Recently, the environmental protection bureau of Shizuishan city in Ningxia has become an "ice sculpture building" and other cases of spray from fog gun trucks interfering with atmospheric environment monitoring stations have been exposed. Liu Zhiquan, director of the Environmental Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said on the 31st that the local government should correct its performance and make efforts to improve the environmental quality. It is absolutely not allowed to make any wrong decisions or do anything about the environmental monitoring data. No matter whether it is intentional or not, and whether it affects the data quality, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has "zero tolerance" for interference with environmental monitoring.

"Zero Tolerance" for Interference Environment Monitoring

At the routine press conference of the Ministry of Environmental Protection on the same day, Liu Zhiquan introduced that the cases in Jiangxi, Ningxia and other places were all monitored by the China Environmental Monitoring Station through online data review and analysis or through remote monitoring and third-party operation and maintenance agencies when data abnormalities or human interference were found during routine inspections. After receiving the clues, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has written to relevant provinces for investigation and handling. All localities have carefully verified the interference problem and dealt with it severely depending on the seriousness of the case.

He said that in recent years, the quality of environmental monitoring data in China has been improving in an all-round way, and this kind of case is an individual phenomenon. In the past, air quality monitoring stations did have problems such as blocking sampling. The Ministry of Environmental Protection has further tightened the relevant regulations. Unauthorized non-operation and maintenance personnel are not allowed to enter the station. Those who enter the station bear the responsibility. If they need to enter the station due to work, they need to apply for approval according to procedures. At the same time, the monitoring station has set up warning signs and monitoring facilities, and has set up an online remote quality control and abnormal data auditing platform at China Environmental Monitoring Station, which can discover data abnormalities in time.

Liu Zhiquan's analysis shows that there are indeed some factors that exert great pressure on assessment in some places, but the main reason is the incorrect view of achievement in local government. "I hope that the local government will make great efforts to improve the environmental quality and keep a clear mind at all times. It is absolutely not allowed to make any wrong decisions or do anything about the environmental monitoring data." He said that whether it was fraud or interference with the sampling environment, the Ministry of Environmental Protection held a "zero tolerance" attitude and found one case, investigated and dealt with one case, and reported one case.

In order to reduce such incidents, the Ministry of Environmental Protection will start the formulation of environmental monitoring regulations, and will work with the Central Organization Department and other departments to formulate management measures to prevent and punish leading cadres from interfering in environmental monitoring, build a responsibility system and strengthen accountability. All localities have incorporated the falsification of environmental monitoring data into the local "12369" reporting acceptance platform. The public can report at any time and supervise the local investigation results.

Surface Water Monitoring Authority Increase and Decrease Local Intervention

Following the full completion of the collection of powers for air quality monitoring, the state has initiated the collection of powers for surface water environmental quality monitoring. Starting from October 2017, 2050 surface water examination sections across the country will be fully separated from sampling and testing, and third-party agencies will be entrusted to sample according to the unified technical specifications and analyze and test according to the new mechanism. The original monitoring data will be directly transmitted to China Environmental Monitoring Station. In 2018, China will realize the construction of 2050 water quality automatic stations, with automatic monitoring as the main mode and manual monitoring as the auxiliary mode.

Liu Zhiquan introduced that in the past, surface water quality was monitored on a territorial basis, and the provinces and cities where the sections were located measured by themselves. The measured data were reported to the China Environmental Monitoring Station, which was used by the state to assess the local conditions. This is easy to cause unnecessary intervention, and the quality control requirements of different places may be inconsistent.

He said that the separation of sampling and testing has realized "who evaluates and who monitors", defused local administrative intervention, and reduced the pressure and burden on the grassroots. It is a major reform of the environmental quality monitoring mechanism and helps monitor data independently, objectively and impartially.

If there is no way to interfere with monitoring data, will the proportion of "good water" drop? Liu Zhiquan introduced that from 2017, the proportion of first to third types of water, namely "good water", was 67.9%, an increase of 0.1 percentage point year on year. The proportion of inferior five kinds of water was 8.3%, down 0.3 percentage points from the same period last year. Since the separation of mining and testing was implemented for three months in October 2017, the proportion of "good water" has indeed decreased compared with the same period last year. "This is only a three-month comparison. We will continue to follow up the further conclusion." He said.

In order to improve the quality of surface water monitoring, the Ministry of Environmental Protection will increase the construction of automatic stations, and the frequency of monitoring data every four hours will completely change the current situation of monitoring surface water once a month. After the completion of the automatic monitoring station, with the help of big data analysis methods, abnormal situations can be automatically alerted, which will play an important role in environmental early warning and assessment.

The detailed investigation of soil pollution is expected to be completed by the end of 2020

Liu Zhiquan introduced that in 2017, the Ministry of Environmental Protection initially established a national soil environmental monitoring network with 38,880 points, including background points, foundation points and risk monitoring points. 2,481 background points were set up nationwide to reflect the background concentration level of soil quality. 16,393 risk monitoring points were set up.

"From an environmental perspective, we have basically achieved full coverage of all soil types, counties and major agricultural production areas." He said that the Ministry of Environmental Protection has been organizing routine monitoring of the soil environment throughout the country.

Next, the Ministry of Environmental Protection will promote data sharing with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Land and Resources. He said that the three departments have basically reached an agreement and nearly 40,000 monitoring points in the land and agriculture departments will be incorporated into the national soil environmental monitoring network in the future.

He said that the soil pollution survey will be completed by the end of 2020 and will be released to the public after departmental consultation, data sharing, analysis and collation, and submitted to the State Council for approval according to procedures. (News from Internet)