Chinese report by Wang Kunting, CENEWS
BEIJING, Dec. 21-MEP held a teleconference in Beijing today to wrap up the centralization of air quality monitoring powers on a national scale. The conference summarized the centralization results and made arrangements and deployments for the operation and maintenance of the municipal air quality monitoring stations, in order to ensure the stable, high-quality, and high-efficiency operation of the national air quality monitoring network. Vice Minister Zhai Qing delivered remarks at the teleconference on behalf of Minister Chen Jining.
The centralization of national ambient air quality monitoring powers is an integral part of the reform on ecological civilization institutions and an important move to implement the Development Plan of the Eco-environmental Monitoring Network. The Leading Party Group attached great importance to it and had the monitoring powers of 1,436 national ambient air quality monitoring sites centralized.
Zhai Qing gave full recognition to the centralization of the air quality monitoring powers. He referred to it as a tough, complicated, and systematic project which is about many aspects, entails considerable workload, and has high quality requirements. Local environmental protection departments attached great importance to it, worked closely with the operation and maintenance firms, coordinated and solved emerging problems during the transitional period, exhibited the sense of responsibility and kept in mind the bigger picture, and made sure the transition is smooth. When the transition is over, the local environmental protection departments and operation and maintenance firms will be able to estimate possible problems and difficulties, make well-thought plans, work closely and properly address and handle all sorts of problems that may encounter during the “running-in period”. Moreover, the Ministry will print and distribute the implementation rules for the operation and maintenance of national air quality monitoring stations and the work plans for instrument parameter management, and set specifications for the operation and maintenance of municipal monitoring stations under national monitoring program and the quality control of the monitoring.
Zhai emphasized that after the transition is completed, the local departments will still need to make tremendous efforts to ensure the normal and stable operation of the municipal monitoring stations and the authenticity and reliability of the monitoring data. They will give the operation and maintenance firms a leg up and get them going by helping provide basic conditions for operation and maintenance without interfering with the automatic air quality monitoring. Also, they will make good use of the monitoring data, conduct in-depth and comprehensive analysis, and serve as consultants to the local Party committees and governments in order for them to fulfill the environmental protection responsibilities. The operation and maintenance firms will observe the contract terms to the letter, provide all-dimensional and strong forces to match this effort, enforcing the operation code strictly, and beef up the quality management for environmental monitoring. The Ministry will establish a mechanism for the processing of abnormality and real-time sharing of data, further improve the efficiency in data sharing after the approval and review, and set up a sound mechanism for the processing of abnormal data. The Ministry will also seriously investigate and punish the monitoring data fraud, cover such circumstances as interference in investigations, inefficiency in investigations and punishments, and withholding information, by the central environmental protection inspections, work with the police departments to monitor the settlement of major cases on the blacklist, and resolutely crack down on monitoring data fraud.
