At the beginning of the new year, ceramic construction workers have been exposed to environmental pollution incidents in the construction ceramics industry.
1
According to The Paper, the People’s Court of Enping City, Guangdong recently ruled on an environmental pollution liability dispute case:
The plaintiff’s name is Liang Weiqiang. From 2000 to 2008, he planted 21,000 huanghuali, 3,000 agarwood and other forest trees on the forest land contracted by himself in Xiashan Village, Hengpi Town, Enping City. As of 2009, the number of barren hills, wasteland, etc. contracted by him There are a total of 3072 acres of forest land. The defendants are four ceramic construction companies, namely Enping × Eagle Ceramics Co., Ltd., Enping × Yu Ceramics Co., Ltd., Enping Xin × Ma Ceramics Co., Ltd., and Enping × Da Ceramics Co., Ltd., all of which were established around the forest land contracted by the plaintiff. ceramics factory. Since 2011, the factories of the four defendant companies have been built and put into operation one after another. During the production period, they emitted air pollutants containing sulfur compounds and fluoride, causing large areas of forest trees planted in the forest land contracted by the plaintiff to die.
Image source network, has nothing to do with text
For this environmental pollution liability dispute case, the judgment of the Enping City People's Court is: The defendant compensated the plaintiff for RMB 8,920,368.32 and notary fees of RMB 770.
In fact, the Enping Municipal People's Court made a judgment on the case on July 7, 2017. However, the plaintiff was dissatisfied and appealed to the Jiangmen Intermediate People's Court. The case was sent back to the Enping Municipal People's Court for retrial. During the retrial, the plaintiff added Enping Xinxli Ceramics Co., Ltd. (which bought the production line of Enping Xyu Ceramics Co., Ltd. in 2016) and Guangdong Qianx Ceramics Technology Co., Ltd. (which bought Enping Xinxli Ceramics Co., Ltd. in 2018). production line) as a co-defendant in this case, and the lawsuit request was changed to: The six defendants jointly and severally compensated the plaintiff for property losses totaling 117,163,359 yuan (initially requested compensation of 5 million yuan), including the 55,548,219 yuan loss assessed by the forensic appraisal and the expected loss of huanghuali. The loss was 61,615,140 yuan; the litigation fees, judicial appraisal fees, and notarization fees were borne by the six defendants.
The Enping Municipal People's Court held public hearings on the case again on June 12 and November 19, 2020, and determined that the plaintiff's request for compensation was not justified by the forestry involved.The loss of 36,079,882.924 yuan caused by the inability to continue planting during the land contract period and the expected loss caused by the death of huanghuali contamination are both insufficiently justified and will not be supported. As a result, the verdict of this case was reached.
If the plaintiff had not contracted the large area of forest trees to wither and died, and if there had not been a firm prosecution by the plaintiff, would the four defendant companies that illegally discharged pollutants not be pursued for legal liability, or would they not even be found to be illegally discharging pollutants? It's a pity that there are no ifs in the world.
Brother Chan believes that what is more worthy of consideration is why the four defendant companies built their factories near forest land? Why did the relevant authorities give them permission to build factories around forest lands? Why can’t we, like the current strict requirements on ceramic construction companies to switch from coal to gas, require them to meet the emission standards before issuing pollutant discharge permits (In this case, the four defendant companies illegally discharged and killed the plaintiff Lin Mu occurred before 2014, but the time they obtained the pollutant discharge permit was after that)? Why do many places still follow the old path of “pollution first and treatment later”? Why not scientifically plan and fully handle the relationship between development and environmental protection in advance?
2
The above incidents are by no means isolated.
According to Jinjiang News Network:
Recently, when the staff of the Information Center of Jinjiang Ecological Environment Bureau of Fujian Province were reviewing the automatic monitoring data of pollution sources on a daily basis, they found that the automatic monitoring data of flue gas from the drying tower of a ceramics company continued to exceed the standard, and they promptly reported the abnormal situation to the Neikeng Environmental Protection Squadron. . Law enforcement officers immediately rushed to the scene to investigate and punished the ceramics company that illegally discharged air pollutants at night.
It is reported that this is the first time that Jinjiang has used automatic flue gas monitoring data to investigate and deal with cases of excessive sewage discharge by ceramic companies.
An article published by Sohu account "Tianxia Daguan 258" in November 2020 shows:
The fruits grown in large areas in Xincheng Village, Mengwei Town, Guiping City, Guangxi are inedible. For example, bananas are as hard as rocks, and rice leaves have yellow-brown spots. Applying pesticides and fertilizers is of no avail. The reason for this situation is that there is a ceramics factory across the wall from the rice fields in Xincheng Village.
Picture source Sohu account "World Grand View 258"
The plant will process a large amount of solids (raw materials) were piled up on wasteland, without taking "three prevention" environmental protection measures. Liquid leakage appeared in some solid pits, which were alkaline when tested with pH test paper. A large amount of raw materials and liquids flowed along the rainwater ditch to nearby rivers; dust from the frit workshop All over the place, various chemical raw materials are heated to high temperature to form ceramic frit using coal tar as fuel. Raw materials are also stacked in the open in another area of the factory, and nearby Xinlong villagers strongly reported a pungent smell at night. The pollution includes dust particles, sulfur dioxide and phenol gas, nitrogen oxides and lead and chromium in waste residues. It pollutes the soil of nearby farmland to varying degrees and is cumulative, affecting the growth of crops.
……
These are only the environmental pollution incidents of ceramic construction companies that have been exposed and reported by the media, but what about those that have not been exposed?
In addition, Brother Chan believes that from the above-mentioned incident of illegal discharge of air pollutants by a ceramics company in Jinjiang, it can be seen that even companies that have obtained pollutant discharge licenses cannot guarantee that their pollutant discharges will meet the standards. , requiring environmental protection departments to supervise at any time.
3
The communiqué of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China stated:
Promote green development and promote the harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Adhere to the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are valuable assets, insist on respecting nature, complying with nature, and protecting nature, adhere to the priority of conservation, protection, and natural restoration, and guard the boundaries of natural ecological security. Deeply implement the sustainable development strategy, improve the overall coordination mechanism in the field of ecological civilization, build an ecological civilization system, promote the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, and build a modernization in which man and nature coexist harmoniously. We mustaccelerate the promotion of green and low-carbon development, continue to improve environmental quality, enhance the quality and stability of ecosystems, and comprehensively improve resource utilization efficiency.
The second round of the second batch of central ecological and environmental protection inspections inspected the three provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, and Zhejiang, the two central enterprises of China Aluminum Corporation of China and China National Building Materials Group, as well as the National Energy Administration and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. All have been made public recently.
This inspection feedback involves coal control and coal reduction, renewable energy development, three major pollution control, corporate environmental violations, etc. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment is promoting the inclusion of the carbon emission peaking campaign into the central environmental protection inspection. This means that in the future, the goal of carbon neutrality will force the pace of industrial transformation and development in energy and other related industries to accelerate.
Picture source network, nothing to do with text
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has made it clear that it will continue to carry out pollution prevention and control actions this year. According to Huang Runqiu, Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, specific measures include strengthening the coordinated control of PM2.5 and O3, carrying out in-depth comprehensive management of VOCs, promoting in-depth management of cement, coking, glass, ceramics and other industries; strengthening urban (park) sewage treatment environmental management, collaborative Promote regional reclaimed water recycling pilots; continue to carry out a three-year national hazardous waste special rectification campaign, and promote the centralized collection and inter-regional transfer system pilots for lead-acid batteries.
Various signals indicate that strengthening ecological environment protection, raising pollution emission standards, and eliminating backward production capacity in high-consumption and high-pollution industries are irreversible historical trends. The construction and ceramics industry, which has been labeled as "high energy consumption, high pollution, and high consumption", is naturally no exception. For both the government and ceramic construction companies, it is imperative to implement the "coal-to-gas" policy, although many ceramic production areas have experienced natural gas "gas shortages".
A report by the WeChat public account "Designer Intelligence Bureau" recommended in Dr. Yin Hong's article "Dealing with "Coal-to-Gas" for Seven Years" "Breaking News | Is there any basis for one-size-fits-all "coal-to-gas"? Scientifically untenable? Representatives of 30+ ceramic companies from 6 major production areas all shouted danger? 》's comment area, a fan's comment can well reflect the trend mentioned by Brother Chan above:
The picture is taken from the WeChat official account "Designer Information Bureau"
China is upgrading its environmental protection. Natural gas is more environmentally friendly than coal, so natural gas is the natural choice. As for whether the government is angry enough or not, it is actually not the government's biggest concern. Because, with China's industrial upgrading, the country's tendency is to be self-sufficient in polluting/energy-consuming projects, and not to export any more. It can even import some of them. The purpose is to reduce polluting/energy-consuming enterprises, give up various resources, including manpower, land, capital, etc. to high and new technologies, and create Made in China 2025.
Since the current policy trend is to reduce polluting/energy-consuming enterprises, give up various resources, including manpower, land, capital, etc. to high and new technologies, and create Made in China 2025. therefore,As a ceramics factory, you can also assess the situation and stop blindly expanding the factory. You should consider transforming funds to invest in high and new technologies. Following national policies is the general trend.
Finally, let’s talk about a question that may be unfounded:Have ceramic industrial parks been scientifically planned and adequately handled in various places where investment promotion and new production lines are still hot, and the relationship between development and environmental protection has been properly handled to prevent environmental damage? What about the dangers of pollution?
Author: Chan Can
