How to Turn the "Waste Residue Mountain" by the River into a Green Meadow The Chongqing court used judicial means to protect the clear water of a river

Source: Chongqing Daily

Today's Fuling Chemical Company's ecological environment restoration site, green grass. (Courtesy of the Municipal High Court)

From a distance, in front of you is a large green lawn, with the smell of dirt and grass in the wind; Look closely, the Gesang flowers and cosmos in the lawn are swaying and vibrant...

A few days ago, the Chongqing Daily reporter followed the judge of the Municipal High Court and walked into the ecological environment restoration site of Sinochem Chongqing Fuling Chemical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Fuling Chemical Company), and everything in front of him was difficult to imagine, and the land along the Yangtze River was once piled up into a mountain of industrial waste residue.

Industrial waste residue has piled up in 18 years

Fuling Chemical Company is a large chemical enterprise located on the Yangtze River in Fuling District, and the industrial waste residue phosphorus gypsum produced by it was once directly stacked on the Yangtze River because there was no place to pile. After 18 years of accumulation, a huge phosphogypsum tailings reservoir covering an area of more than 700 acres has been formed along the river, and the leachate produced by the slag field has been continuously outflowed, which has seriously damaged the local ecological environment and posed a major threat to the ecological security of the Yangtze River.

In January 2017, the China Environmental Protection Foundation filed an environmental civil public interest lawsuit on the grounds that Fuling Chemical Company illegally discharged pollutants in excess of standards, causing great damage to the local environment, requesting that Fuling Chemical Company be ordered to immediately stop environmental infringements and compensate for the corresponding restoration costs and loss of ecological and environmental services or alternative restoration. The Third Branch of the Municipal People's Procuratorate supports the prosecution in accordance with law.

"The phosphogypsum tailings reservoir pollutes the soil, groundwater, etc. through leachate leakage, which poses a huge threat to the Yangtze River." According to the relevant person in charge of the Municipal High Court, in view of the harm of total phosphorus, Article 46 of the Yangtze River Protection Law, which was implemented on March 1, stipulates that the provincial people's governments in the Yangtze River Basin shall formulate a total phosphorus pollution control plan for their administrative areas and organize their implementation. For the main tributaries of the Yangtze River where phosphate rock and phosphate fertilizer production is concentrated, the relevant provincial-level people's governments shall formulate stricter requirements for total phosphorus emission control and control, and effectively control the total amount of total phosphorus emissions. Enterprises such as phosphate mine mining and processing, phosphate fertilizer and phosphorus-containing pesticide manufacturing shall take effective measures to control the total phosphorus emission concentration and total discharge in accordance with the requirements of the pollutant discharge permit; Monitor the total phosphorus of the sewage outlet and the surrounding environment, and disclose the monitoring information in accordance with law.

At the end of that year, during the first-instance trial of the Municipal Third Intermediate Court, the China Environmental Protection Foundation and Fuling Chemical Company reached a mediation agreement - Fuling Chemical Company promised to strictly implement the environmental problem rectification and disposal plan approved by Chongqing Municipality and the local environmental protection authorities, complete the environmental remediation work such as sealing, covering the soil and re-greening by December 31, 2019, and pay compensation for public welfare purposes such as the restoration or alternative restoration of the atmospheric environment and water environment in this case or the region.

Judicial restoration of "slag mountain" into ecological base

After the verdict was pronounced, how to ensure that the case was executed within two years has become a major problem. According to the relevant person in charge of the Municipal High Court, in response to this case, the people's court explored the establishment of a court-led case enforcement mechanism, fully extended the function of environmental resources trial, timely issued judicial suggestions to relevant units, urged enterprises to invest hundreds of millions of yuan, and strictly followed the plan to restore the ecological environment, completely eliminate hidden dangers, and ensure that the Yangtze River is not polluted.

At the same time, actively build a coordinated linkage mechanism for ecological environment restoration, invite procuratorial organs and administrative departments in charge of environmental resources to jointly formulate ecological environment restoration assessment standards, and conduct joint inspections of restoration work; People's congress deputies and CPPCC members are invited to supervise the enforcement of cases.

Execution is in place as scheduled. Today's Fuling Chemical Company's ecological environment restoration site has changed from the former "waste residue mountain" to a green lawn, and a boardwalk has been built on the lawn for citizens to relax and sightsee.

According to local conditions, a number of judicial restoration bases have been built

In view of the restoration of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Basin, the Chongqing court adheres to the concept of restorative justice, practices systematic governance that combines natural restoration and artificial restoration, builds a judicial restoration base for the ecological environment according to local conditions, and gives full play to the role of the base in restoration, warning, education and publicity.

Up to now, the Wanzhou District Court has created the "Three Gorges Ecological Restoration Demonstration Forest of the Yangtze River", organizing the parties involved in the case and the public to plant Zhongshan fir that can survive underwater in the fading zone of the Yangtze River and restore the shoreline of the Yangtze River; The Second Intermediate People's Court of the MunicipalIty established a judicial restoration base for rocky desertification control at the top of the Three Gorges of Chumen to demonstrate the prevention and control of soil erosion in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area; The Jiangjin District Court has established a judicial rescue center in the Chongqing section of the Rare and Endemic Fish National Nature Reserve in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, laid artificial fish nests to provide breeding grounds for fish, and carried out rescue work for injured fish...

Comprehensively explore and strengthen the judicial protection of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Basin

The establishment of a judicial restoration base for the ecological environment is only a microcosm of the Chongqing court's comprehensive efforts to strengthen the judicial protection of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Basin. How to use judicial means to take good care of the beautiful scenery of a river with clear water and green mountains on both sides of the strait, and to reproduce the beautiful scenery of "a river and clear water flowing eastward" at an early date, the Chongqing court has actively explored -

Implement cross-basin centralized jurisdiction, severely crack down on environmental pollution crimes, take the lead in the country to issue implementation rules for the sentencing of environmental pollution crimes, and have zero tolerance for criminal acts that pollute the main tributaries of the Yangtze River.

Explore environmental protection prohibition orders, stop environmental pollution in a timely and efficient manner, and comprehensively pursue the polluter's liability for ecological and environmental damage. According to statistics, since 2017, the city's courts have tried 194 first-instance criminal cases of environmental pollution, and 314 people have been investigated for criminal responsibility.

Severely punish the crime of illegal fishing, and provide judicial services and guarantees for the ten-year ban on fishing on the Yangtze River. Since 2017, the city's courts have tried 2,085 first-instance cases of illegal fishing, and 3,470 people have been held criminally responsible. On March 2 this year, the Municipal High Court issued the Opinions on Giving Full Play to the Role of Adjudication to Provide Judicial Services and Guarantees for the Ten-Year Ban on Fishing on the Yangtze River, comprehensively pursuing legal liability for ecological and environmental damage, and establishing a cross-regional coordination and linkage mechanism.

Strengthen judicial collaboration in river basins. In 2018, under the impetus of the Chongqing High Court, the Supreme Court decided to sign the Framework Agreement on Environmental Resources Trial Collaboration between the 11+1 Provincial and Municipal High People's Courts of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in Chongqing, which opened the prelude to environmental judicial cooperation in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In September 2020, the "Framework Agreement on Coordination of Environmental Resources Adjudication in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River" was signed with the courts of Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in Chongqing to strengthen upstream awareness, assume upstream responsibilities, and jointly build ecological barriers in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.