Liu Yi, chief reporter of Jimu News
On September 6, the official WeChat public account of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment reported a case of environmental violations in Suining City, Sichuan Province.
The company involved
The circular alleged that since 2014, Suining Xinjingyuan Bio-environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. has received 223,300 tons of sludge from 42 sewage treatment plants in many places in Sichuan Province, with a total of 35.21 million yuan in disposal costs. During this period, the company did not take any harmless measures, under the guise of "soil improvement", directly dumped or landfilled 105,100 tons of sludge on the leased land, including domestic sludge, industrial sludge and even hazardous waste, and the polluted land area reached 193.9 mu, of which 115.4 mu were basic farmland.
Suining City has also been named and criticized for its inaction, chaotic behavior, serious lack of supervision, and allowing relevant enterprises to illegally dispose of sludge for a long time and seriously pollute the surrounding environment.
Recently, Jimu News reporters came to Suining City to visit and found that residents near the New Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company were plagued by mosquitoes and flies, and residents said that the water flowing out from the direction of the company was always covered with "oil flowers". On the land leased by the company, multiple departments are digging up the sludge buried in the field for harmless treatment, which is expected to be carried out until the end of the year.
More than 100,000 tons of sludge were illegally landfilled
On September 6, the official WeChat public account of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment reported a case of environmental violations in Suining City, Sichuan Province. The circular alleged that since Suining Xinjingyuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. was completed and put into operation, it has long leased land from Sichuan Xingyu Biotechnology Co., Ltd. to illegally dump domestic sludge, industrial sludge and even hazardous waste, and the masses have reacted very strongly.
The circular pointed out that since 2014, New Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company has received 223,300 tons of sludge from 42 sewage treatment plants in Suining, Guang'an, Nanchong, Neijiang and other places in Sichuan Province, with a total disposal cost of 35.21 million yuan, of which 136,100 tons have been received since 2019, and 21.386 million yuan has been obtained. During this period, the company directly dumped or landfilled 105,100 tons of sludge on the leased land under the guise of "soil improvement" without taking any harmless measures.
The circular also said that in March 2017, the company illegally received 27,400 tons of industrial sludge from Guang'an Beikong Water Co., Ltd. without the ability to dispose of industrial sludge. To make matters worse, the company also illegally received about 300 tons of natural gas desulfurization gypsum from Suining Setco Company at the end of 2014, and buried 230 tons of it in Plot 4 (an area of about 3.5 acres) in the leased land, where 510 tons of gray-white solid mixture was formed, which was identified as hazardous waste and suspected of environmental pollution crimes.
The inspection team of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment found that the company rented as many as 19 polluted plots of land in the 687.9 mu of land, covering an area of 193.9 mu, of which 115.4 mu were basic farmland.
It is reported that the inspectors found an abnormality during the investigation of the sewage treatment plant in Guang'an City, Sichuan Province. In the preliminary investigation stage, the staff found that a large amount of sludge from a number of sewage treatment plants in Guang'an City was missing, and the transferred ledger showed that the sludge was transported to the same destination - Suining Xinjingyuan Environmental Protection Company. On June 8 this year, inspectors came to the New Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company and happened to bump into an excavator digging soil, which buried not only domestic sludge, but also industrial sludge and some gray-white solids.
Local residents say the water surface is covered with "oil flowers"
On the afternoon of the 7th, Jimu News reporters came to the New Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company located in Laochi Township Academy Village, Chuanshan District, Suining City. The reporter saw that the company has two gates, one door is hung with the sign of Xingyu Biotechnology Co., Ltd., and the other door is hung with the brand of New Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company.
Local water source monitoring wells
A resident near the company told reporters that they did not know that the company was burying sludge, but he found that there were many mosquitoes nearby, so he reflected with the company, and the company also sprayed drugs to deal with it.
Another resident of Shuyuan Village was also plagued by mosquitoes and flies. He also said that they thought that the company was dealing with domestic sludge, and then turned the sludge into fertilizer, and after seeing the notification, they learned that the company also deals with industrial sludge. Previously, the water flowing from the company's drainage ditch on a rainy day was black, and he was worried that there was a problem with the water, so he reflected with the company, and the company subsequently blocked the drainage ditch. Although blackwater was gone, he later discovered that the water flowing from the direction of the company was always dripping with oil, and he didn't know how it was going. Because he knew the staff of the company, he did not complain to the relevant departments.
According to media reports, as early as April 2015, there were reports from the public that the treatment of sludge by The New Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company was not thorough, resulting in a particularly large number of mosquitoes and flies in the area, and many bites on people's bodies. In January 2021, a whistleblower said the issue had not been resolved and wanted to verify the re-treatment of landfill sludge. Local law enforcement personnel did go to the scene many times to enforce the law, saying that they had let the enterprise rectify and do a good job in preventing the breeding of mosquitoes and flies, and also checked the sludge ledger of the enterprise but found no problems.
Some plots of buried sludge have been dug up
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment notified that the surrounding masses have strong reactions to the illegal problems of the new Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company. Since 2015, the company has been complained about 14 times by the masses for illegal dumping of sludge, but the relevant local functional departments have seriously derelict their duties and responsibilities, neither seriously investigating and handling the complaints of the masses, nor investigating and punishing the illegal acts of the New Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company in accordance with the regulations, resulting in the enterprise having no fear and the problem becoming more and more serious.
The circular also pointed out that, especially in November 2020, when the provincial ecological environmental protection inspectors of Sichuan Province were stationed in Suining City, the masses once again complained about the illegal dumping and landfill sludge problem of Xinjingyuan Environmental Protection Company, but Chuanshan District cheated and replied that the masses reported that the problem was not true; Suining City was not strict and untrue, and the investigation conclusions were not carefully verified as they were, resulting in the problem still not being solved in time.
Seven people from the two companies involved in the case were arrested or criminally detained
According to public information, The new Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company was established in 2012, and the legal representative is Xia Mou. The company's business scope includes: agricultural and forestry waste resource harmless utilization technology research and development; sewage treatment and its recycling; livestock and poultry manure treatment; bio-organic fertilizer research and development; fertilizer sales; tree planting and operation; agricultural and sideline products sales; earthworm breeding; leisure and sightseeing activities.
The data also shows that the company uses solid organic wastes such as domestic sludge, crop straw, livestock and poultry manure as raw materials, and uses aerobic fermentation - earthworm breeding - earthworm manure screening to produce organic fertilizer to dispose of domestic sludge, and designs to consume 50,000 tons of domestic sludge per year.
According to the notice, The New Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company is leasing land from Sichuan Xingyu Biotechnology Co., Ltd. and illegally dumping and landfilling domestic sludge, industrial sludge and even hazardous waste. The legal representative of Xingyu Biological Company is Xia Mouxiang.
According to local villagers, in fact, Xia Mouxiang is the son of Xia Mouxiang, and Xia Mouxiang is the actual boss of the new Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company. Xia Mouxiang is also engaged in real estate development, etc., but the real estate company is involved in a number of economic disputes. Xia Mou stayed in school and was a young man. Now, Xia Mouxiang and many others have been arrested.
An inquiry by Jimu News found that from 2017 to June 2020, the court issued 11 orders restricting high consumption against Xia Mouxiang. From 2015 to 2017, Xia Mouxiang was listed as a dishonest executor by three courts.
Local government officials also confirmed the villagers' words. According to public media reports, the actual controller of New Jingyuan Company is Xia Mouxiang, a native of Chuanshan, who worked in the local education system for more than ten years until he went to sea in 2005.
The person in charge of the relevant department of Chuanshan District told jimu news reporters that the local public security organs in Suining have filed a case against many companies involved in the case on suspicion of environmental pollution, and 7 people, including Xia Mouxiang's father and son, have been arrested or criminally detained according to law.
New risks have emerged in the process of rectification
Jimu News reporter noted that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's notice said that in June 2021, after the Ministry of Ecology and Environment discovered and pointed out that the problem of illegal dumping and landfill sludge by Xinjingyuan Environmental Protection Company, Suining City and Chuanshan District still did not attract enough attention, and the relevant functional departments blamed each other and did not take responsibility, resulting in environmental risks in the treatment process.
Chuanshan District was in a hurry to go to the hospital, the third-party sludge disposal unit determined by the bidding did not have the actual disposal capacity, and Suining City did not discover and correct this problem in time, resulting in the third-party disposal unit transporting 12 trucks of about 360 tons of sludge to the outside of the province for disposal on July 14, 2021 without performing the statutory procedures for the inter-provincial transfer of solid waste, and the regulatory department of the receiving area found it in time to return it. As of the time of the inspection, more than 80,000 tons of illegally dumped sludge had not yet been safely disposed of, and the environmental risks were still prominent.
Excavation and disposal work is still underway
The 360 tons of sludge transported to other provinces mentioned in the circular were returned, and there have been public reports before. According to reports, on July 14, the Chongqing Shapingba District Ecological and Environmental Bureau received a report from the public that 12 trucks loaded with solid waste were parked in a factory area and wanted to dump the garbage waste. Subsequently, the shapingba district environmental protection department transferred the clue to the district procuratorate. After preliminary investigation, the above-mentioned solid waste came from a company in Suining City and was illegally transferred across provinces to Shapingba District. The First Branch of the Chongqing Municipal Procuratorate and the Shapingba District Procuratorate, together with the Suining Municipal Procuratorate of Sichuan Province and the Chuanshan District Procuratorate of Suining City, filed and investigated the public interest litigation case in the field of illegal inter-provincial transfer of solid waste in the field of ecological environment. This case filing is the first joint handling of public interest litigation in Chongqing since the establishment of the Sichuan-Chongqing cooperation mechanism.
On September 7, the person in charge of the relevant department of Chuanshan District introduced that because the amount of sludge to be disposed of was too large in the early stage, they asked an environmental protection company in Deyang to assist in the disposal of sludge, and signed a disposal agreement. However, the company transported 12 trucks of 350 tons of sludge to Chongqing without reporting to the relevant departments, and after being seized, the sludge has been escorted back to Suining.
70,000 tons of sludge is expected to be disposed of by the end of the year
On the afternoon of the 7th, the Jimu News reporter saw in Suining Xinjingyuan Bio-environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. that the door of the company's office activity board room was closed, no one was working, and on its rented land, multi-department staff were cleaning up the sludge buried in the field. After the excavator digs out the sludge, the transport truck transports the sludge to a treatment workshop not far away for harmless treatment.
According to a person in charge of the scene, on June 8, after the Southwest Supervision Bureau of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment found that there were problems with the new Jingyuan Environmental Protection Company, a special work class was formed at both levels in the urban area, and then a rectification plan was formulated, and the plan was submitted to the relevant departments of the Sichuan Provincial Government for approval after expert demonstration. At present, a total of 19 plots of sludge are buried, 10 of which have now been excavated, and about 70,000 tons of sludge remain to be treated. In order to deal with the sludge, they also invited a third-party company to set up a sludge disposal workshop on site to treat the sludge harmlessly, and it is expected that the remaining 70,000 tons of sludge will be disposed of by the end of this year.
"It is expected to invest tens of millions of yuan for rectification." The person in charge said that at present, the government has advanced funds to dispose of the sludge, and the funds advanced will be recovered from illegal enterprises in the future. At present, the local public security, environmental protection, discipline inspection commission, housing construction, self-regulation and other departments have intervened in the investigation, and the accountability procedures have also been launched. In addition, the surrounding water quality was continuously tracked and monitored, and 42 soil samples were analyzed, all of which were within the risk control value. The local government will carry out comprehensive rectification in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
It is reported that on September 5, the main leaders of Suining City held a meeting to demand that, first, the problem of sludge disposal must be rectified and corrected in place: Chuanshan District should strictly implement the rectification responsibility in accordance with the disposal plan approved by experts, orderly promote all the work of problem disposal, ensure that all sludge disposal, farmland reclamation, site restoration, etc. are completed within the specified time limit, and complete the rectification and reform of the sales number on time; the problems such as lack of supervision, inadequate performance of duties, and inaction and slow action must be rectified in place; with "blade inward" and "fierce medicine to remove the defects" The courage and determination to rectify the problem of floating style in place. Second, we must draw inferences from each other, fully cover "investigation", vigorously "reform", and strictly enforce the "management". Third, we must be brave after knowing shame, stand tall and far-sighted to "promote transformation", highlight key "strong protection", and "build a mechanism" based on the long term.
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