In July 2021, in the "double random, one open" supervision and random inspection of ecological environment monitoring institutions jointly carried out by the Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment and the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, the Law Enforcement Corps of the Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment and the Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center conducted a random inspection and testing agency in the field of ecological environment. The inspection found that 3 institutions carried out ecological environment monitoring and sampling, data analysis, and issuance of reports in the city had fraudulent and illegal acts, and 2 other institutions had other illegal acts such as illegal discharge of pollutants and violations of the environmental impact assessment system of construction projects, and the Municipal Environmental Law Enforcement Corps investigated and dealt with them according to law. Typical cases of fraud by relevant institutions are as follows.
Case 1: An environmental testing institution cheated in the sampling process and deliberately changed the monitoring method of key projects
On July 9, 2021, when law enforcement personnel consulted the original record of noise detection provided by a testing agency, they found that when the inspection agency carried out self-monitoring of the noise of the factory boundary of a polluting unit, the detection time of the four points outside the factory boundary in the original data record of the noise detection instrument did not meet the requirements of "one minute for each point in the steady-state situation" stipulated in the environmental noise monitoring technical specifications. At the same time, a similar situation existed in five other noise test reports provided by the company.
After on-site retrieval of the monitoring video of the polluting unit and the investigation of the relevant personnel, it was determined that the on-site testing personnel of the testing institution had deliberately changed the monitoring method of key projects, which violated the provisions of paragraph 7 of article 4 of the Measures for the Determination and Handling of Fraudulent Acts of Environmental Monitoring Data (Huanfa [2015] No. 175). According to the fourth paragraph of article 35 and the fourth and 88th articles of the Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Regulations, the Municipal Environmental Law Enforcement Corps ordered the testing agency to suspend business for rectification, and imposed an administrative penalty of a fine of 280,000 yuan, and imposed a "double penalty" on the main responsible person, with a fine of 28,000 yuan.
Case 2: A case of a detection technology company falsifying monitoring data in the analysis process
On July 9 and 27, 2021, law enforcement personnel inspected a testing technology co., LTD. and found that the five-day biochemical oxygen demand data issued by the testers Xu and Xu was fabricated without instrument determination, constituting a forged monitoring data. On August 2, law enforcement officials checked the original records of five-day biochemical oxygen demand in the test reports issued and found that the agency had made up almost no difference in the values of water samples from different sources collected from different enterprises.
After an investigation with qiu Moumou, the quality and technical person in charge of the institution, it was confirmed that between October 2020 and June 2021, the five-day biochemical oxygen demand indicators involved in the 76 test reports issued by the testing agency were forged, which violated the provisions of Article 5 (6) of the Measures for the Determination and Handling of Fraudulent Acts of Environmental Monitoring Data (Huanfa [2015] No. 175), in accordance with the provisions of Article 35, Paragraph 4 and Article 88 of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Regulations. The Municipal Environmental Law Enforcement Corps ordered the testing agency to suspend its business for rectification, and imposed an administrative penalty of a fine of 280,000 yuan, and imposed a "double penalty" on the main person in charge, Qiu Moumou, with a fine of 28,000 yuan.
Case 3: An environmental testing institution issued a report case on selective evaluation and monitoring data in the reporting process
On July 20, 2021, during a joint inspection of the self-monitoring situation entrusted by a polluting unit to an environmental testing agency, it was found that the test report data issued by the entrusted testing agency was inconsistent with the corresponding original record, and the test report results met the standard but the original record data exceeded the standard. Subsequently, law enforcement personnel consulted the sampling records, the original laboratory records (atlas, analysis data), and asked the sample and analysts to investigate, and found that the testing agency replaced the original over-standard inspection results by re-sampling after the sampling monitoring of the enterprise and found that the results exceeded the standard. At the same time, law enforcement officers also found similar problems in some other test reports of the agency.
The testing institution selectively evaluates the monitoring data and issues a test report in the process of environmental services, so that the evaluation conclusion is wrong and distorted, which violates the provisions of Article 4, Item 12 of the Measures for the Determination and Handling of Fraudulent Acts of Environmental Monitoring Data (Huanfa [2015] No. 175), and according to the provisions of Article 35, Paragraph 4 and Article 88 of the Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Regulations, the Municipal Environmental Law Enforcement Corps ordered the testing agency to suspend business for rectification. It was also punished with an administrative penalty of a fine of 225,000 yuan, and a "double penalty" was imposed on the main responsible person, with a fine of 28,000 yuan.
Links to laws
Paragraph 4 of Article 35 of the Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Regulations: Institutions engaged in environmental monitoring in this municipality shall file with the municipal environmental protection department in accordance with regulations; if they issue data and results with evidentiary roles to the public, they shall also obtain the qualification identification of inspection and testing institutions in accordance with law. Environmental monitoring institutions shall carry out environmental monitoring in accordance with the national and municipal environmental monitoring norms, ensure the authenticity and accuracy of monitoring data, and be responsible for monitoring data and monitoring conclusions.
Article 88 of the Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Regulations: Where environmental impact assessment institutions, environmental monitoring institutions, environmental safety assessment institutions, as well as third-party institutions engaged in the maintenance and operation of environmental monitoring equipment and pollution prevention and control facilities, fail to provide relevant environmental service activities in accordance with the requirements of laws, regulations and relevant technical specifications, or cheat in relevant environmental service activities, the environmental protection department and other departments with environmental protection supervision and management responsibilities shall order them to suspend business for rectification and impose a fine of between 100,000 and 500,000 yuan. The main responsible person shall be fined between 10,000 yuan and 100,000 yuan. Where there is responsibility for environmental pollution or ecological damage caused, in addition to being punished in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, it shall also bear joint and several liability with other responsible persons for causing environmental pollution and ecological damage.
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Contributed by: Municipal Environmental Law Enforcement Corps
Editor: Zhang Yujie