Central environmental protection inspectors look back This place was named twice in 10 days

The north pool of the three sludge pools in Tianxing village. The black sludge is covered with straw and white film.

Central environmental protection inspectors look back at this place, which was named twice in 10 days

On June 27, a filter press was dewatering and drying sludge.

Central environmental protection inspectors look back at this place was named twice in 10 days

Yangtze Pharmaceuticals west of the landfill area has been isolated by dust nets, the ground paved with rainproof film.

Taixing City, Jiangsu Province, Taixing City, Binjiang Town, Tianxing Village, head of the Wei group, less than 100 meters from the Yangtze River on the east side of the embankment, the three dozens of meters square sludge pools lined up from south to north. Pools of sludge piled up from 3 kilometers away from Taixing City Binjiang Sewage Treatment Co.

June 11, the central environmental protection inspection group "look back" briefing pointed out that in July 2016, the first round of central environmental protection supervision, there are people reported Binjiang sewage plant in the Yangtze River in the inner Luba Harbor (i.e., Tianxing Village, the head of the dike group) illegally dumped tens of thousands of tons of sludge. Two years later, the problem has not been rectified and the amount of sludge has increased from 23,000 tons to nearly 40,000 tons.

Only nine days later, Taixing Economic Development Zone Management Committee under the jurisdiction of another problem was also informed by the Central Environmental Protection Inspection Group: the first round of the Central Environmental Protection Inspection when the public reported that the development zone of the Yangtze River bank embankment on the inner side of the landfill of more than 30,000 cubic meters of chemical waste and other solid waste. This problem has not been rectified in two years, posing a serious threat to the environmental safety of the surrounding area and the Yangtze River water.

To this end, Zhang Kun, deputy secretary of the Taixing Municipal Party Committee and secretary of the Party and Work Committee of the Taixing Economic Development Zone, and five other cadres have been held accountable, according to a surging news report. Among them, Zhang Kun was given a warning within the party, Wang Xinyu, deputy director of the Taixing Economic Development Zone Management Committee, was given a political demerit, and Cao Guo, the legal representative and executive deputy general manager of Taixing Riverside Sewage Treatment Company Limited, was given the punishment of withdrawing from the party.

"We do not evade, do not defend, will be in accordance with the requirements of the central environmental protection inspectors, to grasp the implementation of rectification." Wang Xinyu said, at present, the sludge of the Binjiang sewage plant is waiting for identification, evaluation, after which it will be disposed of in a scientific manner; landfill waste sites have also been entrusted to a professional organization to carry out investigations, and is expected to complete the preparation of a comprehensive treatment program within 20 working days.

Once the commitment to become a dead letter

In the Tianxing Village, the head of the Wei group on the west side of the open space, the three sludge pools in the largest for the South Pool, the length and width are 70 meters. See the south pool pool walls made of cement, black sludge covered with yellow straw and white plastic film. Compared with the south pool, the north side of the two sludge pools slightly smaller, about 40 meters long and wide, the bottom and four walls of the pool paved with black impermeable membrane.

As early as July 2016, the first round of environmental protection inspections, the central environmental protection inspection team received a report from the public on the sludge pool, and referred it as a key case to the local rectification.

August 21 of that year, Taixing Municipal Government official website released "Central Environmental Protection Inspection Group referred letters and visits to Taizhou for handling" (hereinafter referred to as "handling"), said Taixing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection at the end of July to investigate and deal with this issue, three sludge pools have been discontinued before the end of November will start the standardized disposal of sludge.

But the three sludge pool did not really stop using. According to the executive deputy general manager of the riverside sewage plant Cao country, the so-called stop using is for the south pool, "is no longer to pour new sludge"; and the north side of the two pools, sludge dumping has never stopped. Today, the illegal dumping of sludge not only did not disappear, but nearly doubled to nearly 40,000 tons. The central environmental protection inspection team wrote in the briefing, Taixing, "letters and visits to investigate and deal with the feedback report of the commitment to become a piece of paper".

Simple on-site tests by the inspectors showed that the pH value of the sewage in the north pool was around 11. Sludge leachate from the north pool into the east side of the pond, pond water pH value of about 9. This shows that the sludge leachate has caused pollution of the surrounding environment. In this regard, the executive deputy general manager of the Binjiang wastewater plant, Cao Guo said, this may be due to the wall of the pool to play reinforcing bars pierced the impermeable membrane.

In this regard, Taixing Economic Development Zone in charge of environmental protection, deputy director of Wang Xinyu said, the reason why continue to the north of the two pools pouring sludge, because there is no sludge pool sewage plant can not operate normally. "Riverside sewage plant handling nearly 400,000 people in Taixing city's domestic sewage." Wang Xinyu said that if the sewage plant can not start, less than three days, the city's underground water pipes will be backed up. "As a regulator, we are also in a dilemma, and can only make the company better at taking appropriate protective measures."

But the protection was not done well. "At that time, the promise of standardized disposal, one of which means to do a good job of rainproof, anti-dispersion measures." Wang Xinyu said, at that time, on-site inspection found that the Riverside sewage plant has been laid guardrail, seepage control membrane and other devices, in the safety management and seepage control effect can meet the standard. As long as a rain shelter and cover the surface of the sludge, can make up for the lack of rain, anti-dissemination. However, after third-party identification, the sludge pool near the unsuitable for building a canopy, so it is only in the sludge surface covered with straw, film and soil.

It was learned that Riverside Wastewater Plant had commissioned Foster Wheeler (Hebei) Engineering Design Co.'s Sochon branch to design steel canopies for three sludge tanks. The latter issued an information note on September 24, 2016, showing that the sludge tanks were not suitable for the design of steel structure canopies due to their large span, complex geological conditions and windy conditions near the river.

In addition, the Handling Situation also mentions the problem of odor generated by the fermentation of sludge after rainfall. In this regard, the Development Zone Management Committee asked the Riverside Wastewater Plant to add odor suppressants to the sludge.On June 24, 2018, it was found at the site that the odor produced by the sludge was no longer noticeable in the village, which is about 500 meters away.

Over-counting economic accounts, ignoring ecological accounts

The sludge, which is illegally deposited, is generated in the process of sewage treatment.

According to Wang Xinyu, at present, Binjiang sewage plant daily processing 60,000 tons of domestic sewage, 20,000 tons of industrial wastewater, generating more than 2 tons of physical sludge, 17 tons of biochemical sludge. And the sludge pool stacked, are biochemical sludge.

Cao country told, biochemical sludge is the use of domestic sewage in the microbial treatment of sewage sludge, containing microorganisms; physical sludge is industrial wastewater flocculation and precipitation of sludge, which contains organic matter, colloids and other insoluble substances.

"Physical and chemical sludge belongs to hazardous waste, and should be sent directly to the park with the qualification of hazardous waste treatment company incineration treatment." Wang Xinyu said the biochemical sludge may belong to hazardous waste or general solid waste, which should be identified before disposal. Since 2010, the unidentified biochemical sludge has been piled up in the sludge pond in Tianxing Village.

In May 2008, Taixing City Institute of Environmental Science made the "Taixing City Binjiang Wastewater Treatment Plant Phase II Project Environmental Impact Report (Draft for Approval)" pointed out that the sludge from the Binjiang Wastewater Treatment Plant contains metal ferrous ions, calcium ions, and a large number of bacteria, which is a hazardous solid waste, and should be all handled in accordance with hazardous waste standards.

"But the general solid waste treatment costs about four or five hundred yuan per ton, hazardous solid waste needs at least four or five thousand yuan." Cao State told that the reason why the biochemical sludge was not directly treated according to hazardous waste is due to cost-saving considerations. "First temporary storage, according to the requirements of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to do the identification before deciding."

By "the requirements of the Ministry of Environmental Protection," Cao said, he was referring to the Ministry's "Letter on the Identification of Hazardous Characteristics of Sludge Produced by Sewage (Waste) Water Treatment Facilities" issued in 2010. The letter requires that sludge containing industrial wastewater should be identified as hazardous. Wang Xinyu said that the identification of sludge can only be disposed of according to the different standards of general solid waste or hazardous solid waste.

In fact, in 2013, the Taixing Environmental Protection Bureau also asked the Riverside Wastewater Plant to identify the hazardous characteristics of the sludge before doing the disposal.

"Back then, the sewage treatment volume was less than half of what it is now, and there wasn't much sludge in the pool, so we felt that the pile was only temporary." Cao Guo said that it was not until August 2015 that Binjiang Sewage Plant commissioned Jiangsu Nanda Environmental Protection Science and Technology Co. to conduct a pre-assessment of the hazardous characteristics of the biochemical sludge. The Handling Situation shows that the pre-assessment concluded that "the biochemical sludge is not a hazardous waste".

In order to ensure the accuracy of the results, in August 2016, March 2018, Riverside Wastewater Treatment Plant, respectively, commissioned Jiangsu Nanda Environmental Protection Science and Technology Company Limited, Changzhou Nanda High-tech Environmental Protection Industry Research Institute Company Limited to test the biochemical sludge piled up, fresh biochemical sludge just out of the factory. Both identification results show that the plant biochemical sludge for general solid waste.

With the identification of general solid waste, Binjiang sewage plant would have liked to sell the biochemical sludge to a local enterprise brick-making. But that brick factory does not have the qualification to deal with sludge, the development zone management committee did not agree.

"In fact, we would like to dispose of the sludge as soon as possible, but in order to save transportation costs, always want to find near Taizhou, near the treatment, but has not been able to find a unit that can receive sludge." Cao country said.

In this regard, Wang Xinyu admitted that the industrial waste treatment capacity in the development zone is very limited, the facilities can not keep up. The "13th Five-Year Plan for Environmental Protection" of Taixing City also mentioned that Taixing's "local or neighboring waste disposal capacity cannot meet the requirements of the economic development zone for solid waste disposal".

"Despite the objective limitations, the overall idea is still not enough attention." Wang Xinyu believes that the Binjiang sewage plant is too entangled in the general solid waste or hazardous solid waste disposal of sludge, "too much economic accounts, ignoring the ecological accounts."

May 21 this year, Binjiang sewage plant to Taixing Environmental Protection Bureau again, hoping that the biochemical sludge for general solid waste disposal. But Taixing Environmental Protection Bureau that the development of complex industrial institutions, sewage, there is uncertainty, instability, so biochemical sludge should be "hazardous waste" high standards of disposal. Guo Jian, director of the Taixing Environmental Enforcement Bureau, said, "The East China Inspection Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (established after institutional reform in March 2018) also requires that it be managed as hazardous waste."

Sludge pools started without EIA

From the beginning, the sludge pools at the Binjiang sewage plant should not have existed. Guo Jian told that none of the three sludge pools mentioned above had undergone an EIA or applied for approval from the environmental protection department.

According to Cao Guo, the first phase of the Riverside Sewage Plant was built in 2001 with investment from the Taixing municipal government. In the early days, the amount of sludge produced was less than 4 tons per day.In December 2012 and December 2014, the second phase of the sewage plant's Phase I and Phase II were completed.

Taixing City Institute of Environmental Science to make the "Taixing City Riverside Wastewater Treatment Plant Phase II Project Environmental Impact Report (Draft for Approval)" shows that the first phase of the renovation of the Riverside Wastewater Treatment Plant was completed in the first half of 2008, and since then, all the sludge has been uniformly sent to the disposal of hazardous waste treatment qualification of the company.

But Cao said that before 2010, the plant's biochemical sludge was treated as general solid waste and sent directly to a nearby brick factory to be burned in coal. Both Guo Jian and Wang Xinyu said they were unaware of this. "If the brick factory is not qualified to burn general solid waste, it's not in order for the sewage treatment plant to do so." Wang Xinyu said.

According to Cao Guo, the activation of the south pool of the three sludge pools in 2010 may have been related to the brick factory being demolished and shut down.

According to the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Wastes, projects for the construction of storage, utilization and disposal of solid wastes must carry out environmental impact assessments in accordance with the law. However, the documents obtained show that in July 2008, July 2013, the Environmental Protection Department of Jiangsu Province, Taixing City Environmental Protection Bureau, respectively, the second phase of the Binjiang sewage plant project, the Binjiang sewage plant main plant expansion project carried out an environmental impact assessment. However, the EIA reports were all limited to the scope of the plant, and did not involve the three sludge tanks about 3 kilometers or so from the plant.

"The three pits (sludge ponds) were commissioned by the companies themselves without approval." Guo Jian told that the environmental protection department would not approve the construction of sludge dumps off-site.

For his part, Cao Guo said he was not sure why there was no approval when the southern pool was activated in 2010 and the two northern pools were activated in 2016, and that "the previous head of the company has passed away."

Guo Jian recalled that three or four years ago, some people reported the sludge pools in Tianxing Village, and only then did the Taixing Environmental Protection Bureau (EPA) learn of the pools' existence. However, the Environmental Protection Bureau at that time did not require the closure of the sludge pool, only let the Binjiang sewage plant as soon as possible to make the sludge hazardous identification, temporary storage during the period to do a good job of preventing rain, infiltration, anti-dissemination and other protective measures.

Later, Taixing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau has repeatedly urged Riverside Sewage Plant to rectify the situation, only since 2016 has been inspected 10 times. Guo Jian said that five of the 10 inspections involved sludge disposal, "Before we can find a suitable disposal method for a while, we can only let the enterprise do a good job of protection as soon as possible to reduce the impact on the surrounding area."

Note that on June 6 this year, the Riverside sewage plant had been fined 100,000 yuan by the Taixing Environmental Protection Bureau for failing to do a good job of covering the surface of about 3,000 tons of sludge.

What is hidden in the 30,000 cubic meters of landfill?

The "look back" period, the central environmental protection inspection team also in Taixing Economic Development Zone found a solid waste landfill area has not been rectified. The landfill is located in Taixing Yangzi Pharmaceutical Chemical Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as "Yangzi Pharmaceutical") west of the Yangtze River, only 60 meters away. The internal landfill contains not only general solid waste, but also hazardous waste such as chemical waste. The volume of the landfill is about 30,000 cubic meters, about the size of 15 standard swimming pools.

On June 15, the inspection team brought in an excavator and dug down only about half a meter, and black chemical waste with a strong irritating odor appeared under the sandy soil layer.

According to the Central Environmental Protection Inspection Group on June 20, 2016, the first round of the Central Environmental Protection Inspection in July, the masses repeatedly reported this landfill area. After the letter was forwarded, Taixing City only carried out a simple cleanup of the surface garbage, after which feedback was given to complete the rectification task.

Guo Jian explained that the year from the receipt of the letter to report the results of the investigation only 24 hours, the development zone staff is not clear about the scope of the landfill area, and did not carefully verify the landfill area of historical garbage, only to see the surface. And the surface of the exposed garbage is mainly some cassava residue and demolition of construction waste, belonging to the general solid waste.

According to Wang Xinyu, the landfill area was originally a large ditch pond left over from the construction of the river embankment in the early years, and has been filled with solid waste since the 1990s. "At that time this side was still relatively desolate, with only a few factories and some residents. Everyone dumped their household garbage and construction waste into it, and we can't rule out the possibility that some companies also smuggled industrial waste here."

After more than 20 years of landfilling garbage, it is not clear what pollutants are underground or whether harmful gases are produced. Wang Xinyu said these issues must be investigated before a disposal plan can be determined.

In order to identify the problems, in September and October 2016, the development zone management committee commissioned the Central Changtai (Beijing) Environmental Science and Technology Co.

In January 2018, CCHT made a preliminary report confirming that the landfill volume was about 31,500,000 cubic meters, and that the surface layer had been covered by buildings, concrete floors, and fill dirt.

In February, CCHT conducted another detailed laboratory test on the pollutants and found that the soil in the landfill area exceeded the standard for nine metal elements, including zinc, lead and cadmium. In addition, 72 organic pollutants were detected in the soil***, making the pollution more serious.

Central Changtai's report also shows that most of the groundwater sampling points in the landfill area are black in color and accompanied by irritating odors, pollution is obvious. Among them, chemical oxygen demand, volatile phenols, lead and other 19 inorganic indicators exceeded; naphthalene, toluene and other 15 organic pollutants exceeded the indicators.

"According to our investigation results, the landfill here is mixed waste. But it is not yet possible to tell whether it is specifically more chemical waste or more domestic waste." Sun Jichao, former deputy chief engineer of the Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, who took part in the investigation, told that further detailed investigations are needed if it is to be determined whether it contains hazardous industrial garbage and if the source of pollution is traced back to the landfill.

The good news is that the hydrogeological conditions in the landfill area are not conducive to the spread of pollution and the migration of pollutants in groundwater. So diffusion has not been significant so far. The report shows that 5 meters downstream of the landfill area, the groundwater pollution situation has improved significantly. "It is still a controllable state, and measures are being taken quickly to dispose of it in order to reduce the harm produced." Sun Jichao said.

In fact, as early as April 2016, Taixing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau had considered investigating those sites that may have historically been polluted, mainly referring to this landfill area. In October of that year, two months after the central environmental protection inspection, Taixing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau planned the idea of governance. The reason why delayed until now, because has been waiting for the final site investigation results. And the final results of the investigation of the Central Changtai, only completed on June 17 this year.

"This is actually a historical problem. In the past, the requirements were not so standardized, and in rural areas garbage was dumped into ditches and ponds, as is the case all over the country." Guo Jian said it is now about lifting the lid on history.

Offending companies may be held accountable

On the afternoon of June 27, 10 filter presses and a set of sludge curing equipment were being used to dewater, dry and cure sludge at the sludge pond in Tianxing Village. The filter presses are housed in concrete tanks that have just been constructed to ensure that the filtrate does not seep out.

The treated sludge is packed into white bags and will be transported to a qualified hazardous waste warehouse for temporary storage. All the sludge transfer work will be completed by Aug. 15, Wang Xinyu said.

"We have commissioned the Jiangsu Environmental Science Research Institute under the Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Department to do further testing and identification of the sludge to see if it is general solid waste or hazardous waste. Eventually the sludge will be disposed of according to the identification results." Wang Xinyu told, is expected on August 25 can make identification report.

Wang Xinyu estimated that the cost of handling nearly 40,000 tons of sludge and the later ecological restoration of the site will not be less than 300 million yuan. "According to the principle of who pollutes, who manages, enterprises should take the main responsibility." Wang Xinyu said, taking into account the Binjiang sewage plant 75% of the sewage is domestic sewage, has a certain public welfare attributes, the government will also bear the corresponding costs.

For Yangzi medicine west of the landfill area is relatively difficult to pursue responsibility. At present, Taixing Economic Development Zone Management Committee has commissioned the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences to carry out site investigations, the preparation of a comprehensive management work program. The testing and identification of soil and groundwater at the contaminated site, administrative comparisons, and ecological remediation programs will be included.

The so-called administrative comparison is to compare the detected pollutants with the products and raw materials of the enterprises in the park, and line up the possible enterprises involved; after that, the recovery will be based on the ecological damage assessment.

"The test results of Nanjing Environmental Science and Technology Institute are estimated to be about the same as those of Central Changtai. But the former has the qualification of judicial appraisal, and the test results can be used as evidence for late recovery or prosecution." Wang Xinyu said the restoration of the site would likewise require at least 300 million yuan, and the management committee hopes to find the offending company.

Because of the age of the landfill act, many of the early companies either moved away or shut down. It will be difficult to find the responsible parties.

June 27, in the landfill area to see, the site has been surrounded by green dust net isolation, the ground is also paved with black rainproof film, the slope is being built on the open ditch to prevent rainwater leakage. The west side of the road has been blocked, prohibited traffic.

Site staff told the site that they would drive 12-meter impermeable steel sheet piles on the north side of the site and the west side near the river to minimize the impact of the landfill on the surrounding environment. "Until the latest treatment plan comes out, all we can do is to strengthen the protective measures for the site." Wang Xinyu said.

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