"At first, everyone thought it was asphalt for road construction and didn't pay much attention to it. It turned out to be something that harms people." At an abandoned brick factory in Diyou Village, Luxin Town, Wuxuan County, Guangxi, villager Huang Haishou pointed to the barrels of strong acidic waste residue piled here, angry and helpless.

According to the notification of the Environmental Protection Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, since 2016, many places in Guangxi have frequently seen illegal transfer and disposal of hazardous waste and domestic garbage across provinces. Most of the hazardous waste and domestic garbage suspected of illegal transfer come from other provinces. The pollution caused by the transfer of hazardous waste for dumping or disposal in the country has serious consequences and is difficult to dispose of, posing a great threat to local environmental safety. Interviewees from environmental protection, public security and other departments analyzed that the dumping of hazardous waste across provinces has exploited regulatory loopholes. Criminals specifically choose remote villages to start with. It is difficult to find, obtain evidence and hold accountable. It is urgent to improve the joint law enforcement mechanism for illegal transportation of hazardous waste and strengthen source management to curb this development momentum.

Beautiful villages become targets for illegal discharge

Pollution hazards

In beautiful rural areas, some hazardous wastes of unknown origin have become "ecological bombs" that harm the local ecological environment, and the harm should not be underestimated.

Wuxuan County, Guangxi is an important transportation hub in the upper reaches of the Xijiang River. The reporter set out from the county seat in early August and arrived at Diyou Village, Luxin Town, after a one-hour drive. This is a village located in a karst mountainous area. The trees near the village are lush, the streams are clear, and the environment is beautiful.

Just a few hundred meters away from the village, an abandoned brick factory is filled with more than 14,500 barrels of highly acidic oil refining waste weighing about 3,980 tons that were smuggled from somewhere in Guangdong. Although the local environmental protection department has covered it with three layers of canvas, a strong pungent chemical smell still hits you when you get close to these iron barrels.

"Some trucks carrying stones and feed usually pass by here, and we can't see anything unusual. We don't know when these things were dumped here." Wei Weiliang, secretary of the Party branch of Diyou Village, said that the abandoned brick factory is located in a remote area, and few villagers usually move around nearby. The only dirt road leading here is usually only used by trucks from the stone quarry and the farm in the mountains. It was not until February this year that town cadres came down to investigate and found out that this was toxic and hazardous waste.

In Beixian'ao, Fangxue Village, Luxin Town, more than 20 minutes' drive from Diyou Village, more than 5,300 barrels and about 1,250 tons of hazardous waste are piled on both sides of a country road. When the wind blows, a strong acid smell can be smelled, and some eucalyptus trees in the downwind area have turned yellow.

Huang Jinwen, director of the Wuxuan County Environmental Protection Bureau, said that after testing, these hazardous wastes are waste oil residues produced by processing lubricating oils, with a pH value of less than 2.0, which are strong acids and highly volatile harmful objects. After discovering these objects, the environmental protection department has taken protective measures such as covering them with colored strips, digging rainwater diversion ditches and emergency pools, preparing emergency supplies, and arranging personnel to be on duty at relevant locations 24 hours a day. At present, the disposal plan for these wastes has been approved, and qualified transportation companies are prepared to transfer these wastes to two environmental protection companies in Guangxi for treatment. The required funds will be advanced by the local government, and claims will be made to the pollution source enterprises and the local governments of the enterprises in accordance with relevant regulations afterwards.

"The criminals originally wanted to bury these hazardous wastes, but fortunately we discovered them in time. Once buried, they may pollute groundwater sources and cause serious consequences." Huang Jinwen said.

Liu Shifeng, chief engineer of Laibin Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, said that in mid-to-late February this year, after receiving a report, Laibin Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau quickly investigated and found that in the two months before and after the Spring Festival, criminals illegally transferred about 6,580 tons of hazardous waste from Guangdong to eight locations in Laibin City for dumping or landfilling, including about 76 tons at two dumping sites in Xiangzhou County, about 5,586 tons at five dumping sites in Wuxuan County, and about 918 tons at one site in Xingbin District.

Two sites for dumping highly acidic hazardous waste were also found in Hezhou City, Guangxi, adjacent to Guangdong. The reporter saw dozens of large plastic barrels filled with hazardous waste placed next to a large pit about 150 meters long, 50 meters wide, and 0.5 to 2 meters deep in a remote eucalyptus forest in Zhidong Village, Xindu Town, Babu District, Hezhou City. Four large trucks were parked next to it. The eucalyptus trees around the pit had withered and yellowed, and the large trucks stranded at the scene had been corroded and rusted.

At a dumping site in Lianmeng Village, Xindu Town, criminals dug a large pit and dumped hazardous waste into it. After the local environmental protection department found this site through investigation, it has carried out preliminary treatment of pollutants. At present, hazardous waste covered with colored strips and collected contaminated soil are still piled up on the site, waiting to be transported.

Lu Junzhang, director of the Xindu Town Police Station, said that the Babu District Environmental Protection Bureau received a clue at noon on June 9 that someone had dumped hazardous waste at this place. The environmental protection department immediately notified the police station and local government staff, and rushed to the site of Zhidong Village to arrest Lin and four others who were dumping hazardous waste on the spot. At that time, part of the hazardous waste had been dumped in the pit, and some was left in the car and had not been dumped in time. A large amount of black oily slurry leaked from the site, and the smell was pungent. On June 13, another site in Lianmeng Village was investigated. After investigation, it was found that it was the same group of people.

"We didn't know what type of waste this was at first. The first batch of staff who went to Zhidong Village to take samples for testing only wore ordinary masks. They felt different degrees of discomfort after approaching these hazardous wastes, and some staff were sent to the hospital for treatment." Cen Jiazi, director of the Environmental Protection Bureau of Babu District, said that these hazardous wastes are highly acidic and corrosive. The environmental protection department collected and processed more than 730 tons of hazardous wastes from these two locations. Fortunately, the investigation and treatment were timely, and the two dumping sites did not pollute the surrounding surface and groundwater.

Cross-provincial dumping of waste is on the rise

Black interest chain hidden behind

Since the second half of 2016, there have been many illegal dumping of hazardous wastes and domestic garbage in various parts of Guangxi. Behind this, cross-provincial dumping of hazardous wastes has formed a black interest chain.

On the evening of September 3, 2016, the Environmental Protection Bureau of Teng County, Wuzhou City, received a report that a cargo ship dumped garbage in the Dengzhou Island section of the Xunjiang River in the county. The dumping site was located in the second-level protection zone of the county's drinking water source protection zone, about 8.5 kilometers upstream from the county's water intake. According to the confession of the perpetrators at the scene, the cargo on the ship was domestic garbage, which was loaded at the Xiagang Wharf in Dongguan, Guangdong, with a loading capacity of about 400 tons. After loading, the garbage was covered with yellow mud and the cabin was sealed with plastic film. It was transported to the edge of Dengzhou Island in the Xunjiang River for dumping, with a dumping volume of about 100 tons. At noon on September 4, the mercury and total nitrogen monitoring points at the water intake of the Teng County Water Plant exceeded the standard to varying degrees, and the county water plant stopped supplying water for about 15.5 hours. The three suspects in the Teng County case were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from four years and ten months to four years by the court for the crime of polluting the environment.

On April 27, 2017, 42 tons of illegally landfilled industrial solid waste were seized in Lingshan County, Qinzhou City. The solid waste came from Wantong Special Engineering Plastics Co., Ltd., Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province. On May 12, a concentrated sulfuric acid leak occurred in the sulfuric acid storage tank under construction of Qinzhou Tianmanganese Manganese Industry Co., Ltd. Some factories in Qinzhou Port Area stopped production and schools were closed for two days. The leakage and disposal caused a large amount of soil pollution. According to the confession of the suspect and the on-site investigation, the concentrated sulfuric acid involved in the case was waste acid, part of which came from Zhuhai Zhongguan Petrochemical Co., Ltd. From July 13 to 14, an illegal landfill of solid waste occurred in Nameng Town, Qinbei District, Qinzhou City. It was initially judged that it was a mixture of domestic garbage and general solid waste. At present, the public security department has controlled two suspects and went to Longhua District, Shenzhen for investigation together with the environmental protection department.

On May 25, 2017, the Environmental Protection Bureau of Pingnan County, Guigang City received a report that two ships were found illegally dumping waste residue at the dock of the county cement plant. It was learned that it was white mud produced by Guangdong Southern Alkali Co., Ltd. using the ammonia-soda method to produce soda ash, about 1,000 tons.

The reporter's investigation found that the cross-provincial dumping of hazardous waste has formed a black interest chain. In order to reduce the cost of hazardous waste treatment through formal channels, criminals use illegal means to make hazardous waste out of supervision, and obtain considerable profits through layers of subcontracting and illegal disposal.

Huang Jinwei, captain of the Public Security Detachment of Laibin Public Security Bureau, introduced that the hazardous waste found in Laibin mainly comes from chemical companies in Huizhou, Foshan, Zhongshan, Maoming, Dongguan and other places in Guangdong. The crime process is as follows: Guangdong Maoming men Ke and Liu, without obtaining relevant qualifications, illegally transferred and disposed of hazardous waste for the companies involved as intermediaries, charging a processing fee of 380 to 450 yuan per ton, and then sold it to Laibin criminal suspect Wei and others for illegal disposal at a price of 220 to 250 yuan per ton. Wei and others contacted vehicles to transport the waste to Xingbin District, Xiangzhou County, and Wuxuan County of Laibin City, and contacted other criminal suspects to find places for stacking or dumping landfills, making a profit of more than 50 yuan per ton after deducting the transportation costs.

"In the entire process, finding a suitable place to stack or treat hazardous waste is an important link, which requires the cooperation of local people. According to our understanding, many local people do not fully understand how harmful these hazardous wastes are, thinking that they are just ordinary wastes and there will be no big problems after burying them." Huang Jinwei said.

Huang Jinwen said that according to calculations, the normal disposal cost of these hazardous wastes is 4,000 to 4,500 yuan per ton if they are handled by qualified environmental protection companies, while the cost of handling them by middlemen is less than one-tenth of the normal cost. Driven by huge profits, some companies and individuals will take risks.

Strengthen source management

Form a joint law enforcement force

Industry insiders suggest that strengthening the supervision of hazardous wastes must start from the source, and multiple departments must form a joint law enforcement force, while giving full play to the positive role of the reporting method, so that foreign pollutants have nowhere to settle.

Meng Meifu, chief of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Environmental Supervision Corps, told reporters that after investigation, several companies involved in the "3.14" case in Laibin City and the suspected companies in the "6.9" case in Xindu Town, Hezhou, all adopted obsolete and outdated processes that were expressly prohibited by the state, and were all illegal companies without hazardous waste management licenses. The garbage from the "9.3" cross-border dumping incident in Teng County, Wuzhou, came from Dongguan City, Guangdong Province. The waste acid leaked from the "5.12" case in Qinzhou Port and the chemical polymers illegally transferred to landfill in Lingshan County Industrial Park came from Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province.

The above cases show that some places have insufficient supervision over the elimination of backward processes and illegal enterprises, inadequate supervision over the declaration and transfer of hazardous wastes, insufficient coordination and cooperation among departments, and blind spots in supervision.

Hazardous waste transportation requires a hazardous waste road transportation business license, and drivers, escorts, and loading and unloading managers engaged in hazardous waste should obtain corresponding road hazardous goods transportation qualifications. The hazardous goods involved in the case amounted to thousands or even tens of thousands of tons, and most of them had a strong pungent odor, but they were able to be transferred from Guangdong to Guangxi unimpeded through multiple channels many times, indicating that supervision during transportation needs to be strengthened.

Lu Junzhang introduced that in the "6.9" case in Xindu Town, Hezhou, the suspects even entrusted a regular environmental protection enterprise to deal with part of the hazardous waste after the hazardous waste had been seized by the environmental protection department of a certain place in Guangdong, and then illegally transferred more than half of the remaining hazardous waste through the relationship between layers of middlemen, and some of them were taken to Xindu Town, Hezhou for dumping, highlighting the lack of supervision at the source.

Due to the illegal transfer across provinces, the transfer volume was large, and the wide range of areas involved, the Guangxi Environmental Protection Department decided to report to the Ministry of Environmental Protection for support. On June 8, the South China Supervision Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Guangxi Environmental Protection Department, and the Guangdong Environmental Protection Department held a coordination meeting on the investigation and subsequent disposal of illegal transfer and dumping of hazardous waste in Guangdong and Guangxi at the South China Supervision Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and proposed "blocking the source and building a defense line, dividing responsibilities and jointly disposing, strengthening capabilities and focusing on group defense" to jointly combat illegal and criminal acts such as the transfer and dumping of hazardous waste and garbage across provinces, and establish a mechanism system to curb the frequent occurrence of incidents.

At present, the environmental protection departments of Qinzhou, Hezhou, Laibin and other cities are actively cooperating in the follow-up disposal work. Qinzhou City has completed the removal of residual waste acid and waste polymers, and Hezhou City is handling the procedures for cross-provincial transfer and disposal. As of early August, 31 criminal suspects have been arrested and 3 people have been pursued.

However, there are still many difficulties in the treatment of hazardous wastes.

First, the amount of hazardous wastes is large, and Guangxi's local treatment capacity is insufficient. Laibin City is a hard-hit area affected by many cases of illegal disposal and dumping of hazardous wastes. It needs to deal with nearly 10,000 tons of hazardous wastes such as dumping, landfill, barrels, and contaminated soil that need to be treated. According to the feedback from the National People's Congress's inspection of the Solid Waste Law, it should be disposed of as soon as possible. These hazardous wastes are highly acidic, and the pre-treatment of the disposal is very difficult. The two comprehensive disposal companies with business licenses in Guangxi are unable to dispose of them due to process and equipment limitations. Now two cement production companies with cement kilns that have the ability to coordinate the disposal of hazardous wastes are undertaking the disposal task according to the emergency disposal procedures.

Second, the cost of later disposal is relatively high. Huang Jinwen introduced that in Wuxuan County, Guangxi alone, there are nearly 6,000 tons of hazardous waste that need to be treated, and the estimated treatment costs are more than 20 million yuan. In order to eliminate the hidden dangers as soon as possible, the local government urgently allocated funds to advance the payment, and will then pursue compensation from the relevant responsible enterprises and the local governments of the enterprises in accordance with the law.

In the above cases, all the hazardous wastes illegally stacked and dumped came from enterprises in Guangdong Province that produced hazardous wastes, and they should bear the corresponding disposal costs according to law; if they are not disposed of within the time limit or the disposal does not meet the requirements, the designated units of the environmental protection administrative departments of the local people's governments at or above the county level in Guangdong Province shall dispose of them in accordance with relevant national regulations. However, some of the enterprises involved in the case are illegal producers themselves, and after being investigated and dealt with by relevant departments, they are already in a state of insolvency and may be unable to bear the relevant costs.

Third, the cross-provincial linkage mechanism needs to be improved urgently. Some local environmental protection bureau staff members said that judging from the current joint investigation, the cross-provincial joint case handling mechanism is not sound enough and the degree of connection and cooperation is not enough, which makes the case investigation and the disposal of solid waste involved in the case slow.

In response to the current frequent cross-provincial dumping of hazardous waste, Guangxi requires the public security, safety supervision, environmental protection, transportation, maritime affairs, housing and construction departments to strengthen coordination, focusing on cross-border areas, urban-rural junctions, cross-provincial villages, inaccessible areas, abandoned factories, mines, pits and forests, and establishing a line of defense against external pollution.

Meng Meifu said that at present, some local governments and the public do not fully understand the degree of harm caused by external hazardous waste. In the next step, the environmental protection department will increase publicity efforts to create an atmosphere of public opinion that "everyone will call for the dumping of hazardous waste." The next step will be to give full play to the positive role of the reporting method, so that external pollutants have nowhere to settle and environmental lawbreakers have nowhere to escape.

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