Ecological difficulties in the largest province in the non-ferrous industry
Produced by Deep Eye Studio
Written by: Our reporter Li He Planning: Liu Li
"Perfunctory response, surface rectification problems are prominent." The inspection team analyzed that some local governments did not correctly understand and handle the dialectical relationship between economic development and environmental protection, causing relevant departments to only inspect and not penalize enterprises, and to continuously relax regulatory requirements.
Chishui Village, Qingtang Town, Ningdu County, Jiangxi Province, looks lush and green from a distance.
After driving through a steep mountain road for more than ten minutes, two large areas of "bald spots" suddenly appeared in the originally verdant woodland halfway up the mountain and near the top of the mountain.
A total of more than 100 acres and more than 10 football fields are filled with dark gray tailings sand.
The tailings scattered during transportation flowed everywhere with the rain, and the road was covered by tailings sand, which was incompatible with the surrounding greenery.
Jiangxi Province is my country's main non-ferrous, rare, and rare earth mineral base. Among them, the non-ferrous metal industry is the largest pillar industry in Jiangxi, and its industrial scale ranks first in the country.
Abundant mineral resources have provided important support for local economic development. However, in recent years, some counties and cities in Jiangxi have been in chaos in mining illegal activities, and the masses have continuously reported environmental pollution in the vicinity of the mine.
In the second round of the third batch of central ecological and environmental protection inspections, reporters from Science and Technology Daily followed the central fourth ecological and environmental protection inspection team to Jiangxi Province to investigate the ecological difficulties of this large non-ferrous metal industry province.
Tailings sands freely encroach on woodland and cultivated land
The stream water that used to be drunk can no longer be washed
The tailings piled up randomly among the forests mentioned at the beginning of the article came from Jiangxi Chaosheng Mining Co., Ltd.
This is a private chemical enterprise integrating mining, beneficiation and smelting. It has jurisdiction over mines, sulfur concentrate plants, and sulfuric acid plants.
The tailings yard at the highest point is about 100 meters away from the top of the mountain. The reporter followed the inspection team and continued to climb the mountain.
When the reporter came to the top of the mountain, he found that there was a simple greenhouse with no signs on the cleared ground.
Under the big shed is a four-cell cement pool, and each cell contains yellow sewage. On the side of the pool is a rusty conveyor belt that transports tailings and ore from the hillside.
After inspection by the inspectors, it was discovered that this was a "scattered, messy and polluted" project under the banner of "comprehensive utilization of resources" but in fact there were no environmental protection facilities.
It was still in production in January this year.
Stacking tailings in violation of regulations will seriously damage the ecological environment.
After reviewing a large number of materials and carefully inspecting the site, the inspection team discovered that Chaosheng Mining started to mine pyrite illegally in 2011 when the tailings pond had not yet been built. It has never carried out ecological restoration work in the mine, and continued to illegally occupy it. 107 acres of woodland and 9 acres of arable land are used for open-air stacking of tailings sand.
The yard close to the top of the mountain, through the original mountain stream, the tailings wastewater is directly discharged into the crude cement pond halfway down the mountain, and the bottom of the stream flowing through shows a very obvious yellow mark.
On April 21, when verifying the situation on the site of the slag treatment pool, the reporter ran into several villagers in Chishui Village.
Knowing that the inspectorate is investigating environmental issues, an older sister complained: "The creeks near our house used to be very clean and can be drunk directly. Now they are all yellow, and they can’t even wash their hands. The water in the creek is too clean. It is getting less and less, and some places have been dried since last winter." For this reason, Chaosheng Mining gave each villager in Chishui Village a compensation of 80 yuan a year.
"What can 80 yuan do? Our clean stream is gone." The eldest sister said and looked in the direction of the stream.
The masses have repeatedly reported the environmental problems of Chaosheng Mining.
The reporter saw the content of the report in the Jiangxi Provincial Government website "The 23rd Batch of People’s Letters and Visits Reports and Reports Transferring and Supervision and Reforms Disclosure List": "The Xintang Group and Fantang Group Mountain Farms of Chishui Village, Qingtang Town are illegal. In mining, more than ten large trucks transport mineral resources every day, and excavators and forklifts are working overtime day and night, making it impossible to plant hundreds of acres of farmland in the Xintang Group and the Shangwu Group, and the dust pollution is very serious."
As early as August 2020, the relevant departments issued the "Notice on the Implementation of the Obligation of Rehabilitation and Governance of the Geological Environment of Mines" to Chaosheng Mining, but the results of this inspection show little effect.
It is not uncommon for tailings sands to encroach on forest land and pile up arable land at will, causing forest damage and environmental pollution.
The reporter followed the inspection team and found that the Fuxing Metal Mine in Longyuanba, Quannan County, Jiangxi had not built a tailings pond. It occupied 13.7 acres of woodland and 7.24 acres of arable land, which was used for illegal storage of tailings and waste rocks for many years.
In the 2019 special action for mine development and renovation, Jiangxi Province pointed out that the company had problems such as "failure to fulfill the mine geological environment governance and restoration and land reclamation obligations in accordance with the law", and the so-called mine restoration work carried out by the company was to plant trees directly on the tailings sand. "Re-green", the saplings planted are basically dead.
But even so, Quannan County still reported that it had completed ecological restoration of its mines.
"False decoration" instead of real repair
Only one-sixth of the old mines undergoing ecological restoration
As an inspector described, the open-pit mine after mining is like a "sore" on the ground if it is not repaired, "it must be bandaged to grow new skin."
Ecological restoration of mines is an important part of land space restoration, and it is also a direct manifestation of the implementation of "green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains".
However, the reporter followed the inspection team and saw in Jiangxi that many ecological restorations were difficult to implement, and even the phenomenon of replacing real restorations with "false decorations" appeared.
During this inspection, the inspection team received reports from the masses: Xinyu Qingfa Quarry and Xinyu Tishen Quarry, located behind Yangheping, Xiazhu Village Committee, Xiacun Town, Yushui District, Xinyu City, destroyed the ecological environment.
Moreover, these two quarries only mine but not repair, and use green nets to cover the mining surface "false decoration".
The inspection team rushed to the scene and found that Qingfa Mining had suspended work and production at the end of March this year, and the production equipment had been dismantled. However, the Yushui Bureau of Xinyu Natural Resources Bureau issued a penalty document and fined 116189 yuan for the illegal behavior of cross-border mining in the mine.
The Tishen Quarrying Plant has not carried out ecological restoration. There are still a large amount of materials stacked in the mining area, and the materials are covered by dust-proof green nets.
According to the “Letter on Accelerating the Implementation of the Comprehensive Improvement of Open-pit Mines” issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in 2019, all localities shall carry out comprehensive improvement of open-pit mines in accordance with the law. “Governance” principle, strengthen ecological restoration of open-pit mines.
In 2018, the first round of central environmental protection inspectors "looked back" pointed out that some stone mines in Jiangxi Province have not carried out soil and water conservation and ecological restoration work.
Subsequently, the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Natural Resources organized a special operation for mine development and renovation, and the investigation found that there were 111 violations of various laws and regulations in the mining of 62 open-pit mines in Xinyu.
According to the requirements of the "Special Action Work Plan for Mine Development and Renovation in Jiangxi Province", by the end of 2020, we will strive to achieve the green mine construction standards for 200 old mines.
However, according to the inspection team's information and on-site inspections, it was found that in recent years, Xinyu has closed 55 mines, and only 9 of them have carried out ecological restoration, accounting for only one-sixth.
At present, a total of 12 mines in Xinyu City have passed the green mine acceptance.
However, the inspection team randomly inspected two of them, and the scene was shocking, and the "green mines" were not green.
Among them, the keyhole quarry plant violated laws and regulations, and added a new stone processing production line without authorization, road rubble was thrown away, the dust was thick, the automatic dust monitoring equipment was damaged and was out of service for a long time, and there was no "three prevention" measures in the material storage yard.
However, the quarry got "full marks" in the green mine acceptance assessment.
The lime powder transportation belt of Jiangxi Junyi Mining Co., Ltd. is not closed, the dust in the material handling workshop is unorganized discharge, and thick dust is accumulated on the walls and ceiling of the workshop...
Equipment obsolete by the state is still in use
Toxic waste is piled up at will, and the pollutant discharge exceeds the limit thousands of times
Pushing open the door of the "Hazardous Waste Storage Site" of Dayu Mingfa Mining Co., Ltd., there is serious water inside, and part of the hazardous waste is still soaked in the water.
The sign on the outer wall of the warehouse shows: What is stored here is "smoke collected by blast furnace dust removal", and the main toxic component is lead monoxide.
The inspector asked: When soaking in the water, all kinds of hazardous wastes are mixed together. How will they be transported in the future?
Relevant personnel of Mingfa Mining replied: It rained yesterday and there was no time to deal with it. This was for emergency.
"Why didn't the water be drained into the emergency tank, but instead to the hazardous waste storage site?" The inspector asked a little anxiously, "If you are not allowed to open the library door, will you just hide it like this?"
There is a reason for this anxiety.
Mingfa Mining is a lead smelting company that uses purchased hazardous waste raw materials to produce crude bismuth-lead alloys, etc. This means that hazardous wastes will appear in raw materials and waste residues.
Hazardous waste is dangerous, toxic, and infectious. If effective measures are not taken, the toxic substances in hazardous waste will seep into surface water through surface runoff and natural precipitation or gather in groundwater, causing serious damage to the natural ecological environment. , Threatening people's health.
The reporter also saw a large amount of hazardous waste piled up in a large shed next to the "hazardous waste storage site" of Mingfa Mining.
The big shed is not closed on all sides. There is only a layer of plastic shed on the top. There are many holes in the plastic shed. Once it rains, it will have an immeasurable impact on the environment.
As early as 2019, the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment notified Dayu County of the prominent environmental problems in Mingfa Mining.
Point out that its hazardous waste raw materials and newly generated hazardous wastes are randomly stacked in different workshops, hazardous waste storage sites and production workshops have serious rain and water leakage, no anti-corrosion and anti-seepage treatment, no leachate collection system, and a large amount of blast furnace slag. , The open-air stacking of desulfurization slag and other issues require shutdown of production for rectification.
However, Dayu County approved Mingfa Mining to resume production when it had not completed the rectification of environmental problems.
According to information provided by Dayu County, since 2019, Mingfa Mining has illegally disposed of more than 7,000 tons of hazardous waste.
The on-site inspection found that the company still has more than 6,000 tons of hazardous waste stacked in the factory area, the ground sewage flows horizontally, and a large amount of ash is discharged into the environment with rainwater...
Non-ferrous metal smelting such as secondary lead-zinc smelting and copper smelting is a key industry for hazardous waste generation in my country, and it is also the focus of this inspection.
Coincidentally, in the Circular Economy Industrial Park of Yongfeng County, Jiangxi, as a non-ferrous metal recycling and smelting enterprise, Jiangxi Longtianyong Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Longtianyong) has illegally constructed 11 coal-fired reverberatory furnaces that have been explicitly eliminated by the state. Used in the production of non-ferrous metals such as regenerated silver and lead, causing serious fumes and fumes.
Since 2008, the company has dumped more than 25,000 tons of blast furnace slag, water quenching slag and lead-containing fumes and other hazardous wastes in production workshops and material warehouses. A large amount of ash slag has been washed into the rainwater pipe network and discharged into the environment.
Sampling and monitoring of the rainwater ditch in the Longtianyong plant found that the concentration of cadmium in the water was 59 mg/liter and the concentration of lead was 41.7 mg/liter, which respectively exceeded the direct emission standards of the "Recycled Copper, Aluminum, Lead, and Zinc Industrial Pollutant Emission Standards" by 5899 times. , 207.5 times.
The secret investigation also found that the lead content of the soil around the rainwater outlet of the Circular Economy Industrial Park was 1,800 mg/kg, which exceeded the risk control value of the "Soil Environmental Quality Agricultural Land Soil Pollution Risk Control Standard" by 1.6 times.
After paying the fine, you can leave it alone
"Punishment in charge" perfunctory response, surface rectification problems are numerous
The local government's "penalty management" is a problem repeatedly notified by the central ecological and environmental protection inspector. This time the inspector found that the Quannan County Forestry and Natural Resources Department has "penalized management".
Aiming at the problem of the Fuxing Metal Mine in Longyuanba, Quannan County, invading woodland and arable land, stacking tailings and waste rocks illegally for many years.
On August 17, 2020, the local Forestry Bureau imposed a fine of 182,600 yuan on the illegal acquisition of forest land; the local Natural Resources Bureau imposed a fine of 62,746 yuan on the illegal occupation of cultivated land.
After the fine of more than 240,000 yuan was handed in, the Quannan County Forestry and Natural Resources Department ignored his illegal activities.
As a result, the problem of enterprises' wanton sewage disposal has never been solved.
The reporter from the inspector discovered that it was the inaction and connivance of some county and city government departments that made some enterprises' behaviors of destroying the ecology and polluting the environment intensified.
Why do local government departments do this?
"Worry that enterprises will be subject to administrative penalties and not enjoy the tax rebate policy, which will affect the local business environment" is the fundamental reason.
Taking the case of “Serious Pollution in the Circular Economy Industrial Park of Yongfeng County” discovered by this inspector, in 2018, when the Central Ecological and Environmental Protection Inspector of Jiangxi Province “looked back”, the masses had repeatedly reported the long-term illegal discharge of pollution by Long Tianyong in Yongfeng County. , Serious environmental pollution and other problems.
Yongfeng County's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ecological Environment Department have also carried out on-site inspections of enterprises on many occasions, but have never punished them.
In response to reports from the masses, the rectification materials reported by Yongfeng County stated that Long Tianyong had already carried out natural gas reforms.
However, the inspection team discovered during the on-site inspection that although Long Tianyong had installed gas supply facilities, he had never used natural gas for production, and his daily production still used a coal-fired reverberatory furnace, which was explicitly eliminated by the state.
"Perfunctory response, surface rectification problems are prominent." The inspection team analyzed that the Yongfeng County Party Committee and the county government did not correctly understand and handle the dialectical relationship between economic development and environmental protection, which caused the relevant departments to only inspect and not penalize enterprises, and continue to relax supervision Claim.
Even when the Jiangxi Provincial Ecological and Environmental Protection Commission requested the report of the investigation results, the Yongfeng Ecological Environment Bureau concealed the problem of excessive discharge of wastewater from the enterprises in the park and falsely reported that the enterprises had no environmental violations.
According to the article "The Second Round of the Third Batch of Central Ecological Environmental Protection Inspectors Completed the Stationing of Inspectors" issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on May 14, in Jiangxi, the inspection team accepted 3862 reports from the masses, completed 1301 cases, and ordered 3468 rectifications. 412 cases were filed and punished, and 297 leading cadres were interviewed.