Supply risk? Serious pollution from Chinese chemical industrial parks to be removed

 

Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Department announced finding evidence of serious pollution in the Guanyun County Lingang Industrial Zone and the Guannan County Lianyungang Chemical Park on May 5. The Jiangsu environmental authorities will supervise efforts to rectify the problem in the two industrial parks for a period of six months. During this time, apart from approvals for energy saving and pollution control-related measures, all other project establishment approvals will be suspended. 

 

During a surprise inspection, Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Department reportedly found that the central heating and hazardous waste treatment systems of the two industrial parks were not functional, while some enterprises were found to have breached environmental regulations, creating serious environmental pollution. The Xuyi Economic Development Zone of Huai’an and the Xiangshui Eco-Chemical Park of Yancheng were found to be out of compliance with environmental regulations. The Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Department has notified the government of the violations, requesting penalties be applied to illegal activities that harmed the environment and calling for the removal of the pollution within a given deadline.

 

Shandong Province has planned a three-year corrective process to remove the pollution created by the chemical industry. Shandong is a traditional chemical-production province, with decentralized distribution among chemical producers. It is said that Shandong has 9,069 chemical producers, of which 63% are small-scale producers, creating a challenge for upgrading and transforming the industry. Shandong intends to raise its dangerous chemical production qualification requirements and will strictly examine project establishment conditions and formalities. In the meantime, in consideration of general factors such as safety assurance, environmental care capacity, business input-output, energy resource consumption, and emissions standards, it has been decided that in principle new projects or extension of old ones for dangerous chemicals, with a fixed asset investment below 100 million yuan (not including land acquisition), will not be permitted in any region.

 

Moreover, Shandong Province has requested chemical producers located close to sensitive areas, such as water sources, the North–South Water Transfer Project, and urban districts, to relocate to the chemical parks by 2018. All dangerous chemical producers are required to move into dedicated chemical parks along with newly established chemical enterprises. So far, Shandong has initiated the relocation of 175 dangerous chemical producers, with expected expenditure of 114.90 billion yuan.