The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the highest prosecutor, and the Ministry of Public Security, cracked down on illegal activities for two consecutive years
Don't give a respite to those who violate the law and falsify monitoring data
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The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security launched a special campaign to combat the falsification of monitoring data. Falsifications that comply with the crimes of environmental pollution, provision of false certification documents, and the crime of destroying computer information systems will be punished in strict accordance with the law to form a strong deterrent .
At the same time, economic measures such as environmental protection tax, compensation for ecological damage, and credit evaluation will be used to make counterfeiters pay an unbearable price and create an atmosphere of "dare not to fake".
□ Our reporter Yan Jianrong
Starting from April this year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security (hereinafter referred to as the 3 departments) have launched a nationwide special campaign to combat dangerous waste and automatic monitoring data falsification of key pollutant discharge units.
Among them, three departments have been cracking down on hazardous waste environmental crimes for two consecutive years.
Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has publicly notified a number of typical cases involving hazardous waste and falsification of automatic monitoring data.
In response to the two types of illegal issues, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment pointed out that some hazardous waste environmental crimes have very bad circumstances.
Some cases of automatic monitoring data falsification are "bad in nature and serious consequences."
A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily noted that a considerable number of cases are suspected of constituting crimes, and some persons involved have been criminally punished.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment pointed out that the three departments will continue to jointly carry out special actions in the second half of the year.
The 3 departments require that local ecological environment departments, procuratorial organs and public security organs at all levels should further maintain a high-pressure situation and severely crack down on related illegal and criminal acts.
Adhesive tape 84 disinfectant immersion to avoid monitoring
On March 20, 2020, when the law enforcement officers of the Environmental Supervision Brigade of Weishi County, Kaifeng City, Henan Province conducted an on-site inspection of the Hongxing New Building Materials Factory in Weishi County, they discovered that the commissioning staff of this company used 84 disinfectant to soak the flue gas for continuous monitoring The system pre-processes the air filter element in the system and reinstalls the soaked filter element in the equipment, which interferes with the pollutant concentration monitoring of the external exhaust gas from the automatic monitoring equipment.
On April 26, 2020, law enforcement officers from the Environmental Supervision Bureau of Anhui Province, the Environmental Supervision Detachment of Fuyang City, and the Environmental Supervision Brigade of Yingdong District were conducting an on-site inspection of Fuyang Dingsheng New Building Materials Co., Ltd. and discovered smoke from the company's automatic flue gas monitoring equipment. A black insulating tape is affixed to the receiving lens of the instrument.
After investigation, law enforcement officers determined that the company deliberately pasted black insulating tape on the monitoring instrument to avoid supervision, which led to the distortion of automatic monitoring data.
On May 8, 2020, law enforcement officers of the Yihuang Ecological Environment Bureau of Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province discovered an abnormality in the automatic monitoring data of Yihuang County Jinfeng Paper Co., Ltd. through the automatic monitoring data platform.
On-site inspection by law enforcement officers found that the sampling head of the company's automatic monitoring equipment was inserted into the iron bucket connected to the tap, and the automatic monitoring equipment took the tap water from the iron bucket for sampling and monitoring.
Soak the monitoring air filter element with 84 disinfectant; paste insulating tape on the automatic monitoring equipment; insert the sampling head of the monitoring equipment into a bucket filled with tap water... In order to evade supervision, the fraudulent use of automatic monitoring facilities by enterprises can be described as extreme.
Regarding such fraudulent behavior, Bai Qiuyong, director of the Environmental Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, made it clear that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has "zero tolerance" for falsifying monitoring data and has always maintained a high pressure situation.
He said that in order to severely crack down on such fraudulent acts, this year, the three departments have carried out special operations for fraudulent and illegal crimes in the automatic monitoring of pollutant discharge units across the country.
Regarding the three cases of immersing the air filter element with 84 disinfectant, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment revealed that in the case of Hongxing New Building Materials Factory immersing the air filter element with 84 disinfectant, the company was fined 300,000 yuan administratively, and the legal representative of the company was detained under criminal detention. The public security organs have also intervened in the case of Fuyang Dingsheng New Building Materials Co., Ltd. applying tape to monitoring equipment. While fined the company 100,000 yuan according to law, the local ecological environment department has transferred the case to the public security organs, and the company’s legal representative has been Detained for 10 days.
Jinfeng Paper Co., Ltd. inserted the sampling probe into the tap water case. While the local ecological environment department imposed an administrative fine of 300,000 yuan on Yihuang County Jinfeng Paper Co., Ltd., the person in charge of the company’s sewage treatment was administratively detained for 6 days. The case Has been transferred to the public security organs.
On July 27, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment once again notified Tianjin Zhongtian Haisheng Environmental Technology Co., Ltd. of 6 cases of tampering and forging monitoring data.
So far this year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has publicly notified 13 cases of fraudulent monitoring facilities.
After sorting out 13 cases, a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily found that many of the cases involved criminal offences and the persons involved were punished.
Among them, of the 6 cases notified on July 27 this year, at least 4 cases involved criminal offences.
Among them, Tianjin Zhongtian Haisheng Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. tampered with and forged monitoring data; Jiangsu Zhenjiang Danyang Longjiang Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. tampered with, forged monitoring data and other cases involved persons have been held criminally responsible.
Publicly notified more than 20 hazardous waste cases
In order to curb the frequent occurrence of illegal discharge, dumping, and disposal of hazardous waste cases, and to protect the health and safety of the people, from July to November 2020, the three departments jointly organized a nationwide crackdown on hazardous waste environmental violations and crimes. Activity.
In the second half of the year, the special action is still ongoing.
On June 8, the Anxiang Branch of the Ecological Environment Bureau of Changde City, Hunan Province (hereinafter referred to as the Anxiang Branch) received a report stating that an E-N minivan was engaged in activities of collecting waste engine oil in several auto repair shops, suspected of illegal transfer. waste.
After receiving the report, the Anxiang branch quickly organized law enforcement officers and vehicles to patrol the county's auto repair plants. About an hour later, it was discovered that the Er N minivan was buying waste engine oil at the entrance of an auto repair shop.
The law enforcement officers immediately showed the suspect Li the administrative law enforcement certificate, requesting Li to cooperate with the investigation, provide a hazardous waste business permit and transfer form, and Li quickly used the spare key to start the vehicle and tried to escape on the grounds of getting the certificate in the car.
In order to prevent the subject of law enforcement from escaping and destroying the evidence, law enforcement officers immediately drove and followed the suspect’s vehicle, and at the same time contacted the Anxiang County Public Security Bureau for assistance.
To make matters worse, the suspect’s vehicle deliberately reversed twice when it reached a certain river embankment, damaging the front of the law enforcement vehicle.
After receiving the police, the Anxiang County Public Security Bureau quickly dispatched the police to the scene of the incident and took control of the suspect Li.
For this case, law enforcement officers finally verified that the suspect Li did not go through the hazardous waste transfer documents and other formalities. He collected 2.36 tons of waste engine oil from multiple auto repair shops in Anxiang County, and planned to sell the collected waste engine oil. To a hazardous waste management company in Hubei.
On June 9, Anxiang County Public Security Bureau filed a criminal case on suspicion of disrupting the order of social management.
On June 28, the Anxiang County Procuratorate filed a criminal lawsuit.
The case is currently under further investigation.
This is one of 10 hazardous waste environmental violation cases recently notified by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has publicly notified more than 20 typical cases in three batches since the three departments jointly organized a special action to crack down on illegal and criminal acts in hazardous waste environment last year.
Relevant persons in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment pointed out that illegal and criminal cases of hazardous waste environment are harmful and difficult to handle.
In these cases, the criminal suspects have forged the qualifications of hazardous waste management, some dumped and disposed of hazardous wastes across regions, and some refused to admit the circumstances of the crimes, which were of very bad nature.
The person in charge said that in the special action, local ecological and environmental departments, public security organs, and procuratorial organs have strengthened linkages and cooperation, carried out cross-regional joint law enforcement, with the help of industry experts, local people, and grassroots grid personnel, with a high degree of responsibility and dedication. Spiritual, rigorous and meticulous work style, solid professional quality, in-depth digging of illegal and criminal chains, peeling off the cocoon, fixing evidence, investigating and punishing in accordance with the law, and inflicting heavy damage on illegal and criminal acts in the hazardous waste environment.
Two actions will continue
According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, since the three departments jointly launched a special action to crack down on hazardous waste environmental violations and crimes last year, a total of 5,841 hazardous waste environmental violations were investigated and handled nationwide, with a fine of 240 million yuan.
The person in charge said that the special operation found 1,311 clues about hazardous waste environmental violations and crimes, transferred 768 cases to the public security organs, destroyed 379 environmental pollution criminal gangs, destroyed 780 criminal dens, and arrested 1,253 criminal suspects. 301 cases were prosecuted, 160 trials were completed, and 335 people were sentenced, which severely cracked down on the arrogance of criminals.
The Ministry of Public Security has successively listed and supervised 44 criminal cases of environmental pollution, all of which have now been closed.
In response to the recently reported six cases of falsification of monitoring data, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment pointed out that in the six cases, "the operation and maintenance personnel of automatic monitoring equipment taught the pollutant discharge unit the method of tampering and forging monitoring data, and the person in charge of the pollutant discharge unit condoned, Instruct unit personnel to tamper with and falsify monitoring data".
The violations involved in the six cases were of abominable nature and serious consequences.
In the 6 cases, the relevant territorial ecological environment departments cooperated closely with the public security and judicial organs, and severely punished relevant units and personnel in accordance with the law.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment pointed out that in the second half of the year, the three departments will continue to jointly carry out special operations to combat hazardous waste environmental crimes and automatic monitoring data falsification of key pollutant discharge units.
The 3 departments require that local ecological environment departments, procuratorial organs and public security organs at all levels should further maintain a high pressure, strengthen coordination and cooperation in case investigation and handling, improve the linkage mechanism, and form a strong joint force to protect the health of the people and the safety of the ecological environment.
At the same time, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment proposed to further optimize law enforcement methods and improve the efficiency and quality of handling cases of illegal and criminal hazardous waste environments.
Bai Qiuyong said that the three special monitoring data falsification operations carried out by the three departments will strictly punish the falsification of the crime of environmental pollution, the crime of providing false certification documents, and the crime of destroying computer information systems in accordance with the law to form a strong deterrent. At the same time, economic measures such as environmental protection tax, compensation for ecological damage, and credit evaluation will be used to make counterfeiters pay an unbearable price and create an atmosphere of "dare not to fake".