operation of the Zoumatang drainage project that is linked to it. Furthermore, the illegal sand mining in Hongze Lake and Luoma Lake persists despite repeated bans; it violates the regulatory requirements for ecological red zones in Jiangsu Province, and poses a threat to the East Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the safety of drinking water sources, as well as the aquatic ecosystem of these lakes. The inspector demanded that Jiangsu Province enforce strict accountability in accordance with laws and regulations. Regarding the issues identified during the inspection, relevant departments should be instructed to conduct further in-depth investigations, clarify responsibilities, and impose severe sanctions in line with relevant provisions. The inspector emphasized that the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government should promptly develop a rectification plan and submit it to the State Council within 30 working days. The rectification plans and the progress of their implementation should be made publicly available to the public in a timely manner, in accordance with relevant regulations.