Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Public Security's highest prosecution against hazardous waste crimes
Will severely punish a number of major cases of environmental violations and crimes involving hazardous waste
This year, a five-month special campaign will be launched against illegal and criminal activities in the hazardous waste environment. The special action will dig deep into and severely punish a number of major environmental crimes involving hazardous waste, eradicate the chain of illegal collection, utilization, dumping, and disposal of hazardous waste, and severely crack down on the arrogance of criminals.
□ Our reporter Yan Jianrong
At the moment, the joint action of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Public Security and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (hereinafter referred to as the three departments) to crack down on illegal and criminal hazardous waste environments is underway. A reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" learned from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment that the fundamental reason why the three departments have been blazing their swords on hazardous waste environmental crimes is that such violations have occurred frequently in recent times, and some of the cases are of bad nature.
A reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" combed through two batches of cases publicly notified by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment since the epidemic this year. Among them, at least 6 cases involved hazardous waste environmental crimes.
According to the deployment of the three departments, this year will launch a five-month special crackdown on hazardous waste environmental violations. The three departments pointed out that the special action will dig deeper and severely punish a number of major cases of environmental violations involving hazardous waste, eradicate the chain of illegal collection, utilization, dumping, and disposal of hazardous waste, and severely crack down on the arrogance of criminals.
Investigate and deal with multiple illegal cases
On May 29, some people reported that Tianjin Binhai New Area Xinlian Zinc Metal Products Co., Ltd. used the seepage pit to illegally discharge toxic substances. After receiving the report, the Tianjin Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Team for Ecological Environment Protection and the Tianjin Public Security Bureau Environmental Food and Drug Security Team, together with the Binhai New Area Ecological Environment Bureau and the District Public Security Bureau, dealt with Tianjin Xinlian Zinc Metal Products in Taiping Town, Dagang District, Binhai New Area. The limited company conducts joint enforcement inspections.
On-site inspection by law enforcement officers found that there was a separate factory in the southeast corner of this unit's courtyard, and the workshop in the courtyard had ceased production. Although the small door on the east side of the workshop had been welded to death, law enforcement officers still discovered that there were two seepage pits outside the courtyard with an area of 30 square meters each without any anti-seepage and leakage prevention measures, and there were a lot of acid sewage in the pits. According to the on-site identification by the staff of this company, the pickling wastewater generated during the production process of the company was discharged into two seepage pits through hoses. After each discharge of acid-containing wastewater, it was neutralized by dumping lime powder.
After sampling and monitoring by the Tianjin Ecological Environment Monitoring Center, the zinc content in the sewage in the two seepage pits was 2200 mg/L and 2600 mg/L, respectively, exceeding the limit values of 1100 and 1100 and 2 in the Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water (GB3838-2002). 1300 times.
The behavior of this company has been suspected of constituting a crime. According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the local public security agency has stepped in and placed criminal detention of the responsible person.
In March this year, the same case occurred in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. On March 24, according to the clues of people's letters and visits, law enforcement officers from Yuyao Branch of Ningbo Ecological Environment Bureau of Zhejiang Province rushed to Sino-Italian Ningbo Ecological Park to investigate the illegal deplating process reported by the masses. During the investigation, it was found that in a remote, temporary shanty house, multiple plastic barrels for production were randomly discarded, and there were obvious traces of deplating production on the spot. Law enforcement officers immediately took pictures and took photos of the scene, and carried out evidence preservation and sealing of the scene.
The next day, the Yuyao Branch, together with the Industrial Park Management Committee and the local public security organs, once again went to the field to conduct investigations and obtain evidence. It was found that black wastewater was accumulated in the wastewater collection pool covering an area of more than 30 square meters on the south side of the shanty, emitting a pungent sour smell. The wastewater was dark brown, flowing along a mud ditch, and finally into the river. Law enforcement officers took samples of wastewater from the collection pond and the river mouth and sent them for inspection. The monitoring results showed that the total copper, total nickel, total zinc, and total chromium of the wastewater in the collection tank were all seriously exceeding the standard; the total copper concentration of the wastewater being discharged into the river mouth was 14 mg/l and the total nickel concentration was 29.2 mg/l, all exceeding More than 10 times the emission standard stipulated in the "Substance Emission Standard" (GB 21900-2008) (Table 2 Emission Standard) has been suspected of serious environmental pollution.
According to relevant laws and regulations, the relevant owners of this illegal deplating processing site have been suspected of committing a crime of environmental pollution, and the Yuyao Branch immediately transferred the case to the Yuyao Public Security Bureau.
In addition to these two cases, the two batches of cases notified by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment involving illegal dumping of hazardous waste include the suspected criminal case of illegal disposal of hazardous waste at the waste lead-acid battery processing plant in Weijiang Village, Shajiang Town, Ningde, Fujian; Suqian Zhang, Jiangsu, Wang Moumou illegally dumping hazardous waste is suspected of criminal cases; Chongqing Changshou Ding Moumou and others are suspected of illegally dumping hazardous waste across regions; Zhejiang Wenzhou Luo and others are suspected of dumping hazardous waste through a pit.
Listed to supervise Xingtai case
Runmin Biotechnology Hebei Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Runmin Biotechnology Company) in the Wei County Economic Development Zone of Xingtai City, Hebei Province illegally produced pesticides and dumped 3414.5 tons of strong acid waste into 7 local counties (districts) in more than a year. ) 13 locations. Although it is during the epidemic period, such heinous violations still cannot escape the eyes of the masses.
According to media reports, in late March this year, police in Xingtai County, Hebei Province received reports from the masses that someone dumped unknown liquids around the local village. After in-depth investigation, the task force verified that Runmin Biotechnology Company, located in Weixian Economic Development Zone, Xingtai City, was suspected of committing a major crime.
After the local public security department intervened in the investigation, it was found that from August 2018 to March 30, 2020, Runmin Biotechnology Company illegally produced and operated chlorfenapyr without obtaining a pesticide production and operation license. Waste liquid is dumped illegally. In more than a year, Runmin Biotechnology Company illegally produced and sold more than 400 tons of Chlorfenapyr at a rate of 250,000 yuan per ton, with a sales amount of nearly 100 million yuan and a net profit of nearly 20 million yuan.
The public security department also discovered that Li, the actual controller of the company, instructed Liu, the general manager, to hand over the waste liquid to Lu for disposal at a price of 230 yuan per ton. From March 29, 2019 to the incident, Lv organized many people in 13 of the 7 counties (districts) of Xingtai City, including Xingtai County, Nanhe, Longyao, Ren County and Qiaodong, Qiaoxi, and Development Zone. At the location, 230 vehicles and 3414.5 tons of waste liquid were illegally dumped.
This case has attracted great attention from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment after being exposed by the media. At a regular press conference held in June this year, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment stated that in response to this case, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Public Security formed a joint working group to conduct an investigation in Wei County, Xingtai City, Hebei Province. At the same time, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Public Security listed the case for supervision.
The relevant person in charge of the Law Enforcement Bureau of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment told the reporter of the Rule of Law Daily that, including this case, the illegal dumping of hazardous waste in many places this year is the main reason for the joint launch of the special action by the three departments.
Reward internal whistleblowers
According to the person in charge of the Law Enforcement Bureau of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, in order to curb the frequency of illegal discharge, dumping, and disposal of hazardous waste, protect the ecological environment, and protect the health of the people, the three departments jointly issued the "On Severely Cracking Down on Violations and Crimes of Hazardous Waste Environment "Notice of Behavior" (hereinafter referred to as "Notice"), decided to organize national ecological environment departments, public security organs, and procuratorial organs to launch activities to severely crack down on hazardous waste environmental violations and criminal activities from July to November 2020.
The "Notice" requires that local ecological and environmental departments, public security organs, and procuratorial organs at all levels must cooperate closely, highlight key industries, key regions, and key environmental violations and crimes, carefully investigate and find clues of environmental violations and crimes in a timely manner; focus on supervision and timely Investigate and punish environmental violations of enterprises involving hazardous waste; conduct special operations and implement precision strikes on major and important cases.
The person in charge of the Enforcement Bureau of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that the three departments require that the use of remote law enforcement methods be increased for complaints, reports and letters and visits, administrative penalty cases, and outstanding issues found in the special treatment of hazardous waste. Local "12369" and other reporting hotlines will be unblocked. Report channels for illegal discharge, dumping and disposal of hazardous wastes, implement rewards for reporting violations of ecological and environmental violations, and give high rewards to insiders’ reports. We hope that the general public will participate and actively provide clues about violations and crimes.
In accordance with the requirements of the "Notice", during the special operation period, the three departments will implement on-site supervision of major and difficult cases, and implement joint listing supervision for typical cases with severe circumstances and greater impact. At the same time, the local ecological and environmental departments, public security organs, and procuratorial organs that are effective in investigating and prosecuting environmental violations and crimes will be jointly publicized by the three departments.
The person in charge told the reporter of the "Rules of Law" that in order to implement the requirements of the "Notice", the ecological environment departments at all levels will allocate environmental law enforcement, solid waste management, Environmental monitoring personnel from the three parties formed a task force to trace the source of illegally transferred and dumped hazardous waste, find out the chain of production, transportation, and dumping, and impose severe penalties on all enterprises and individuals involved in the chain. Those who meet the requirements for administrative detention and are suspected of environmental crimes shall be transferred to the public security organs in accordance with the law, and “replacement of punishment with fines” is prohibited.
In accordance with the requirements of the "Notice", public security organs at all levels will combine with the "Kunlun 2020" special action to include illegal crimes involving hazardous wastes polluting the environment as the focus of their crackdown, and carry out cracking cases. Procuratorial organs at all levels will promptly review requests for approval of arrest or transfer for review and prosecution, strictly control facts, evidence, and the application of law, and promptly approve arrest and prosecute criminal suspects who meet the conditions for arrest and prosecution, and conduct investigations. Whether the activity is legally supervised.