Notice on further regulating environmental management of sewage treatment in cities and towns (parks)

Q: What is the background to the release of the Notice?

A: In recent years, China's urban (park) sewage treatment industry has developed vigorously, which has played an important role in improving the water ecological environment. Urban (park) sewage treatment plant is not only an important engineering facility for water pollutant emission reduction, but also a key unit for water pollutant discharge. At present, some cities and towns (parks) sewage treatment plants exceed the standard problems, frequent, local people's governments (including park management agencies), management enterprises, sewage treatment plant operating units (hereinafter referred to as "operating units") responsibility is not clear, not in place and other problems are prominent, the community is highly concerned about this. Clarifying the responsibilities of all parties in accordance with the law, promoting all parties to perform their duties, regulating environmental supervision and management, ensuring the healthy development of the sewage treatment industry, and helping win the battle against pollution prevention and control are the main considerations in formulating the Notice.

Q: What are the main contents of the Notice?

A: The full text of the Notice consists of three parts.

First, the legal responsibilities of all parties have been clarified. In accordance with existing laws and regulations, the local people's governments are clearly responsible for the water environment quality of their administrative areas, and perform their responsibilities of organizing relevant departments to formulate sewage treatment plans, raise funds, establish and implement charging mechanisms, and respond to accidents. The main responsibility of the management enterprise to prevent and reduce environmental pollution has been clarified from the aspects of holding the license, discharging according to the license, discharging according to the standard, self-monitoring, fee payment, accident emergency, etc. Further emphasize the legal responsibility of the operating unit to be responsible for the effluent quality of the centralized sewage treatment facilities, and specify the requirements for project undertaking, sewage investigation, operation and maintenance, and accident emergency.

Second, it detailed specific requirements for all parties to fulfill their duties. Ecological and environmental departments at all levels should strengthen coordination and linkage with relevant departments such as housing and construction and water affairs, strengthen supervision and guidance, and promote all parties to perform their duties according to law. Promote the implementation of relevant work by urging the preparation and implementation of the plan. We will urge all localities to build sewage treatment facilities in parks according to local conditions. Through "double random" inspection, information disclosure and other means, urge the management of enterprises to fulfill the main responsibility of pollution control. Through environmental impact assessment, strengthening guidance and supervision, information disclosure and other means, urge the operation units to perform their duties and ensure that the discharge of water meets the standards. Participate in guiding the parties to sign the contract in a standardized manner, and urge the strict implementation.

The third is to put forward environmental supervision and management related requirements. All localities should clarify the requirements for pollutant discharge control of sewage treatment plants in accordance with the law and regulations, avoid blindly tightening, increasing unnecessary pollution control costs, and prevent too lax, unable to meet the needs of water ecological environment management. At the same time, local ecological measures such as constructed wetland water purification projects are encouraged to play a role together with sewage treatment plants. Strengthen the supervision and law enforcement of management enterprises and sewage treatment plants, and seriously investigate and punish environmental violations. Reasonable identification of the responsibility for handling excessive water pollution has clarified the specific circumstances in which the operating unit is not identified as an abnormal use of water pollution prevention and control facilities, and the specific circumstances in which the sewage treatment plant is given a lighter or mitigated punishment due to excessive water intake.

Q: What are the highlights of the Notice?

A: The "Notice" adheres to seeking truth from facts, and defines targeted solutions for the outstanding problems existing in the construction, operation and management of current sewage treatment plants. There are many innovations and breakthroughs, which can be mainly summarized as follows:

First, all localities should build park sewage treatment facilities according to local conditions, with fewer enterprises settled in the park, which mainly produces domestic sewage and does not contain toxic and harmful substances in industrial sewage, and the sewage of the park can be treated by nearby urban sewage treatment plants; Industrial sewage discharge is small park, can rely on the park enterprise pollution treatment facilities, or in accordance with the "three simultaneous" principle, stage construction, group operation of park sewage treatment facilities, to avoid the treatment facilities "sun", "big horse car" and other phenomena.

Second, all localities should clarify the pollutant discharge control requirements of sewage treatment plants according to law and regulations, avoid blindly tightening or being too lenient, and support areas with heavy water ecological environment improvement tasks and ecological water shortage through ecological measures such as the construction of constructed wetlands water purification projects at key nodes such as the downstream of sewage treatment plants and rivers into lakes to play a role together with sewage treatment plants. We will further improve the quality of the water ecological environment.

The third is to encourage operating units and management enterprises to sign entrusted processing contracts, agreeing on monitoring, information sharing, emergency response, breach of contract compensation and other contents. On the basis of clear responsibility, the operation unit and the management enterprise can negotiate to determine the concentration of industrial sewage management, submit it to the ecological environment department and enter the pollutant discharge permit in accordance with the law, as a basis for supervision and management.

The fourth is to reasonably identify the responsibility for the treatment of exceeding the standard, for the sewage treatment plant effluent exceeding the standard, the illegal act is minor and corrected in time, and no harmful consequences are caused, according to the relevant provisions of the State can not be punished. If the competent department of the industry, or the department of ecological environment, or the competent department of the industry jointly with the department of ecological environment determines that the operating unit has indeed exceeded the water standard due to water exceeding the design provisions or actual processing capacity, and proactively reports and proactively eliminates or reduces the harmful consequences of environmental violations, the administrative punishment shall be lighter or mitigated according to law.

Q: How to ensure the implementation of the Notice?

A: On the one hand, the ecological environment department has taken the initiative to strengthen coordination and linkage with the relevant departments of housing, construction and water affairs, increase policy publicity and implementation, strengthen guidance and assistance, and encourage all parties to perform their duties and improve environmental management. On the other hand, the ecological environment department, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations and the division of responsibilities, strictly supervise and enforce the law, investigate and punish environmental violations according to law, and reasonably identify the responsibility for exceeding the effluent of sewage treatment plants, promote the healthy development of the sewage treatment industry, and make positive contributions to the protection and construction of beautiful rivers and lakes.