I dare not shout again! Two responsible persons of a company detained for illegal discharge of pollutants

"In the future, I will never dare to tamper with the automatic monitoring data and lay hidden pipes to discharge sewage again." Fu Moumou, the head of a pig farm in Xingan County, Ji'an, Jiangxi Province, shed tears of repentance in the detention center of the county.

The story behind this has to start from February this year. The Xingan Ecological Environment Bureau commissioned a third-party organization to monitor the navigation of the Yijiang River. Sampling and testing were conducted at the outlet of a pig farm, and it was found that the total phosphorus concentration was 11.159 milligrams per liter, exceeding the maximum allowable daily total phosphorus emission concentration of 8 milligrams per liter in the "Pollutant Emission Standards for Livestock and Poultry Industry" (GB18596-2001).

Immediately, the comprehensive law enforcement personnel for ecological and environmental protection in Xingan checked the data of the online monitoring platform for pollution sources and found that the drainage volume outside the pig farm was relatively low for a long time, with a daily average of 1-50 tons; The pollutant emission concentration has been consistently low, with COD ranging from 3 mg/L to 30 mg/L and ammonia nitrogen ranging from 2 mg/L to 15 mg/L.

After investigation, the pig farm obtained environmental approval procedures in September 2015 and obtained a pollution discharge permit, which belongs to the key management category of pollution discharge permit; Install online monitoring facilities in February 2022, operate online in March, and complete online automatic monitoring comparison and acceptance in June. There are 3240 sows in captivity, which are cleaned by flushing with water. If the standard of 2.5 cubic meters of waste water per hundred pigs in winter and 3.5 cubic meters of waste water in summer is calculated, the total amount of waste water generated in theory is about 28440 cubic meters. However, since the operation of the online monitoring facility, the total amount of online sewage discharge from the pig farm has been 11000 cubic meters, with a difference of 17440 cubic meters between the two.

At the same time, law enforcement personnel sampled and tested the secondary sedimentation tank and total wastewater discharge outlet of the pig farm. The total wastewater discharge outlet had a COD concentration of 31 mg/L, an ammonia nitrogen concentration of 7.72 mg/L, and a total phosphorus concentration of 0.54 mg/L; The COD concentration in the secondary sedimentation tank is 779 mg/L, the ammonia nitrogen concentration is 248 mg/L, and the total phosphorus concentration is 19.7 mg/L.

Why is the difference between the online monitoring of wastewater discharge and pollutant index of this pig farm and the on-site verification data? With professional sensitivity, law enforcement officials firmly believe that the pig farm has problems!

Law enforcement personnel carrying testing equipment entered the pig farm again for on-site investigation. We used drones to repeatedly investigate and trace the source of approximately 1.2 kilometers from the discharge outlet to the online monitoring facility, and did not find any problems. It is difficult to avoid the waste water, "said Tang Guoru, a law enforcement officer of the Xingan Ecological Environment Protection Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade.

Even a cunning fox cannot escape the eyes of a hunter. "The law enforcement personnel adjusted their inspection approach and started with the main wastewater discharge outlet. They found that a water pipe with a diameter of about 20 millimeters was connected to the main wastewater discharge outlet, and the water continuously diluted and discharged water pollutants, interfering with online monitoring. In addition, a white PVC pipe with a diameter of 110 millimeters was found, buried under the main sewage outlet, and transformed into a sewage pipe with a diameter of approximately 75 millimeters through a conversion joint. A flow meter was installed, with a cumulative value of 217892 cubic meters.

Based on the above evidence, the Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade for Ecological and Environmental Protection in Xingan has determined that the wastewater generated by the pig farm did not pass the online monitoring facilities and was diluted with tap water at the main discharge outlet. The wastewater overflowed through the pipeline to the inspection well, and then discharged into the digestion pond from the inspection well before being discharged into the Yijiang River. Its behavior belongs to the illegal act of using pipeline bypass to discharge some water pollutants from unregulated sewage outlets, and suspected tampering with automatic monitoring data and evading supervision to discharge water pollutants.

The pig farm violated the third paragraph of Article 42 of the Environmental Protection Law of the China, Article 39 of the Law of the China on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, Article 17 of the Regulations on the Administration of Emission Permits and other legal provisions.

The Xingan Ecological Environment Bureau imposed an administrative penalty of 650000 yuan on the pig farm in accordance with the law. At the same time, the case was transferred to the public security department for investigation and treatment, and the Xingan County Public Security Bureau gave administrative detention to the two responsible persons of the pig farm.