recently, the ministry of environmental protection issued the “administrative measures on permitting waste discharge management (trial)” (“administrative measures”), which is the “provisional regulations on the management of emission permits” issued by the ministry of environmental protection in december 2016 (“ the continuation and refinement of the "provisional regulations") is an important basic document for china's reform of the pollutant discharge permit system in order to implement the "notice of the general office of the state council on issuing the control plan for the control of pollutant release permit system." compared with the “provisional regulations”, the “administrative measures” are more effective as a department’s rules; in terms of content, the “administrative measures” details the legal responsibilities of the environmental protection agencies, sewage discharge entities, etc., and stipulate corporate commitments, self-monitoring, there are five specific systems for close contact with companies, such as account records, executive reports, and information disclosure. regarding the pollutant discharge unit, whether it is applying for a pollutant discharge permit or adjusting and improving the internal environmental management system and system of the company, the five key systems in the “administrative measures” can provide a correct guide for the enterprise.
corporate commitment
the so-called corporate commitments mainly refer to the commitment letter that the pollutant discharge unit needs to submit when it applies for a pollutant discharge permit. according to the “administrative measures”, enterprises promised to be divided into two categories. one is when the pollutant discharge entity applies for a pollutant discharge permit, including a commitment letter to be submitted when applying for a change or a continuation of a pollutant discharge permit. the sample of the commitment is protected by environmental protection. the ministry has formulated and the contents of the commitment book have to be recorded in the copy of the emission permit; the other type is based on the provisions of article 61 of the "administrative measure", and the unit that has been put into production and operation before the implementation of the "administrative measure" does not exist. in compliance with the issuance of emission permits, in order to obtain a permit for discharge of pollutants, the pollutant emission organization has made a commitment to correct it. it can be said that under the "administrative measures", the company promises to be an important precondition for the pollutant discharge unit to obtain a pollutant discharge permit.
for the commitment letter to be submitted when applying for a pollutant discharge permit, in terms of content, the pollutant discharge unit shall promise that the material for applying for a pollutant discharge permit is complete, authentic, and legal; in addition, the pollutant discharge unit shall promise to obtain a pollutant discharge permit and comply with the pollutant discharge permit. the regulations stipulate the discharge of pollutants, and implement the environmental management requirements stipulated in the pollutant discharge permit. in form, the undertaking must be signed or sealed by the legal representative or chief person in charge of the pollutant discharge unit.
in response to the promise of correction, if the company has any new construction, reconstruction, or expansion before the implementation of the "administrative measures," it has not obtained the approval opinion for the construction project environmental impact assessment document according to law, or it still does not comply with the relevant local regulations after the local people's government has handled and rectified it according to law. if the requirements or the pollution prevention facilities or measures it adopts are not able to meet the requirements of the permit emission concentration, etc., under the premise that the pollution discharge unit promises to correct and put forward the corrective plan, the competent environmental protection authority may issue a discharge permit to it and discharge the pollutants. the license records its problems, stipulates that it promises to correct the content and promises to correct the time limit. in general, the correction period is three to six months and the maximum is not more than one year.
compared with the “provisional regulations,” the “administrative measures” clearly require that companies should submit a commitment letter as an application material when applying for a pollutant discharge permit, and specify the contents of the commitment letter, and also increase the number of companies that can obtain emission permits through commitment corrections. the regulations of the permit. in general, the enterprise commitment system stipulated in the "administrative measures" plays an important role in implementing the requirements for "enhancing the responsibility of the pollutant dischargers" proposed in the 19th national congress and further promoting the inherent law-abiding impetus of the pollutant discharge units.
self-monitoring
the "administrative measures" implements a system for pollutant discharge units to monitor their own discharge of pollutants. according to the provisions of article 34 of the “administrative measures”, the pollutant discharge unit shall install or use monitoring equipment that complies with the state's regulations concerning environmental monitoring and measurement certification, maintains monitoring facilities in accordance with the regulations, conducts self-monitoring, and preserves the original monitoring records. for a pollutant discharge entity that implements key management of pollutant discharge permits, it shall install automatic monitoring equipment in accordance with the requirements of the pollutant discharge permit and be connected to the monitoring equipment of the competent department of environmental protection.
in order to implement the obligation of self-monitoring of pollutant discharge units, article 19 of the "administrative measures" also specifies that the pollutant discharge unit shall, when applying for a pollutant discharge permit, formulate its own monitoring program obligations in accordance with the self-monitoring technical guidelines. the self-monitoring technical guideline is formulated by the ministry of environmental protection. by the end of 2017, the ministry of environmental protection has issued cement, papermaking, extraction pharmaceuticals, petroleum refining, thermal power generation and boilers, chemical synthesis pharmaceuticals, iron and steel industry and coking chemical industry, self-monitoring guidelines for 10 industries including textile printing and fermentation and pharmaceuticals.
according to article 19 of the "administrative measures", the specific contents of self-monitoring programs prepared by enterprises should include:
● monitoring points and diagrams, monitoring indicators, monitoring frequency;
● monitoring and analysis methods and sampling methods used;
● monitoring quality assurance and quality control requirements;
● monitor data records, organize, archive requirements, etc.
in addition, the environmental protection department that issues the permit for the discharge of pollutants shall specify the requirements for self-monitoring in the copy of the permit for discharge according to the self-monitoring plan submitted by the pollutant discharge unit. moreover, the polluting enterprises during the rectification period or during the period of restriction of production or suspension of production are still obliged to perform self-monitoring.
it can be seen that the “self-monitoring system” stipulated in the “administrative measures” is an important measure to promote the self-certification of enterprises. the self-monitoring program is listed as an application material for the emission permit, and the enterprise is required to carry out the operation in accordance with the requirements of the emission permit. self-monitoring can urge companies to establish self-monitoring mechanisms so that they can promptly identify environmental issues during the operation. at the same time, self-monitoring data can also be used by the environmental protection department as an important basis for assessing the actual discharge of pollutant discharge units and determining whether or not they discharge the pollutants.
account record
the account record refers to the record of the daily environmental management information of the pollutant discharge unit. according to the provisions of article 35 of the “administrative measures”, the pollutant discharge unit shall record the relevant contents according to the characteristics of the production records and the characteristics of the pollutant discharge in accordance with the requirements of the accounting records of the discharge account, and according to the discharge outlets or unorganized emission sources. specific content includes:
● if there are any abnormalities in the operation of major production facilities related to the discharge of pollutants, the reasons and the measures taken shall be recorded.
● the operation of the pollution prevention and control facilities and management information, and the occurrence of abnormal conditions, shall record the reasons and the measures taken;
● if the actual concentration and amount of pollutants are discharged, if the discharge exceeds the standard, the reasons for exceeding the standard and the measures taken shall be recorded;
● other information that should be recorded in accordance with the relevant technical specifications.
in addition, the pollutant discharge unit shall be responsible for the authenticity and completeness of the submitted account records, and shall be subject to the supervision and inspection of the competent environmental protection department in accordance with the law. in terms of the preservation time, the duration of the record kept by the pollutant discharge unit shall not be less than three years.
compared to the "provisional regulations", only the template of the environmental management ledger information sheet is provided in the annex. the "administrative measures" clearly stipulates the obligation of the pollutant discharge unit to record environmental management information in the form of a ledger, and through the introduction of corresponding technical specifications for the ledger. the contents of the account need to be detailed. since the account record is the original basis for the self-certification and compliance of the pollutant discharge unit in the execution of the discharge permit management process, and the environmental protection authority can verify the accounting record according to law, the establishment of a record system can urge the company to self-record the emission information. and management, and with the self-monitoring data, can also provide a basis for the environmental protection authorities to determine whether the pollutant discharge unit discharges pollutants according to the certification and verify the implementation of other environmental management requirements.
executive report
the "execution report" refers to the report on the implementation of the discharge permit issued to the competent department of environmental protection on a regular basis. according to article 37 of the "regulations on management", the pollutant discharge unit shall, in accordance with the requirements of the discharge permit, stipulate the content and frequency of the execution report, compile a discharge permit execution report. the implementation report stipulated in the "administrative measures" can be divided into annual execution report, quarterly execution report and monthly execution report. compared with the "provisional regulations", the requirements for the preparation of semi-annual execution report by the pollutant discharge entity are cancelled.
for the annual report, the pollutant discharge unit shall report and submit the annual implementation report of the discharge permit on the national sewage discharge permit management information platform and make it public. at the same time, it shall submit to the issuing environmental protection department a written implementation printed through the national discharge permit management information platform. in the report, the written execution report shall be signed or sealed by the legal representative or the principal responsible person.
according to the provisions of article 37 of the “administrative measures” for the content to be covered by the implementation report, the quarterly implementation report and the monthly execution report shall at least include the analysis of the pollutant discharge unit’s actual emission concentration and emission amount according to the self-monitoring results and the compliance judgment. and the description of abnormal discharge of pollution discharge units or abnormal conditions of pollution control facilities. for the annual implementation report, the pollutant discharge unit can use it to replace the quarterly or current month execution report, and increase the basic production information of the pollutant discharge unit, the operation of the pollution prevention and control facilities, and the self-monitoring implementation on the basis of the quarterly implementation report or monthly execution report content. the implementation status of the environmental management accounting records, disclosure of information, the construction and operation of the internal environmental management system of the pollutant discharge unit, and the implementation of other pollutant discharge permit regulations. in addition, the “administrative measures” also added new regulations requiring the pollutant discharge entities to record the main contents related to pollutant discharge in the environmental protection acceptance report for completed construction projects in the annual implementation report of the discharge permit in the year of acceptance of the project.
like the self-monitoring data and the accounting records, the implementation report is also an obligation undertaken by the pollutant discharge unit in the process of implementing the pollutant discharge permit. the three constitute the main original basis for the self-certification compliance of the pollutant discharge unit in the process of the management of the pollutant discharge permit, and it is also the environmental protection department. the important inspection content in the verification of whether or not the company is discharging the pollutants and the basis for regulatory enforcement.
information disclosure
in order to strengthen the consciousness of the pollutant discharge units to obtain certification and discharge according to law in accordance with the law, and to strengthen the public and news media's supervision over the pollutant discharge behaviors of the pollutant discharge units, the issuance of permits by environmental protection agencies, and the supervision of law enforcement, the "administrative measures" stipulates the information disclosure system and clearly stipulates sewage disposal units and environmental protection agencies are the main body of information disclosure.
for pollutant discharge units, according to the “administrative measures”, the pollutant discharge unit must submit an explanatory statement on the disclosure of information before applying for a pollutant discharge permit. for pollutant discharge entities that have implemented key management, before submitting the pollutant discharge permit application materials, they should disclose the commitments, basic information, and the licensing items to be applied to the public, and the public disclosure channels should include the national wastewater discharge permit management information platform, etc. publicly known methods must be open for no less than five working days. in the process of implementing a pollutant discharge permit, the pollutant discharge unit shall disclose its own monitoring data and execution report content.
for the environmental protection department, the issuance of the environmental protection department shall issue the original permit and the basic matters, commitments and permits in the copy after issuing the permit. the supervisory and law enforcement agencies should publicly monitor the list of pollutant discharge units for law enforcement information, unlicensed, and illegal pollutant discharges on the national wastewater discharge permit management information platform.
in order to implement the information disclosure system, the "administrative measures" also stipulates corresponding legal responsibilities for acts that do not disclose information in accordance with law. for key pollutant discharge units, if environmental information is not publicly disclosed in accordance with law or is not disclosed truthfully, environmental protection authorities at or above the county level shall order it to make it public, impose a fine in accordance with the law, and make an announcement. for the competent department of environmental protection, if it does not disclose relevant information of the pollutant discharge permit in accordance with the acceptance, issuance and supervision of the pollutant discharge permit, it shall be ordered by its superior administrative organ or supervisory organ to make corrections, and the directly responsible person in charge or other directly responsible person shall be legally if an administrative penalty is imposed to constitute a crime, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law.
to sum up, the five systems of corporate commitments, self-monitoring, record-keeping, execution reports, and information disclosure as stipulated in the "administrative measures" are linked to each other and together constitute an important part of china's reform of the permit system for pollutant discharge. the implementation of these five systems in the "administrative measures" is to change the "nanny-style" environmental management model in which companies relied on government supervision, strengthen the responsibility of the main body of pollutant discharge, and establish self-monitoring, self-management, independent records and declarations of enterprises, and environmental protection departments. it is of great significance to follow the regulatory framework for the issuance and compliance of permits. for the pollutant discharge unit, it is necessary to adjust and improve the internal environmental management system and system as soon as possible in accordance with the "administrative measures", and apply for a pollutant discharge permit in accordance with the law, so that the pollutant discharge permit can be successfully obtained.
article source: king & wood law firm
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