Xinhua News Agency, Shijiazhuang, June 22nd, Question: Why can this company commit crimes? ——Hebei Xingtai Extraordinary Environmental Pollution Case Tracking
Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Perspectives" reporters Gong Zhihong and Yang Fan
Illegal production of pesticides without obtaining relevant permits, dumped 3414.5 tons of strong acid waste liquid to 13 locations in 7 counties (districts) in the local area for more than a year. Recently, a large series of environmental pollution cases involving illegal dumping of waste acid in Xingtai City, Hebei Province have caused widespread concern.
A handling fee of 230 yuan per ton "the grass nearby is burnt to death"
In late March of this year, Xingtai County police received a report from the masses that some people dumped unknown liquids around the local village. The task force captured the suspects Lu Moufei and Wang Moufei on the afternoon of March 30, and seized a total of 31 tons of undumped waste liquid on the semi-trailer and small van of Lu Moufei. The final source of pollution was Runmin Biotechnology Hebei Co., Ltd. located in Weixian Economic Development Zone, Xingtai City.
After investigation, the actual controller of the company, Li Moucheng, instructed the general manager Liu to hand over the waste liquid to Lu Moufei for disposal at 230 yuan per ton. From March 29, 2019 to the case, Lv Moufei organized many people in 13 counties (districts) in Xingtai City, including Xingtai County, Nanhe, Longyao, Ren County and Qiaodong, Qiaoxi, and Development Zones. A total of 230 vehicles and 3414.5 tons of illegally dumped waste liquid were collected at each location.
The relevant local authorities identified the waste liquid and found that the main components of the liquid are phosphorous acid and diethylamine, which are toxic and hazardous waste. The waste liquid will cause serious pollution to the soil and water, and the subsequent disposal is very expensive.
Located at the dumping point of Xitaizijing Village, Taizijing Township, Xingtai County, it is located within the protection zone of groundwater secondary water sources in the urban area of Xingtai City, with a dumping area of about 800 square meters and a dumping amount of about 24 tons.
The reporter saw here at the end of May that the dumping point was close to the Xingfen Expressway, and the black mark of the waste liquid flowing down the high-speed slope was clearly visible. There were still many traces of waste liquid remaining in the dry river below. Villagers told reporters that the smell was particularly choking these days, and the nearby grass was burned to death.
At a dumping point near Xi Niutian Village in Xingtai County, provincial road 322, the waste liquid flowed down the hillside for hundreds of meters and reached a ravine in the village. Huo Bingshu, the Party Secretary of Xi Niutian Village, said that the pollution involved the draught problem of more than 30 villagers in the ditch, and more than 190 trees in the polluted area were cut down.
"People in the ditch eat surface water when it is not dry, and eat well water when there is a drought. Every family has shallow water wells. Some people have tested the water quality, but the results have not yet been given." Li Renshu and other villagers said that they hope to restore the water and soil in the village.
Between June and September 2019, a total of 1,786 tons of waste liquid was dumped on a wasteland in the west of Luoyang Village, Licun Town, Qiaoxi District, Xingtai City, which was the largest dumping site in the case. The reporter found at the scene in early June that the smell in the air was very pungent, and the workers who cleaned and transported the contaminated soil were wearing gas masks.
"We mainly remove dumped objects and highly concentrated polluted soil from the site to prevent secondary pollution to the local environment." Wang Lei, a staff member of Xingtai Jiatai Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd., who is responsible for site disposal. According to preliminary calculations, the disposal cost of contaminated soil is about 6,000 yuan per ton, including collection, packaging, cleaning and transportation, and post-incineration disposal. The company participated in the disposal of 7 dumping sites, digging more than 5,000 tons of contaminated soil and surface contaminants, only this part of the cost has reached more than 30 million yuan.
Illegal production of pesticides for more than a year, the relevant departments said that "law enforcement personnel have limited chemical knowledge"
A reporter's investigation found that the source of the pollution, Runmin Biotech, did not have the qualification to produce pesticides.
It is understood that the predecessor of Runmin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. was Xingtai Gemerson Chemical Technology Co., Ltd., which was established in 2011. It initially produced chemical products such as trichloroheptenone and later began to produce water-based environmentally friendly paint dispersants. In 2018, the company was changed, and the business scope was increased by "biotechnology research and development, technology promotion, and technical services". After the change, the environmental protection department found no new or changed production equipment, agreed to continue to use the original EIA report and completion acceptance procedures, and issued and renewed the sewage permits in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
However, investigations by the public security and other departments found that from August 2018 to March 30, 2020, Runmin Company illegally produced and operated chlorfenapyr without obtaining a pesticide production and operation license, and illegally produced waste liquid. Dumped. As of the incident, the company illegally produced and sold more than 400 tons of chlorfenapyr, 250,000 yuan per ton, with a sales amount of nearly 100 million yuan and a net profit of nearly 20 million yuan.
According to relevant national regulations, enterprises are not allowed to dump waste liquids that endanger the environment at will. Why did this company commit crimes? A person in charge of an enterprise engaged in hazardous waste disposal said that, in addition to the fact that the enterprise is illegally produced and has no formal procedures, illegal dumping is much lower than the standard disposal cost is an important reason. "Regular disposal costs about 5,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan per ton, which is tens of times different from the disposal cost of 230 yuan per ton in the case."
Illegal production and dumping of enterprises for more than a year, why hasn't the local regulatory authorities been able to find out?
Relevant departments of Wei County responded that since 2018, environmental supervisors in Wei County have conducted on-site inspections of the company’s production on many occasions, including whether the environmental protection procedures are complete and whether the pollution control facilities are operating normally. However, due to the limited level of chemical knowledge of law enforcement personnel, The understanding of raw materials and products is mostly limited to the introduction of the company, and the violations of the law have not been found in time. In the past two years of the county's "double random, one open" inspection, Run Min Company was not selected. The Weixian Market Supervision Bureau has failed to expand its business scope and illegally produced dangerous and hazardous substances. The Management Committee of the Weixian High-tech Zone has problems of passively cooperating with relevant functional departments to carry out inspections and fail to perform local supervision responsibilities.
Some people in the industry believe that the raw materials used and products produced by Runmin have changed. Strict supervision should be able to detect illegal production problems, and the relevant departments can hardly blame them.
In addition, because the dumping points chosen by the criminal suspects are mostly remote and remote places, it is difficult to detect illegal dumping. Li Junsheng, village branch secretary of Luoyang Village, Qiaoxi District, Xingtai City, said that the dumping point was a beach land that had been idle for many years. There were no water sources and cultivated land around it. There was a small road passing by in the past, but generally no one walked.
The contaminated soil has been cleaned up and it is urgent to strengthen the supervision of the entire chain of the enterprise
The reporter learned from the Xingtai Municipal Party Committee that at present 27 suspects in this case have been arrested, and relevant investigation and evidence collection work is in full progress. The public security department sealed up the workshops and equipment of Runmin Company, and the Weixian County Party Committee issued a severe warning to the person in charge of the relevant department, suspended accountability and other accountability treatment.
After the case occurred, the environmental monitoring of the dumping ground and the preliminary environmental restoration work started quickly. Experts from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment conduct field investigations on all dumping sites, and follow-up ecological restoration will be carried out based on the detection results of soil and groundwater. At present, 13 dumping grounds and the surrounding contaminated soil have been cleaned up. 26 groundwater wells are selected around the dumping site for monitoring. It is not found that the groundwater is affected by the waste liquid.
The problem of lack of supervision exposed in this case deserves alert. Some industry insiders said that corporate environmental governance and production safety supervision require multi-sector collaboration, and establish practical information communication and joint supervision methods. "In this case, the supervisory department only focused on production equipment, but not on changes in raw materials. This is not enough." An industry source said that if the entire chain of supervision from enterprise raw material purchases, material consumption, product sales, etc., should be Can detect problems early.
Some grassroots eco-environmental and other department staff report that chemical products are complicated in process and require high level of supervision, and urgently need to strengthen professional personnel allocation and professional skills training. It is recommended to use drones and other means to strengthen inspections in daily supervision and find clues to environmental pollution as early as possible.
After the case occurred, Xingtai City conducted thorough investigations and established accounts for all chemical companies. According to the principles of “combine the whole process, supervise the whole process, and strengthen all-roundly,” the relevant departments’ supervision duties were sorted out, and the long-term mechanism for hazardous waste environmental safety supervision was strengthened.