Why 30,000 tons of garbage was thrown into the Yangtze River?
— — Investigation on "Dumping Case in the Yangtze River Estuary"
Taicang section of the Yangtze River, the river is wide, the river is mighty, and ships come and go like a shuttle. The rushing river washed a small amount of floating garbage to the shore. This season, compared with the peak period in summer, the river surface looks clean. But a year ago, on December 13th, 2016, the Taicang section of the Yangtze River was covered with garbage.
Where does the garbage come from? Why was it thrown into the Yangtze River? A year later, the relevant procuratorial organs in Jiangsu and Zhejiang successively prosecuted this illegal dumping case of domestic garbage, and a criminal chain of taking domestic garbage as a "resource" and taking garbage disposal fees for profiteering was also uncovered.
Recently, the reporter of Economic Information Daily conducted an in-depth investigation on the criminal chain of illegal dumping of garbage in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and found that there are serious loopholes in the supervision of domestic garbage disposal, such as fraud in bidding, fraud in receiving disposal certificates, and subcontracting of garbage at different levels. Under the background of "garbage besieged city", these problems exposed by the case have important warning significance for other cities in China.
About 30,000 tons of garbage were thrown into the Yangtze River.
Harmful substances exceed the standard by 30 thousand times
"I have never seen so much rubbish, red, black and white … … All kinds of discarded plastic bags and plastic bottles rise and fall with Jiang Tao, and some medical wastes are mixed in between. The bank slope is also covered with garbage washed up by the river, which is many times more than the daily garbage. " After a year, Xu Yihui, the captain of the Second Sea Patrol Law Enforcement Brigade of Taicang Maritime Safety Administration, still remembers it.
In the deep winter festival, the amount of garbage floating on the river has increased abnormally in recent days, which has aroused Xu Yihui’s vigilance. After the situation was reported, Taicang Maritime Safety Administration suspected that there were ships illegally dumping garbage, so it secretly deployed to search for suspicious ships.
On the morning of December 18, 2016, Qin Liyong, supervisor of the Second Sea Patrol Law Enforcement Brigade of Taicang Maritime Safety Administration, and his colleagues found two ships being washed at the mouth of Yanglin River. "This is not an anchorage. It is reasonable that these two ships should not anchor here." Qin Liyong recalled, "We approached the inspection, smelled rancid, and found that it was actually a suspicious ship littering."
Subsequently, Taicang Police Station of Suzhou Branch of Changjiang Shipping Public Security Bureau took over the case. After the trial, the owners of the two ships confessed that the night before, they sailed the ship to the middle of the river, turned off all the electronic equipment and lights on board, and threw about 2,000 tons of garbage from the two ships into the Yangtze River by floating cranes in the dark.
The arrest of two ships has torn a corner of the criminal chain of illegal dumping of garbage. Subsequently, the police in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai cooperated and the people involved were arrested one by one. The source of garbage has also been identified, mainly from Haiyan and Haining in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. Up to now, the prosecution in Jiangsu has approved the arrest of 9 people and the prosecution in Jiaxing, Zhejiang has approved the arrest of 25 people.
According to the indictment of Haining City Procuratorate, in Haining City, from November to December, 2016, 14 ships with a total of more than 9,700 tons of domestic garbage were transported from the local Pengdun Wharf. These garbage were eventually thrown directly into Nantong section and Taicang section of the Yangtze River by the suspects involved. In Haiyan County, from August to December, 2016, 26 ships with a total of about 20,000 tons of domestic garbage were transported from the local Huangqiao Wharf, and these domestic garbage were also directly thrown into the Nantong section and Taicang section of the Yangtze River.
"This is only a well-documented amount, and the actual garbage thrown into the river may be far more than this." Han Lijia, deputy section chief of the Public Prosecution Section of Changshu People’s Procuratorate, said. According to the relevant jurisdiction regulations, in Jiangsu, this case was finally handed over to Changshu People’s Procuratorate for public prosecution, and Han Lijia was the prosecutor in charge of this case. He also told the Economic Information Daily that about 15,000 tons of domestic waste from sea salt was transported to Huzhou, Anhui and other places in Zhejiang for illegal landfill.
Although these garbage came from Haiyan and Haining, they were subcontracted by different companies and transported by different ships, but in the end they were all thrown into the Yangtze River by Shamou gang at the end of the criminal chain. According to the investigation by the police in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, ships transporting garbage usually go to the river by night, and then turn off various electronic equipment and lighting facilities such as ship navigation to escape the supervision of government departments. At the same time, arrange floating crane boats to be near for lifting and unloading operations, and arrange people to drive speedboats to keep the wind or ferry and pilot nearby. After the lifting and unloading operation is completed, the pump ship will be arranged to clean the transport ship.
According to Han Lijia, after testing by third-party environmental protection agencies, these illegally spilled and landfilled wastes contain toxic and harmful substances, among which the volatile phenol in domestic garbage from sea salt exceeds the standard by 80 times to 32,200 times. In Taicang section of the Yangtze River, two centralized drinking water sources in Taicang City were forced to stop taking water for more than 48 hours and 55 hours, respectively, because the dumping site was located in the upper reaches of the drinking water source protection zone.
"So much garbage floating on the river not only affects the water quality of the Yangtze River, but also threatens the safety of sailing. If garbage is involved in the propeller, the ship will suddenly break down in the river, which will easily lead to safety accidents such as collision. " Xu Yihui said.
The reporter of the Economic Information Daily also learned that after the case, in order to prevent pollution from expanding and eliminate pollution, the Taicang Municipal Government and the relevant departments of the Chongming District Government of Shanghai salvaged the garbage thrown into the river. Although the amount that can be salvaged is very limited, the cost incurred is as high as more than 12 million yuan.
The qualification certificate is completely false.
Subcontracting at different levels for profiteering
"Jianghai Power Plant" is a code word used by criminal suspects. It is said that the garbage is transported to the "Jianghai Power Plant", and the suspects get the message and understand that the garbage is thrown into the river.
"Although these suspects have their own division of labor, they don’t necessarily know each other, and the ownership of ships and floating cranes is not the same, in essence, they have formed a criminal chain of illegal dumping of garbage, turning garbage into profiteering ‘ Resources ’ 。” Han Lijia said.
Analysis of this case, the relevant prosecutors and public security police believe that this case is very typical, from bidding to garbage disposal fee collection, subcontracting at different levels, and fraud at different levels, a series of regulatory measures have been broken, highlighting the serious loopholes in garbage disposal supervision.
First of all, there is suspicion of fraud in bidding. According to a survey conducted by Suzhou Branch of Changjiang Shipping Public Security Bureau, in late April 2016, Zhejiang Tongxiang Tianshun Garbage Removal Service Co., Ltd. won a one-year domestic garbage transportation and disposal business in Haiyan County through bidding, and both parties signed the Domestic Garbage Entrusted Disposal Agreement. According to the agreement, Tianshun Company will transport the domestic garbage from Haiyan County to the regular incineration plant for disposal, and the garbage disposal cost is 277 yuan/ton.
"This agreement is very puzzling." Han Lijia said that Tianshun Company has no disposal capacity, only transportation capacity, but signed a "disposal agreement" and there is no so-called "regular incineration plant" to receive garbage. In addition, inter-provincial disposal of garbage must be approved by the provincial environmental protection departments of the exporting and importing places. Tianshun company has not been approved, why can it still get the right to dispose of garbage?
Followed by garbage subcontracting. According to a survey conducted by Changhang Public Security Suzhou Branch, from August to December 2016, Tianshun Company subcontracted domestic garbage to these middlemen for disposal knowing that the suspect Zhang and others were not qualified for domestic garbage disposal. These middlemen looked for people separately, and eventually dumped about tens of thousands of tons of garbage into the Yangtze River or buried it in the barren land along the river bank.
Han Lijia introduced that the garbage disposal fee given by Haiyan Environmental Sanitation Center is 277 yuan/ton; After Tianshun Company took over, the disposal fee for the middleman was 170 yuan-190 yuan/ton, and the profit per ton was close to 100 yuan; The middleman’s disposal fee for the dumping gang is less than that of 100 yuan, and the profit from re-exploitation is tens of yuan per ton. The cost of regular waste incineration or landfill treatment is about 160 yuan/ton. After subcontracting, these wastes can only be dumped illegally.
The procuratorate of Haining also alleged that from November to December, 2016, the relevant person in charge of Tongxiang Chuangjie Environmental Sanitation Equipment Co., Ltd., which obtained the domestic waste diversion and outward disposal business in Haining, in order to jointly seek illegal benefits, knowing that Zhu and Cheng were not qualified for domestic waste disposal, and Zhu even had a past history of illegal garbage disposal, they still handed over the garbage to these middlemen for disposal. After subcontracting, the garbage was finally dumped by Shamou to Nantong Section and Taicang Section of the Yangtze River.
Once again, the garbage receipt certificate is fraudulent. According to the regulations, whether it is bidding for garbage disposal or receiving the garbage disposal fee after garbage disposal, the garbage incineration or landfill unit must issue the acceptance certificate. However, Changhang Public Security went to Wuhu, Anhui and other related waste incineration power generation companies to investigate and found that the certificate provided by Tianshun Company was forged.
"The relevant waste incineration power generation companies have not only issued similar certificates, but have never even heard of Tianshun Company." Ding Haiping, director of Taicang Police Station of Suzhou Branch of Yangtze River Shipping Public Security Bureau, said, "After being appraised by a professional organization, the official seal on the certificate is false."
According to the indictment of Haining City Procuratorate, at the end of November and mid-December, 2016, the relevant person in charge of Chuangjie Company handed over 18 receiving confirmation forms and 1 certificate of authorization for domestic waste disposal in Haining City to the middlemen Zhu Mou and Cheng Mou, and asked them to stamp the relevant companies. Later, Zhu Mou and Cheng Mou forged the official seals of the relevant companies to stamp them. Later, Chuangjie Company used these fake documents to settle the garbage disposal fee with Haining Environmental Sanitation Department, totaling about 3.35 million yuan.
"Whether in the bidding process or in the collection of domestic waste disposal fees, as long as the environmental sanitation departments in the relevant areas strictly review, even if they just call the garbage receiving and disposal unit to ask, they can find that these garbage have not been transported to the place where they should be transported. Can avoid the occurrence of cases. Regrettably, the relevant regulatory authorities have not done so. " In Jiangsu, the prosecutor and police interviewed said. They believe that through subcontracting and fraud, criminal suspects can easily defraud garbage disposal fees, which shows that there are serious loopholes in the supervision of domestic garbage transportation and disposal.
Weak processing capacity is a curse.
Weak supervision needs to be upgraded.
In recent years, illegal dumping of garbage across provinces has occurred frequently, and Jiangsu alone has encountered many cases, such as the dumping of garbage in Huishan District and Xishan District of Wuxi City, the dumping of garbage in Xishan Island of Taihu Lake in Suzhou City, and the dumping of garbage in Xuzhou section of Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.
Compared with these cases, the relevant case handlers said that the "dumping case in the Yangtze River estuary" had a particularly bad impact. First, tens of thousands of tons of domestic garbage were dumped in this case, and the number was staggering; Second, the dumping site is special. Most of the other cases were dumped on the banks of the river, but this case was dumped on the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River is the most important and busiest river in China, and it is also the drinking water source of many cities along the Yangtze River. The dumping of garbage into the river not only affects the safety of sailing, but also causes pollution, and it is difficult to salvage it after the incident.
The report of the 19th National Congress clearly stated that it is necessary to "strengthen solid waste and garbage disposal". Relevant researchers and investigators believe that in-depth analysis of this case is of great warning significance for strengthening the disposal of domestic garbage.
Through this case, Han Lijia and Ding Haiping believe that the root cause of this case is that the garbage disposal capacity of the garbage outflow area is weak. Taking Haiyan County as an example, they went to Haiyan County to investigate and found that the capacity of the landfill in this county is extremely limited, and about 15,000 tons of domestic garbage are mainly transported abroad every month. This laid a curse for the case.
Song Guojun, a professor in the Department of Environmental Economics and Management, School of Environment, Renmin University of China, has long studied the disposal of urban and rural domestic waste. He said that the frequent illegal dumping of domestic garbage is closely related to the lack of urban garbage disposal capacity. At present, not only the capacity of garbage disposal in some fast-growing cities in China is stretched, but also the disposal of domestic garbage in a considerable number of counties and towns below the county level is facing difficulties. In some places, as long as the garbage can be transported out, how to deal with it later is often ignored.
Learn from a painful experience. After the case occurred, Jiaxing City also made it clear that it would improve its domestic waste disposal capacity as soon as possible, and the technical transformation and expansion projects of waste incineration plants at the city level, Jiashan and Haining Heping Lake strived to start construction within the year; Haiyan county will accelerate the construction of waste incineration plant while completing the construction of emergency landfill. In addition, it will accelerate the reduction and classification of domestic waste and the construction and expansion of kitchen waste treatment plants in counties and cities under its jurisdiction.
Song Guojun also suggested that "addition and subtraction" should be carried out at the same time to improve the garbage disposal capacity. On the one hand, it is necessary to increase investment and improve the capacity of urban garbage disposal; On the other hand, efforts should be made to do a good job in garbage classification. Through garbage classification, a large number of recyclable garbage will be reused, turning waste into treasure, and then the amount of garbage that needs to be disposed of will be reduced.
After analyzing the case, the relevant case handlers also believe that the existence of regulatory loopholes shows that the regulatory means need to be upgraded. Han Lijia said that the sanitation department can’t just hand over the garbage, let alone turn a blind eye to fraud, but should continue to pay attention to where the garbage has been transported and whether it has been properly disposed of. Judging from the problems exposed in this case, it is urgent to upgrade the supervision means, and it is necessary to use modern information technology, such as Internet of Things technology, to establish a tracking system for the whole process of storage, transportation and treatment of domestic garbage.
In addition, relevant researchers believe that to strengthen the disposal of domestic waste, not only the supervision means should be upgraded, but also the supervision system should be reformed. Some scholars believe that the environmental protection department should actively intervene in the supervision of domestic waste disposal, and the urban construction department should not be responsible for both disposal and supervision. At present, whether the cost of domestic waste landfill and incineration is "confused" or the supervision is a mere formality, it is related to a department’s "monopoly" on waste disposal and supervision.
After the case occurred, Jiaxing also took a series of measures to strengthen closed-loop supervision, and issued the Emergency Notice on Establishing and Perfecting the Joint List System of Domestic Waste Collection and Transportation Office in Jiaxing, which fully implemented the joint list management system in the collection, transportation and treatment of domestic waste in the city, and strictly controlled the entry of clearing enterprises, and implemented the "one-vote veto" system for the false information submission of garbage clearing enterprises, and required the competent departments of counties (cities) to review and check the disposal sites for outbound transportation one by one.
"It’s never too late to mend." Relevant investigators and researchers believe that at present, illegal dumping of garbage across provinces has occurred in many places. An in-depth analysis of these cases is also of warning significance to other similar areas that need to transport garbage abroad, and can also draw lessons and experiences from them. (Zhu Guoliang, Chen Xiaobo)