MEP recently issued Guideline for Environmental Emergency Response of Tailing Pond (on trial) (hereinafter referred to as Guideline). Our journalist made an interview with official in charge of the Emergency Response Office (herein shortened as O), MEP for the background of the Guideline, policy measures and how to implement the measures.
J: Please tell us the background on the guiding document issued by MEP on environmental emergency response of tailing pond.
O: The CPC Central Committee and the State Council pay high attention to management of tailing pond. Secretary General Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice Premier Li Keqiang have made important instructions on the safety of tailing pond and environmental protection for many times. They required governments and related departments at all levels to strengthen management, eliminate hidden danger and properly handle environmental accidents to ensure environmental safety. Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang has chaired meetings on tailing pond twice. Since 2007 State Administration of Work Safety, NDRC, Ministry of Land and Resources and former SEPA have jointly launched special campaigns directed at national safety accidents of tailing pond and frequent occurrence of environmental accidents. In June 2009, State Administration of Work Safety, NDRC, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Land and Resources and MEP jointly issued Rectification Scheme on Hidden Danger of Tailing Pond and put it into practice. Sweeping actions on safety and environmental dangers have achieved positive results, finding out the basic information of tailing pond and eliminated environmental risks and hidden danger. We have established a multi-department management system and felt out a set of feasible methods for environmental emergency management of tailing pond.
However, current situation of environmental emergency management of tailing pond remains grave. As related environmental accidents take place frequently and the management of emergency response is not mature, the capacity does not fit for the needs of environmental safety in the new era.
First, management of tailing pond businesses is lax. Most tailing ponds are located in hinterland and their design is not up to standard or not constructed according to the design standard. These ponds fail to strictly implement Three Simultaneities so that their input in safety and environmental protection is not enough. With weak awareness of environmental safety and inadequate measures for risk control, a good number of companies do not fulfill their responsibility as the major party to manage environmental emergency and not carry out regular supervision.
Second, environmental hidden danger is eminent. There is a large number tailing ponds in China totaling 12523, 17% of which are deemed to be dangerous and defective. They have hidden safety danger of different degrees and susceptible to secondary environmental accidents. Small tailing ponds of Grade IV or V account for 95.4% of the total, with prominent environmental hidden danger and weak capacity of dealing with environmental emergencies.
Third, environmental accidents of tailing ponds have serious impacts on the environment. Since 2006, tailing pond related environmental accidents handled directly by MEP have numbered 43. Particularly, such accidents have threatened drinking water safety for many times. In recent years, among the 56 environmental accidents involving drinking water safety, 10 were triggered by work safety accidents of tailing ponds, taking up 18% of the total. For instance, in October 2007, the return pipe of Qiuxi Yong’an mineral processing plant of Benxi, Liaoning Province burst, sending 4000 tons of seepage to Xihe river. Nanfen Water Plan of Benxi stopped water withdrawal and about 20,000 people were affected. In March 2008, a great deal of sludge leaked from Jingxi Nonglin Mineral Processing Plant of Huayin Aluminum Co., Ltd., Debao County, Baise City of Guangxi Province. Drinking water for neighboring villages and over 2000 villagers along the river was affected. In May 2010, spill accidents took place in Wulian Hongbao Mining Co. Ltd. of Xunyang County, Ankang City of Shaanxi Province. Around 1000 cubic meter lead zinc gangue were leaked to Xunhe River, a primary tributary of Hanjiang River through Ganxi channel.
Fourth, local environmental departments do not fully understand the importance of environmental emergency management of tailing ponds. For a long time, some environmental departments have different views on emergency management which are reflected in their lack of willingness, courage and skill in the work. They believe management of tailing pond should fall into the responsibility of work safety departments. It has little to do with environmental departments. Too much involvement will only lead to trouble. In terms of division of work, work safety supervision department should be the major responsible party for the safety of tailing pond, but environmental department also has a role in it. The Regulation on Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Gangue clarifies that environmental department above county level should have unified supervision and management of environmental pollution caused by gangue within their jurisdiction. Experience tells us that while managing tailing pond, environmental department cannot stay aloof from the affair. Once accidents like dam collapse or leakage occur and result in environmental pollution and ecological damage, environmental department will be thrown into an unfavorable situation.
Fifth, the environmental emergency response system for tailing pond needs to be improved urgently. Our work in this field started quite late and an effective emergency response system has not been put in place. 1) Defective legal system and unregulated management. Currently, there is only Regulation on Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Gangue that can be referred to when it comes to environmental management of tailing pond. It cannot be well adapted to the needs of management along with changing situation. The Regulation fails to give clear and standard provisions on the responsibility of environmental department. 2) Placing ex post remediation above ex ante prevention. Judging management of tailing pond emergencies across the country, we find emergency response tend to focus on handling of environmental accidents rather than prevention in the first step. Local authorities concerned have not fully understood the basic situation of tailing ponds and the hidden environmental danger, not had enough knowledge on environmental sensitive points around the ponds and not realized dynamic management of environmental risks. Lack of basic information and technical support is a serious problem. 3) Synergy among departments has not formed and the linkage mechanism should be improved. Tailing pond management is a comprehensive job, requiring cooperation of several departments like work safety, environmental protection and land and resources. It is important to create a linkage system under the leadership of government. On the whole, we have a long way to go to achieve joint management of tailing pond where departments have defined responsibility and work together for law enforcement.
To sum up, strengthened emergency response management of tailing pond is an urgent need for properly handling environmental accidents and a necessity of environmental departments to fulfill their responsibility.
J: The Guideline was prepared based on the pilot work in Hebei Province. Why do you choose Hebei Province to pilot environmental emergency management of tailing pond? What experiences did Hebei Province get in their work?
O: MEP chose to pilot environmental emergency management of tailing pond in Hebei Province for the following reasons. First, Hebei is in the vicinity of Beijing, the capital of China. Zhangjiakou City is located in the upper reaches of Guanting Reservoir and Miyun Reservoir and Chengde City is in the upper reaches of Luanhe River of Tianjian. So its location is both important and sensitive. Second, Hebei Province has a large number of scattered tailing ponds, representative of different types. Hebei has the largest number of tailing pond, or 3300, accounting for one fourth of the total in China. Third, in recent years, Hebei has successfully handled several environmental accidents caused by tailing ponds. Its active exploration in emergency response has accumulated rich experience.
Through the pilot work Hebei Province has found out the basic situation of tailing pond, unified their understanding toward environmental emergency response and investigated and corrected a lot of hidden environmental danger. They strengthened EIA examination and approval and preventive measures such as management of contingency plan, got more capable of handling environmental accidents and promoted cooperation among different departments.
J: As a guiding document to strengthen environmental emergency response under the new situation, what problems are the Guideline directed at? What are the main aspects included?
O: The Guideline aims to identify what to do and how to do in the process of environmental emergency response for mining companies and environmental departments. This is of great significance for establishing a long-term supervision mechanism for tailing pond.
Based on the whole process of environmental emergency response, the Guideline has six chapters in the main body including preface, overview, prevention and early warning of environmental emergency response of tailing pond, preparation for environmental emergency response, response and handling of environmental emergency and post-accident environmental management. The attached document includes three parts, namely categories of tailing pond by work safety department, abstract of current legislation in departmental responsibilities for tailing pond management and preparation of contingency plan by mining companies.
Chapter One is preface which identifies the background and purpose of developing the Guideline.
Chapter Two is overview. It includes the applicable scope, terminologies and concepts, basis of this document, responsibilities of mining companies and environmental department, tasks of managing environmental emergency response and a proposed framework for emergency response management system. Following the whole process of environmental emergency response, the system is divided into four parts, prevention, emergency preparedness, emergency response and post-accident management, which are coherent with the main part of the Guideline.
The third chapter is on emergency prevention and early warning. It covers seven areas such as environmental management of construction projects of tailing pond, database for dynamic management, classified management of environmental risks, regular environmental monitoring, examination of hidden environmental danger, early warning system and establishment of linkage mechanism. Regular environmental monitoring and examination of hidden environmental danger is highlighted in this chapter and Form on Examination of Hidden Environmental Danger of Tailing Pond is also provided.
The fourth chapter is on preparation of environmental emergency response, which includes emergency contingency plan system, three-layer system for prevention and control and guarantee system for environmental emergency response. The attachment provides information on preparing environmental contingency plan for mining companies to guide their preparation work.
Chapter Five deals with environmental emergency response and handling including such 8 aspects as multi-level response mechanism, procedure of emergency response, information delivery and processing, command and coordination, disposal measures, emergency monitoring, communications and announcements and termination of emergency response. The focus of the chapter is put on handling of environmental accidents caused by tailing pond. Targeted disposal measures to cope with typical accidents are identified.
Chapter Six is about environmental management after the emergency response is terminated. Local environmental departments at all levels should do a good job in environmental management under the leadership of the government of the same level.
J: What plans and arrangements will MEP make to promote the implementation of the Guideline?
O: The Guideline is rich in content and features concrete provisions, a clear aim and strong feasibility. We will concentrate on the following tasks centering on the implementation of the Guideline. First, we will promote education and publicity. Newspaper, network and other media will be fully used to widely publicize the gist of the Guideline, and interpret the provisions in detail. We will distribute manuals to enable local governments, departments and companies to gain a complete knowledge on it. Mining companies will be the major target of publicity in order to raise their consciousness and initiative. Second, we will launch special training program. It is planned to have a training program on environmental emergency response management on tailing pond the next year suited to the emergency response staff in the forefront, especially local emergency response staff where the tailing ponds pose high environmental risks. Provisions of the Guideline will be explained to help supervise the thorough implementation of all the requirements of the Guideline. Third, we will deepen related requirements of the Guideline. By launching nationwide investigation on tailing pond risks, getting to the bottom of the environmental risks and delegating related departments to study these risks by level or category, we will make more detailed provisions and requirements on the classification of tailing pond.
J: Are there other measures that local EPB at all levels should take to have better performance in management of emergency response to tailing pond environmental accidents?
O: Local EPBs should raise their awareness and strengthen leadership. They should pay high attention to management of environment emergency response by doing a good job in such 8 aspects as understanding the basic situation of tailing pond, exercising level-to-level management and EIA, standardizing contingency plan, examining hidden danger, working with other departments, comprehensive treatment and emergency disposal. While managing environmental emergency response of tailing pond, environmental departments should give special attention to the following points:
First, we should take prevention as the major task and actively guard against hidden environmental danger of tailing pond. All localities should continue to urge mining companies to investigate hidden environmental danger, establish a database linked to environmental sensitive points including rivers around, water intake of concentrated drinking water source and centralized residential area. Level-to-level and classified management should be promoted based on the assessment of environmental risks and database should be set up for dynamic management of environmental risks. We should have close examination of EIA of new construction projects, especially projects in environmentally sensitive areas and scrutinize risk assessment during EIA. Unqualified EIA documents will be denied approval. We will strengthen management of environmental contingency plan, put in place a record system for contingency plan and exercises system, urge and direct companies to develop targeted and feasible contingency plans and carry out emergency response exercises regularly. We should enhance daily management of environmental risks of tailing pond, urge companies with hidden environmental danger to improve their facilities, step up reorganization, eliminate hidden danger and build up their capacity in preventing and dealing with emergencies.
Second, we will put people in the first place and properly handle environmental accidents caused by tailing pond. Local EPBs should actively handle these accidents and minimize the damage as far as possible out of the sense of political responsibility. They should follow the united leadership of the government, carry out emergency monitoring, serve the ultimate purpose by offering advice, work with other departments to handle problems and reduce damage, investigate cases and prosecute offenders by law, assess losses and improve management, etc. People’s health should be given the top priority and efforts are needed to assist local governments in evacuating people, treating the injured and meeting the basic needs of the people. We should uphold scientific method in dealing with emergency and give full play to the role of environmental monitoring, science and research institutes and experts on emergency response, so as to provide science-based evidence for government and related departments to make decisions. A clean and open channel should be maintained for information flow. We will strictly execute information reporting and put an end to delayed and missed report, false report and lying. We will facilitate information disclosure, assist local governments with information release and guidance of public opinion on major environmental accidents and sensitive issues to ensure social stability.
Third, we must process business by law and perform the duty of managing emergency response to environmental accidents caused by tailing pond. Local EPBs should faithfully implement Emergency Response Law and National Environmental Contingency Plan, actively promote a responsibility-sharing mechanism on environmental emergency response under the united leadership of governments to ensure no departments will be derelict in their duty or overstep their authority. We should urge businesses to seriously fulfill the responsibility of environment emergency response and bring their role as the first guard into full play. For environmental accidents occurred in tailing ponds, local EPBs should never be careless in investigating causes of accidents, punishing offenders and implementing rectification measures. We will stress accountability system and strengthen education by citing lessons so that the Party Committee, government, related departments and companies, especially head of the organization realize the heavy price for breaching environmental law. It may even ruin their political career and future development.
Fourth, we will support joint action by related departments and improve management of environmental emergency response. Local EPBs should waste no time in carrying out the Agreement on Establishing a Linkage Mechanism for Emergency Response between MEP and State Administration of Work Safety and actively promote three-layer linkage mechanism from provincial, to municipal and county level. By setting up the platform of linkage operation, we will step up cooperation in environmental risk prevention and control, emergency handling, regular supervision and information communication. We will carry out hand-over system and have joint examination and approval by related departments. We should have a clear view of our responsibilities and improve internal management of emergency response. When approving EIA of plans for tailing pond or construction projects, we must have full assessment of environmental baseline, regional capacity, its impact on human health and concentration of pollutants. In this way we can put forward explicit requirement on prevention of environmental risks, take examination of hidden environmental danger as the focus of regular law enforcement and supervision and urge companies to earnestly carry out risk prevention and control measures.
