Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, June 6thTitle: Jinsha River polluted by waste, Zhangjiajie grows "garbage mountain"--Inspection team reports on the chaos of construction waste disposal in 7 provinces and cities

Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter

Waste is directly dumped into the Jinsha River, and Zhangjiajie and other cities form "garbage mountain"... "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter recently accompanied the Central Ecological Environment Protection Inspection Team in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Yunnan and 7 provinces and cities to inspect and find that some places have obvious shortcomings in the disposal of construction waste, and the problem of random dumping occurs from time to time.

Waste is dumped into the Jinsha River, and garbage occupies basic farmland and ecological conservation areas

The Yangtze River Protection Law stipulates that it is prohibited to dump, bury, pile, abandon and treat solid waste within the management scope of rivers and lakes in the Yangtze River Basin.

The inspection found that the Yunnan Lijiang-Shangri-La Railway Project, undertaken by China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd., set up a mixing station in Yulong County, Lijiang City, which is close to the Jinsha River. In February 2021, after the temporary land use procedures for the mixing station expired, the company illegally used the land as a waste dump, causing damage to the original vegetation and basically losing the ecological function of the coastline.

The inspection team squatted for many consecutive days and found that heavy trucks dumped waste directly into the Jinsha River every day next to the waste dump. There are about 5,000 cubic meters of waste at the site, which encroaches on 47 meters of the Jinsha River coastline and occupies more than 500 square meters of the river, seriously damaging the ecological environment of the coastline and river.

The same problem exists in Shangri-La City on the left bank of the Jinsha River. The inspection team found that there were 6 illegal waste dumping sites in Hutiaoxia Town alone, which occupied more than 400 meters of the Jinsha River coastline and more than 6,000 square meters of the river. Some of the waste entered the Jinsha River, and there were still more than 7,000 cubic meters of waste on the slope.

Some places illegally occupied basic farmland and dumped construction waste at will. The inspection found that since December 2022, Shanghai Shengtao City Construction Enterprise Development Co., Ltd. has illegally filled rail transit engineering mud in the basic farmland of Changxing Island, Shanghai.

On March 19, 2024, the inspection team secretly found that Shengtao City Construction Enterprise Development Co., Ltd. illegally filled rail transit engineering mud in the basic farmland of Changxing Island. (Photo provided by the inspection team)

On May 16, the reporter followed the inspectors to this illegal disposal site and saw that the water of a large area of engineering mud had been drained, and the supernatant of the mud sedimentation formed a pond with very turbid water. The inspection found that the company dumped about 50,000 tons of mud and occupied 17 mu of permanent basic farmland.

In Zhejiang, 8,675 cubic meters of slag and other materials were illegally dumped in Xiaogaowu, Xindian, Xintong Township, Fuyang District, Hangzhou City, covering an area of 29.2 mu. The reporter saw at the scene that a large amount of slag was washed into the drainage ditch on rainy days, forming yellow muddy water that was discharged into the Fuchun River.

In Hubei, Dajiuhu Town, Shennongjia Forest District, dumped about 40,000 tons of construction waste within the management scope of Pingqian Reservoir, occupying about 24 mu of ecological conservation area. Muyu Town illegally set up a temporary landfill for construction waste in Xiaowan, mixing and stacking various types of construction waste totaling about 300,000 tons, occupying about 32.4 mu of ecological conservation area. During the on-site inspection, construction waste was still dumped in the ecological conservation area.

"Garbage Mountains" Grow in Cities Such as Zhangjiajie and Pingxiang

The reporter recently followed the inspectors to the vicinity of Hejiashan, Dayongqiao Street, Yongding District, Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province, and saw construction waste, plastic bags and other materials piled together. "Everything is piled here." said a nearby resident.

The inspection team found in many places that there was no legal place for construction waste to be disposed of for a long time, and random dumping occurred from time to time. The Huamuwan construction waste disposal site in Yongding District, Zhangjiajie City was originally only allowed to receive construction waste, but now a "garbage mountain" more than ten meters high has grown. Sewage flows across the "garbage mountain", including decoration waste and domestic waste, mixed with a large amount of white waste such as foam, plastic, rubber, coatings, paints and toxic and harmful substances.

The inspection found that the preparation of the construction waste disposal plan in Zhangjiajie City has been slow, and standardized construction waste resource utilization facilities have not yet been built.

In Jiangxi, Pingxiang City has not formulated a comprehensive utilization plan for construction waste. At present, there is neither a landfill site nor a comprehensive utilization enterprise. The inspection found that Xiangdong District illegally set up a dumping site in the Yangjiatian plot. Since 2021, 5.4 million tons of construction waste have been piled up in the open air, forming a "slag mountain" more than ten meters high and covering hundreds of acres.

On May 15, 2024, the inspection team found on-site inspections that 5.4 million tons of construction waste were piled up in the open air in the Yangjiatian plot in Xiangdong District, Pingxiang City, forming a "slag mountain" more than ten meters high and covering hundreds of acres. (Photo provided by the inspection team)

At Puqian Building Materials Co., Ltd. in Banan District, Chongqing, reporters saw a pile of construction "garbage mountains" that were very eye-catching, covering an area of about 1 acre. This company, which originally only sold construction materials such as cement and sand, arbitrarily set up construction waste disposal points to deal with decoration waste.

"Irregular collection and random stacking of renovation waste may cause pollution to expropriated land, increase the cost of land use and management, and the exposure of garbage also affects the sanitation of the living environment." The relevant person in charge of Banan District said that the person in charge of the company has been interviewed to remove the construction waste crushing equipment, and the urban management department plans to build a decoration waste recycling point.

The inspection found that since 2021, Chongqing has inspected and found 132 "black slag sites" and 2,071 illegal dumping sites for construction waste. After the inspection, 99 letters and reports involving the dumping of construction waste have been received, and the masses have strong reactions.

Supervision and management are absent, and regulations are not implemented in place

The inspection team pointed out that the supervision responsibilities of some places have not been fully implemented, the management of relevant departments is extensive, and daily supervision is ineffective, resulting in frequent illegal dumping of construction waste, which has not been effectively disposed of for a long time.

The inspection found that the relevant departments of Hangzhou City neglected the management of construction waste on construction sites, and daily supervision and inspection were not in place. A large number of "black cars" without transportation qualifications entered and exited the construction sites at will, and illegally transported construction waste for a long time. Two projects, Fuli Center in Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, and Zhejiang Talent Building, handed over 11,000 tons of construction waste to vehicles without transportation permits and illegally dumped them near Taiyang Village in Lin'an District, Hangzhou City.

In May 2024, the inspection team found that the Lao Yuhang Station project of the second phase of Hangzhou Metro Line 5 illegally dumped slag to Xuancheng City, Anhui Province many times through companies without transportation qualifications. (Photo provided by the inspection team)

According to the relevant regulations of Hunan Province, the generation, transportation, and disposal of construction waste shall be managed by a joint form management system throughout the process. The inspection found that Zhangjiajie City did not implement the joint form management system. Although the construction waste information supervision and management platform was built in March last year, no effective construction waste disposal information has been recorded. In response to the on-site inquiries of the inspectors, the explanations given by the local regulatory authorities were obviously inconsistent with the relevant policy regulations.

Chongqing, Shanghai and other places also have problems with the implementation of regulations, or even the fact that they are in name only.

The relevant planning of Chongqing City clearly states that 16 new key construction waste treatment projects should be added by 2023, but as of May this year, when the inspectors entered, three projects had not started construction, and nine projects were still in the early planning stage. The local relevant departments did not know the bottom line, and provided the inspection team with the generation and disposal of construction waste in the city three times. The data were inconsistent and the ledgers were chaotic.

Although Shanghai has established a construction waste disposal approval system, the competent department did not strictly control the issuance of certificates, and the supervision after the issuance of certificates was not in place. After checking the 951 completed earthwork projects in 2023, the inspection team found that 289 projects reported that the amount of slag disposal was less than 30% of the amount generated, which was an underreport of about 45 million tons.

Enterprises are important entities in the treatment of construction waste. The inspection found that some comprehensive utilization enterprises seriously violated the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, and the problem of illegal disposal was prominent.

Xinquan Solid Waste Treatment Company in Zhangshu City, Yichun, Jiangxi Province, still accepted a large amount of solid waste in exchange for commission fees even though its storage warehouse was already saturated. In January this year, the inspection team secretly discovered that a large amount of solid waste such as construction waste was illegally stored on the open space outside the factory, and no measures were set up to prevent dispersion, loss, and leakage. Before the inspection, in order to cover up the illegal storage, the company covered and buried 430 tons of sludge and 10 tons of alkali residue on the spot.

The inspection also found that the planning and layout of disposal sites in some places were not perfect, and the disposal capacity was seriously insufficient. Some places have insufficient understanding of the construction of ecological civilization, and there are obvious shortcomings in the disposal of solid waste such as construction waste, and there are prominent environmental risks.

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