On Nov. 11, 2022, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued measures to manage the list of entities subject to special oversight (“key oversight”) for environmental management. The new measures, which will come into effect Jan. 1, 2023, will replace the current experimental list of key pollutant-discharging entities. The measures provide criteria for the special oversight for water pollution control, groundwater contamination control, air pollution control, noise pollution control, soil contamination control and environmental risk management. One entity can be subject to more than one of these types of special oversight. The criteria for each type of the oversight are given below.
Criteria for the special oversight for water pollution control
- Industrial companies whose annual chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen discharge, total nitrogen discharge or total phosphorus discharge has exceeded the screening threshold set by the ecology and environment department of the city-level local government in any of the past three years
- Large-scale livestock farms with wastewater outlets
- Centralized industrial wastewater treatment plants, and urban domestic sewage treatment plants that have a processing capacity of more than 100,000 tons per day or that can process more than 20,000 tons of industrial wastewater per day
Criteria for the special oversight for air pollution control
- Industrial companies whose annual emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter or volatile organic compounds has exceeded the screening threshold set by the ecology and environment department of the city in any of the past three years
- Manufacturers of glass for photovoltaic modules, other glass, glass products or glass fibers that use natural gas as fuel and are larger than a prescribed size
- Manufacturers of ceramics or fire-resistant materials that use coal, petroleum coke, oil or producer gas as fuel
- Manufacturers of ceramics or fire-resistant materials that use natural gas as fuel and are larger than a prescribed size
- Industrial coating companies larger than a prescribed size, except for those using the following four types of coatings: water-based, no-solvent, radiation-cured or powder coatings that contain low-volatility organic compounds and are compliant with all the relevant national regulations
- Packaging and printing companies larger than a prescribed size, except for those using inks that contain low-volatility organic compounds and are compliant with the relevant national regulations
Criteria for the special oversight for soil contamination control
- Nonferrous metal mining/mineral processing companies, nonferrous metal smelting companies, oil exploration companies, petroleum processing companies, chemical companies, coking companies, electroplating companies and leather companies larger than a prescribed size
- Companies that are located in areas with a high potential risk of soil contamination and manufacture, use, store, dispose of or discharge toxic and harmful substances
- Companies that are located in areas where farmland is heavily contaminated with heavy metals and discharge cadmium
Criteria for the special oversight for environmental risk management
- Companies discharging 100 tons or more of hazardous waste annually
- Companies with in-house facilities for hazardous waste disposal
- Companies with a hazardous waste license
- Entities operating or maintaining a household waste landfill (including a closed one) or household waste incineration facilities
- Companies where the concentration of one nuclide of uranium (thorium) in raw ore, intermediate products, tailings (slag) or other residues exceeds 1 Bq/g in operations to develop and exploit mineral resources (except for uranium and thorium ore)
The full text of the measures (in Chinese) is available at
https://www.mee.gov.cn/xxgk2018/xxgk/xxgk02/202212/t20221201_1006540.html