Soil pollution control, how to find gaps and make up for shortcomings
In Lishu County, Jilin Province, farmers drive no-tillage planters to sow corn on black soil.
Xinhua News Agency
【Ecology Observation】
Operating a pig farm in a restricted area for livestock and poultry breeding, failing to handle and secretly discharge manure and heavy metals in excess of the standard... On June 15, 2020, Mr. Zhang, a villager in Banan District, Chongqing City, caused environmental pollution due to discharge of heavy metal pollutants. Was held criminally responsible according to law.
It is reported that since 2004, Zhang has been operating a pig farm in the livestock and poultry forbidden area, and, in violation of relevant regulations, has long passed untreated poultry and livestock manure containing heavy metals through a seepage pit without any anti-leakage measures. Sneaking to the outside seriously threatens the safety of the surrounding soil ecology.
"Severe punishments and heavy penalties for soil contaminated behaviors in accordance with the law and increase the cost of violations can form an effective deterrent." The head of the Environmental Pollution Investigation Division of the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau's Environmental Security Protection Corps emphasized.
The case of illegal discharge and release of a farm in Banan District, Chongqing was not an individual case.
As the foundation of human society and an important line of defense for food safety, the safety of the soil environment is directly related to our "rice bag", "vegetable basket" and "water tank".
Nowadays, with the steady improvement of living standards and the upgrading of consumer demand, the people's expectations for a good ecological environment are getting higher and higher, and they are paying more and more attention to soil safety issues.
Avoid "new problems in more hidden places"
"Has this waste landfill been approved?"
"It must be rectified!"
Due to imperfect anti-seepage measures, part of the red mud (industrial waste residue) exceeded the coverage of the anti-seepage membrane, and extensive on-site management and dust-proof measures were not in place, an alumina company in Chongqing was investigated and rectified by the Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspection Team.
The above dialogue took place at the "look back" scene of soil pollution prevention and control law enforcement.
From August to September 2020, the law enforcement inspection team of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress went to 6 provinces including Jiangsu and Chongqing to inspect the implementation of the Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law.
Wang Jian, director of the Office of the Southwest Inspectorate of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, suggested that the inspection team go to see the situation after the renovation.
"The law is clearly written. The construction and operation of centralized sewage treatment facilities and solid waste disposal facilities shall take measures to prevent soil pollution in accordance with the requirements of laws, regulations and relevant standards. The enterprise's practices clearly violate the legal provisions." The inspection team pointed out .
"This is a typical'old problems have been rectified, and new problems have appeared in more hidden places'." Wang Jian said.
In recent years, the issue of soil pollution has received widespread attention from the society, and the relevant state departments have successively issued many laws and regulations to prevent and control soil pollution.
In October 2020, the Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law Enforcement Inspection Report submitted by the Enforcement Inspection Team of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress showed that in June 2019, my country completed a detailed investigation of the soil pollution status of agricultural land nationwide, and basically identified the problem of soil pollution in agricultural land. Area, distribution and its impact on the quality of agricultural products, and applied in the classification of arable land soil environmental quality and the safe use of agricultural land.
The Action Plan for Soil Pollution Prevention and Control issued by the State Council in 2016 (referred to as the “Ten Soil Measures”) stated that by 2020, the increasing trend of soil pollution across the country will be initially curbed, the overall soil environmental quality will remain stable, and the soil environmental safety of agricultural land and construction land will be achieved Basic guarantee, soil environmental risks are basically managed and controlled.
To this end, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the Ministry of Natural Resources have jointly acted to promote the prevention and control of soil pollution in my country.
At the same time, various localities combined with actual innovation policies to form a batch of vivid cases of soil pollution prevention and control.
For example, Zhejiang Lishui Development Zone formulated and implemented a soil environment "red, yellow, and green card" warning management system, implemented hierarchical dynamic management of key soil environment supervision units within its jurisdiction, and accepted supervision from all walks of life; Guangxi Liuzhou explored soil pollution control The “Liuzhou Model” of the “Liuzhou Model” aims to prevent and control soil pollution risks from the source, implement linkage supervision on contaminated plots, and complete the construction of a municipal-level soil pollution comprehensive prevention and control expert database and sample bank... With the improvement of soil pollution prevention and control capabilities in various regions, China’s land is healthy The protection has also become stronger.
In this regard, Wang Xiahui, deputy chief engineer of the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that my country’s soil pollution prevention and control work started late and the foundation is weak. The law has only been implemented for more than two years. The current ecological civilization system reform is accelerating. Experts and scholars need to identify gaps and shortcomings on the basis of systematically summarizing the progress and results of past work, fully study and judge the situation, and clarify the key tasks and direction of efforts for a period of time in the future."
Use domestic and foreign experience for scientific and effective governance
Soil environmental pollution control is a worldwide problem.
"Western industrialized countries encountered soil pollution problems earlier than my country, and their treatment was earlier. They have established relatively complete laws, regulations and treatment technology systems in soil pollution treatment and restoration. my country should closely integrate its own actual conditions and fully learn from international experience." China Gu Qingbao, deputy director of the Soil and Solid Waste Environmental Research Institute of the Environmental Science Research Institute, pointed out.
Regarding the soil environmental conditions of agricultural land in my country, Su Kejing, Director of the Department of Soil Ecology and Environment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, stated at a regular press conference held by the Ministry in 2019 that the relevant survey results show that the soil environmental conditions of agricultural land in my country are generally stable, and in some areas The risk of soil pollution is outstanding, and the task of safe use and strict control of agricultural land exceeding the screening value is still heavy.
Gu Qingbao divides the course of the prevention and control of contaminated soil in the United States into three stages: Before the 1970s, social environmental protection awareness was not strong, and there were basically no control measures against soil pollution; from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, soil pollution began to be discovered It has an impact on human health, but it has overreported the pollutants in the soil. Regulators have to force polluters to quickly remediate contaminated soil. Many plots are treated with energy-intensive technologies such as digging, burying, and burning. Leading to excessive control of soil pollution; since the 1990s, the public and regulatory agencies have continuously deepened their understanding and understanding of the control of contaminated soil, and set remediation goals according to the function and use of the soil, and green and sustainable treatment of contaminated soil .
“In recent years, the concept of green and sustainable restoration has gained more and more recognition in the United States. It mainly considers the entire soil restoration process, and considers the social, environmental, and economic costs in the restoration process, and screens the best restoration technology to achieve The goal of soil pollution control." Gu Qingbao believes that this has some enlightenment for my country's future soil pollution control.
The reporter learned that after the restoration of farmland pollution is completed, it still needs to meet the needs of crop growth, and the patch restoration technology of most construction land is not suitable for farmland soil restoration.
In this regard, Wang Xiahui suggested that attention should be paid to the classified and zoning management and safe utilization of soil resources, learning from the experience of the "river chief system" and "lake chief system", and exploring the establishment of the "field chief system", led by party and government leaders at all levels, responsible for administrative regions Prevention and control of soil pollution in agricultural land.
"For the contaminated farmland that has been safely used, strengthen the management of agricultural products in the field inspection, the disposal mechanism of excess grain, and the agricultural product safety traceability system to ensure that the effect of safe use is stable and sustainable."
In order to scientifically promote the safe use of arable land and ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products, in recent years, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has carried out nearly 100 agricultural land soil pollution control and remediation technology application pilots, and explored agronomic control technologies such as low-accumulation variety selection, lime regulation, and moisture regulation , And the application of passivation agents and other soil improvement technologies can greatly reduce the risk of excessive heavy metals in agricultural products.
At present, the Ministry is speeding up the extraction of pilot technology models for the safe use of contaminated farmland and summary of typical experiences.
Wang Xiahui believes that supervisory capability is the weakest link in the soil environmental management system.
"It is recommended to regularly carry out special training on soil environmental law enforcement, and accelerate the full application of big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence and other information methods in the field of soil environmental supervision. At the same time, give full play to the role of the soil pollution prevention and control target responsibility system and assessment and evaluation mechanism , To further consolidate the responsibilities of the territorial government, promote the capacity building of soil environmental supervision, monitoring, and law enforcement, improve the level of professionalization and hardware and software conditions, and establish a system for training supervisors and soil pollution prevention and control."
Open up a blue ocean space for the soil pollution prevention industry
In recent years, with the importance of soil safety issues, the market for soil pollution treatment and restoration has gradually opened up.
Judging from practice at home and abroad, the formation of soil pollution does not occur overnight, and the investment in repair is huge, which requires tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan at every turn. Therefore, the problem cannot be solved overnight.
During the interview, industry experts stated that the soil pollution restoration cycle is long, the cost is high, and the effect is slow. In general, it is necessary to adhere to the idea of risk management and control, to ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products and the health of human settlements as the starting point, and take various measures to ensure that For safe use, it is not advisable to blindly implement major management and major repairs.
At present, state funds are mainly used to start the treatment and restoration of historically left soil, and the expected capital investment is far greater than the state's start-up funds.
To this end, industry experts suggest that a national and local soil remediation fund system should be established as soon as possible, or leading enterprises should be cultivated through increased investment and integration to promote soil remediation from a technology-oriented to a capital-operated one, so as to ensure the sustainable development of the industry.
In 2016, the central government integrated the original heavy metal pollution prevention and control project and established a special fund for soil pollution prevention and control. A total of 28.5 billion yuan was allocated to support the prevention and control of soil pollution sources, risk management and control, restoration, and monitoring capabilities, while promoting the establishment of provincial soil pollution. The prevention and control fund, leveraging social capital into this field, supports the prevention and control of soil pollution through multiple channels.
It is worth noting that the field of soil remediation has begun to attract social capital to actively participate.
According to calculations by industry organizations, my country's soil pollution prevention and restoration industry currently accounts for less than 1% of the total output value of the environmental protection industry. However, in developed countries such as Europe, America and Japan, this proportion is as high as 30%-which also means that in the future, The soil remediation market in my country has the potential to be tapped further.
Nowadays, the soil pollution remediation industry has been developing from traditional pollution control project contracting to multiple models such as environmental stewardship, brownfield development and PPP, and a large-scale environmental construction pattern is taking shape.
Industry insiders pointed out that according to the "Ten Ten" routes, the deterioration of soil pollution in my country will be effectively controlled in 2020, and then it will enter a stage of benign development.
It is foreseeable that as the soil pollution prevention and control work progresses, the door to the soil remediation market will also continue to open to social capital, which is expected to open up a more considerable blue ocean space for industry development.
(Our reporter Zhang Yaxiong)