Huatong Chemical and other companies improperly disposed of hazardous waste, and the chemical industrial park in Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, failed to implement adequate rectification measures.

Release Date:

2018-10-21

　On October 17, 2018, the Fourth Central Environmental Protection Inspection Group provided feedback to Jiangsu Province on the results of its “follow-up review” and special inspections.
　　In June 2018, the Central Environmental Protection Inspection Team conducted an on-site inspection of the progress in addressing environmental issues at the Lingang Industrial Zone’s Chemical Industry Cluster in Guanyun County and the Lianyungang Chemical Industry Park in Guannan County—both identified during the 2016 central environmental protection inspection. The inspection revealed that remediation efforts in both zones were inadequate, with serious violations of environmental laws, and that environmental quality had even deteriorated in some areas.
　　Basic Information
　　The 2016 Central Environmental Protection Inspection Report pointed out that pollution issues in the Lingang Industrial Zone of Guanyun County and the Lianyungang Chemical Industry Park in Guannan County are particularly severe.
　　In response to this issue, Jiangsu’s inspection and rectification plan stipulates that the Lianyungang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, as the responsible entities, shall, by the end of December 2017, adopt a comprehensive set of measures: establish a rectification leading group; formulate an action plan and assign specific responsibilities; issue guidelines on industrial transformation and upgrading for the park, closing or shutting down a number of enterprises, ordering others to suspend production for remediation, and guiding still others toward transformation and upgrading; improve the park’s environmental infrastructure; enhance enterprises’ capacity for integrated pollution control; strengthen environmental supervision and law enforcement within the park, rigorously investigating and penalizing all types of environmental violations; refine the park’s environmental risk prevention and control system; and advance the management and restoration of the park’s waterways.
　　In August 2017, a report on the implementation of inspection‑related rectification measures in Jiangsu Province stated that Guanyun County and Guannan County had intensified their crackdown on environmental violations, ordering the closure or suspension of operations for certain enterprises to undergo rectification; they had also substantially increased investment in and accelerated the advancement of environmental infrastructure; and they had launched initiatives for ecological restoration.
　　Main issue
　　(1) Rectification of issues identified in the central environmental protection inspection has been inadequate. In Guanyun and Guannan counties of Lianyungang City, remedial measures have not been implemented as required by the inspection’s action plan. Among the 116 enterprises in the Lingang Industrial Zone of Guanyun County, only 9 were designated for “closure,” with 8 having already ceased operations in 2014 and 1 having been shut down in 2016. In Guannan County, within the Lianyungang Chemical Industry Park, only 4 out of 84 enterprises were included in the “closure” category; a number of companies—such as Zhongyi Fine Chemical and Youhua Biotechnology—whose permits are incomplete and whose pollution‑control efforts are insufficient, were not listed on the official closure roster as mandated.
　　The rectification plan stipulated that the 42 enterprises slated for closure in the Guanyun County Chemical Industrial Park—21 of which had already been shut down prior to the central environmental protection inspection team’s arrival—were to be closed. An additional 20 enterprises were retained through measures such as corporate restructuring and changes to their business license names. By the end of 2017, the plan required the Guannan and Guanyun parks to enhance their hazardous waste disposal capacity and eliminate any instances of prolonged storage. However, the inspection revealed that, rather than declining, the amount of hazardous waste stored in both parks increased: from 9,200 tons and 7,900 tons in 2015 to 13,600 tons and 20,500 tons in 2017, respectively. Similarly, the volume of waste stored beyond the permitted period rose from 3,700 tons and 1,500 tons in 2015 to 6,700 tons and 4,200 tons in 2017, leaving the rectification targets unfulfilled.
　　(2) Environmental violations are particularly serious. The implementation of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for planning purposes has been inadequate. Inspections revealed that the tracking EIAs for the Guanyun and Guannan chemical parks have not yet received approval from the Provincial Department of Environmental Protection, and development and construction have proceeded beyond the designated planning boundaries. Furthermore, the parks have illegally attracted a large number of enterprises that do not align with the intended industrial positioning. Among the 116 chemical enterprises in the Guanyun Chemical Park, production… Pesticide Among the 93 enterprises and 145 projects in the pharmaceutical, dye, and intermediate sectors, a significant portion—accounting for 62.5% of the park’s total projects—has been explicitly prohibited, restricted, or subject to stringent controls under the planning environmental impact assessment. In April 2018, Jiangsu Province conducted a special inspection of the Guanyun and Guannan chemical industrial parks, randomly sampling 140 enterprises on-site; all were found to have environmental issues to varying degrees, with particularly serious problems including illegal discharge of wastewater, dilute‑water discharges, and unauthorized disposal of hazardous waste.
　　(3) The illegal disposal of hazardous waste is a serious problem. Lianyungang Huatong Chemical Co., Ltd. unilaterally altered its production process without approval and illegally transported approximately 22,000 tons of chemical residue—identified as hazardous waste—via tanker trucks to Yancheng Yintianyuan Magnesium Co., Ltd., which lacks the necessary permits for handling hazardous waste. From there, the waste was clandestinely discharged into the surrounding environment through the company’s stormwater drainage system. Near this site, the chemical oxygen demand and benzene‑related compound concentrations in the stormwater were 973 mg/L and 3.86 mg/L, respectively, indicating severe pollution, accompanied by a strong, irritating odor at the scene.
　　Lianyungang Tianhe Chemical Co., Ltd. illegally disposed of industrial solid waste on its premises. The inspection team conducted on-site excavation and collected samples of leachate for monitoring, revealing concentrations of 1,760 mg/L chemical oxygen demand, 38.9 mg/L ammonia nitrogen, 1.92 mg/L total phosphorus, and 0.34 mg/L aniline compounds, accompanied by a strong irritating odor.
　　(4) Deterioration of regional environmental quality. In April 2018, monitoring in Jiangsu Province revealed that, among the 14 surface‑water monitoring sections in the Guanyun Port‑Adjacent Industrial Park, five exceeded the water‑quality standards for their designated functional zones. Similarly, in the Guannan Chemical Industrial Park, 34 out of 36 surface‑water sections surpassed the relevant functional‑zone standards; notably, the Dajui Dagou section recorded a maximum chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 299 mg/L and a maximum ammonia‑nitrogen concentration of 16.7 mg/L—exceeding the limits by factors of 9 and 10, respectively—and exhibiting pollution more severe than during the 2016 central environmental protection inspection.
　　Responsibility Analysis
　　The Lianyungang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have failed to give sufficient attention to the pollution issues at the chemical industrial parks in Guannan and Guanyun counties, and have been lax in follow-up and oversight. The county Party committees and governments of Guanyun and Guannan have treated remediation efforts perfunctorily, inadequately investigated and prosecuted environmental violations, and implemented inadequate corrective measures.