Eighteen inspection teams tasked with the thematic inspection on air quality in the first quarter of the year continued with the field inspections on the air quality of 18 cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area and surrounding area between Feb. 21 and 22. The inspection teams focused on the inspection on how well the county Party committees and governments, as well as relevant departments have fulfilled their air pollution control responsibilities and worked harder on the secret and night inspections. They visited and inspected 362 local governments, relevant departments, and enterprises, and revealed 148 problems.
The main problems revealed are indicated as below:
Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology protected Beijing Jinyu Liushui Environmental Protection Technology Company and Beijing Jinyu Beishui Environmental Protection Technology Company from halting or restricting operations during the emergency response to heavy air pollution, on the pretext of disposing hazardous wastes. The inspection found Jinyu Liushui disposed 10,000 t flying ash in 2016, which accounted for 0.6 percent of the total amount of generated clinkers at 1.596 mil. t. Jinyu Beishui disposed 60,000 t industrial residues, sludge, and other hazardous wastes, and generated 1.3906 mil. t clinkers of which 4.5 percent was disposed. Beichen District Office of Scattered Coals in Tianjin did not make deployments on the implementation of the Work Plan of Beichen District for Cleaner Scattered Coals in five key usages of scattered coals, which is, for rural domestic use, agricultural production, urban domestic use, district-wide business activities, and enterprises and public institutions in the district, in accordance with its responsibilities specified by this plan, and had no idea about the overall treatment of scatted coals. The company list in the contingency plan of Shijiazhuang for heavy air pollution was prepared back in 2013 and not updated timely, considering that some of the companies in the list don’t exist anymore. The Guangzong County Development and Reform Bureau of Xingtai Municipality was tasked to have 32,000 t scatted coals reduced or replaced in 2016, and managed to do 7,000 t of them. Neiqiu County-based Shahe Furfural Branch of China Furfural Company was already shut down in 2014, but it was listed as a company supposed to halt operations in the contingency plan of 2016. The gas for coal project was not completed in all the villages in the outskirts of Taiyuan Municipality; it was completed in only eight out of the 18 villages. The Circular on the Assessment Measures for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution (on trial) printed and distributed by Hebi Municipality required that “the municipal agricultural bureau be responsible for developing the detailed rules on assessing the indicators for banning stalk burning”, however, the bureau did not update the detailed rules to meet the new requirements. The development and reform committee of Anyang Municipality has neither mapped out the 2016 and 2017 annual plans for the control of the total amount of coal consumption, nor quantify and break down the coal reduction goals to assign them to the counties, districts, and key enterprises.
Moreover, there were certain environmental problems with some enterprises. For example, the low-nitrogen burner transformed by Lugu Heat Supply Service Center, a subsidiary to Keliyuan Heat and Power Cogeneration Co., Ltd. in Shijingshan District of Beijing was not put into use and helped reduce emissions. Five foundries Tianjin Friend Non-ferrous Metal Products Company, Qianxin Non-ferrous Metal Products Company, Jintianma Smelting Plant, Guogang Casting Mound Company, and Jinxi Beiyuan Machinery Foundry did not halt operations during the peak heat supply season between Nov. 1, 2016, and Jan. 31, 2017 as required, since the monthly electricity bills did not drop notably compared with other months. The pharmaceutical manufacturers in Liangcun Economic and Technological Development Zone of Shijiazhuang Municipality emitted bad smell randomly. Xinhua Co., Ltd. adopted the high-pollution, fixed-bed coal gasification process for synthetic ammonia production, but there wasn’t any de-SOx or de-NOx facility to purify the waste gas from the gasification process. A considerable amount of pollutants escaped from the coal gas washing wastewater and led to serious pollution. The 2.5 steam ton coal-fired boiler in Nanhu School of Cangzhou Municipality did not alternate to clean fuels, the air pollution control facilities were not in operation, and the coal piles were unsheltered. Some of the foundries of Botou
City did not halt operations, Cangzhou Yongxin Founding Company was still in operation, and Cangzhou Jiyuan Founding Company was still in operation at night (as demonstrated by warm products and electric furnaces) during the peak heat supply season. The waste gas treatment facility of Tangshan Ding’an Special Purpose Motor Vehicle Company did not pass the acceptance check, thus failing to meet the requirement for “completing the integrated VOCs treatment tasks in all petrochemical and chemical industries by the end of 2016”, as specified by the Enhanced Measures for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Area (2016-2017). Tangshan Service Area under Lufa Industrial Company which is a subsidiary to Hebei Expressway burnt the waste oil collected from the smoke purifier in the open field, so a considerable amount of smoke was emitted randomly. The workshop of Langfang Xinjia Machinery and Electric Company emitted waste gas randomly, and the waste gas treatment facility from the epoxy reisn production line halted operations due to damages. The double alkali process was adopted for the de-SOx of a 50 t boiler owned by Maggie Property Management Company of Taiyuan Municipality, however, the facility was found abnormal by a night inspection action, and the de-SO2 liquids were tested acid. Smelly odor was emitted randomly from Nuoneng Bioengineering Company in Jinan Municipality. There was also bad odor emitted from the chlorination workshop of Kebang Chemical Company, and its temporary depository of hazardous wastes was not coffered. Zhonglian Daba Cement Company in Dezhou Municipality carried on production in November 2016 without permission and did not halt operations until Nov. 15, as specified by the Work Plan of Dezhou for Halting the Operation of Key Industries in the Peak Heat Supply Season that “this company should halt operations between Nov. 1 every year and Mar. 15 of the year that follows”. The villagers of Dahu Village in Shancheng District of Hebi burnt scattered coals in multiple places, some of which were inside the areas banned from burning high-pollution fuels, with smoke emitted untreated. A large heap of garbage, twigs and leaves were set on fire randomly in a courtyard to the west of the middle Zhongyuan Road of Jiaozuo Municipality. A coal washing plant of Wuzhi County cut off power supply to fight against the inspection. The coals in the complex were unsheltered and the flying dust pollution was serious.
The inspection team already transferred the revealed problems to the local authorities for further processing.
（Source：MEP）
