Decryption of the "Enhanced Supervision" Measures for Air Pollution Control in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region: The Ministry of Environmental Protection Says It Will Maintain a High-Pressure Enforcement and Supervisory Stance
Zhai Qing, a member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, provided a detailed account to reporters on the situation of the one-year intensified air pollution prevention and control supervision (referred to as "intensified supervision") being carried out in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas on the 26th. This was the first time that an official from the Ministry of Environmental Protection disclosed the details of the intensified supervision.
Zhai Qing explained that in order to implement the decisions and instructions of the Central Committee and the State Council, and to accelerate the continuous improvement of the air quality in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas, starting from April this year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection organized an intensified supervision for one year in these areas.
The intensified supervision covers the "2+26" cities along the air pollution transmission channels in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, namely Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Langfang, Baoding, Chenzhou, Hengshui, Xingtai, Handan in Hebei Province, Taiyuan, Yangquan, Changzhi, Jincheng in Shanxi Province, Jinan, Zibo, Jining, Dezhou, Liaocheng, Binzhou, Heze in Shandong Province, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Anyang, Hebi, Xinxiang, Jiaozuo, Puyang (hereinafter referred to as the "2+26" cities).
The focus of the supervision is to promote the implementation of environmental protection responsibilities by local Party committees and governments and relevant departments, as well as the environmental protection responsibilities of enterprises, to promote the resolution of prominent environmental protection problems and weak links, and to provide a strong guarantee for achieving the goal of improving air quality.
Zhai Qing told reporters that this intensified supervision is the largest-scale law enforcement action directly organized by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, combining "supervision of politics" with "supervision of enterprises", to promote local governments to solve prominent environmental problems in accordance with the law. The goal is to effectively implement the various tasks of air pollution prevention and control that have been clearly deployed by the Central Committee and the State Council, accelerate the improvement of air quality in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas, and further drive local governments, departments, and all sectors of society to deepen air pollution prevention and control work and solve a series of problems that have aroused strong public concern and have hindered the improvement of environmental quality.
"Strictly adhering to boundaries," Zhai Qing told reporters, each supervision team closely focuses on the serious environmental pollution problems that threaten the health of the people, such as those without any environmental protection procedures and excessive pollution, those without any treatment facilities or incomplete treatment facilities and severe pollution, as well as those with severe exceedances of emissions. They conduct supervision and carry out inspections on these issues, and promote local governments to implement environmental protection responsibilities, measures, and rectification in place.
In addition, the Ministry of Environmental Protection also conducts monthly inspections, with the participation of department leaders and 10 main responsible persons from various departments, focusing on on-site inspections of the problem rectification in the "2+26" cities to ensure that the problems identified during the supervision are resolved. For those who fail to take effective measures or whose problems remain unresolved for a long time, measures such as public notification and interviews will be taken in accordance with the law.
"Judging from the current situation, the intensified supervision has achieved phased results, effectively transmitting pressure for pollution control, promoting the implementation of environmental protection responsibilities, and further driving local governments and all sectors of society to deepen air pollution prevention and control work and solve a series of problems that have aroused strong public concern and have hindered the improvement of environmental quality. The process of improving air quality in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas has been accelerated," Zhai Qing said.
Zhai Qing said that to ensure full coverage of the supervision in the "2+26" cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has recruited 5,600 frontline environmental law enforcement officers from the national environmental protection system for the one-year supervision work. The heads of each supervision team are all experienced frontline environmental law enforcement officers.
Zhai Qing introduced that each supervision team is composed of 8 people, and each team is responsible for one city. The teams rotate every two weeks. To ensure the continuity of the supervision, a "succession rotation system" has been pioneered in the environmental protection field, that is, when the rotation occurs, the 4 colleagues from the previous team and the 4 colleagues from the subsequent team will work together for one week to transfer the situation and experience they have mastered. Through "transmission, assistance, and guidance", the supervision efficiency is not reduced and the strict law enforcement and supervision situation is maintained.
"Each supervision team pays attention to the organic connection and coordination of supervision work with daily environmental protection work. It is clearly stipulated that the inspection team should not replace local work. Any specific problems identified during the inspection will be transferred to the local authorities for handling. Through the supervision of specific issues, the overall work can be promoted. "Zhai Qing said. Through the inspections, the aim is to leverage the main role of local governments, legally investigate and punish pollution issues and ensure their proper rectification, and promptly report the rectification status. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and provincial environmental protection departments have strengthened scheduling and inspection, coordinating to solve prominent problems in the inspection process, and further stimulating the enthusiasm of local governments, relevant departments, enterprises and institutions, and all sectors of society.
In terms of the specific technical means of the inspections, there have also been many innovations. Zhai Qing introduced, "This strengthened inspection adopts various technological means, focusing on precise law enforcement, scientific law enforcement, and standardized law enforcement."
Zhai Qing introduced that for large enterprises such as thermal power plants, steel mills, and cement plants, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has established an automatic monitoring system for high-altitude sources. Currently, 1532 enterprises and 2945 high-altitude source automatic monitoring systems have been installed in the "2+26" cities. The enterprise's pollutant discharge data can be transmitted in real time to the environmental protection department's monitoring center. Once monitoring data exceeds the standard or other situations occur, the monitoring center will immediately push the information to the inspection team and the local environmental protection department through text messages, WeChat, and notification forms, urging law enforcement officers to rush to the scene and promptly investigate and deal with the issue, greatly improving the efficiency of supervision and law enforcement. In 2016, the over-standard rate of high-altitude sources dropped from 31% at the beginning of the year to 3.8% at the end of the year, with very obvious results.
Zhai Qing introduced that the Ministry of Environmental Protection has also promoted the "hotspot grid" technology based on satellite remote sensing. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas have been divided into 36,000 grids of 3 kilometers by 3 kilometers. Using satellite remote sensing monitoring and big data analysis, areas with severe pollution have been identified, and 3,600 atmospheric pollution "hotspot grids" have been selected as key areas for law enforcement supervision. The "hotspot grids" and their geographical location, coordinate information, etc. have been sent to the local government and the inspection team, to strengthen law enforcement investigation in a targeted manner, truly achieving precise targeting.
In the on-site inspections, the equipment of the inspectors has also been improved. Zhai Qing introduced that the Ministry of Environmental Protection has developed portable mobile law enforcement equipment and a mobile app law enforcement system. Through this technical equipment, law enforcement officers can record the entire process of problems found on site,查处 situations， etc.， and automatically transmit them to the unified law enforcement platform of the Ministry of Environmental Protection， making law enforcement evidence collection more rapid and efficient， and achieving law enforcement traceability， effectively avoiding situations such as individual abuse of power to interfere with， obstruct law enforcement， or privately resolving issues， further enhancing the standardization of law enforcement work.
In addition， the strengthened inspections have also used unmanned aircraft and unmanned boats to conduct environmental investigations， collect evidence of illegal pollutant discharge， and improve the efficiency of investigation and evidence collection.
"Ensuring that environmental problems are effectively rectified is the fundamental purpose of the strengthened inspections," Zhai Qing said. The Ministry of Environmental Protection has established a ledger supervision system. For the problems identified during the inspections， the inspection team will transfer them to the local government on the same day， urging local authorities to legally investigate and establish ledgers， rectify and mark off one by one， ensuring that each environmental problem identified by the inspections is responded to and implemented.
At the same time， a special supervision system has been established to comprehensively sort out the problems found in various places， forming a key problem supervision list to be transferred to the relevant provincial governments. They are asked to strengthen supervision and inspection of the localities. For some problems that are strongly reflected by the public， the Ministry of Environmental Protection will directly issue a supervision notice， continuously track and supervise the implementation.
