An 80-kilometre toxic slick drifted downstream, affecting the water of
millions of people until, weeks later, it crossed the border into Russia.
A joint circular from the general offices of the Central Committee of the
ruling Communist Party of China and the State Council blamed SEPA, and Director
Xie Zhenhua resigned his post 19 days after the explosion.
Premier Wen Jiabao, speaking on April 17 at the sixth National Environmental
Protection Conference in Beijing, said environmental protection would become
part of the assessment system in the performance of officials.
To date, 27 officials involved in seven pollution incidents have been
punished.
The Songhua River incident has become a turning point in SEPA's history of
environmental law enforcement. Under newly-appointed Director Zhou Shengxian,
SEPA launched a comprehensive review of chemical and petrochemical projects near
major water areas.
They found 20 large projects with serious environmental safety problems,
including 11 along the Yangtze River, one on the Yellow River and two at Daya
Bay.
The corrections SEPA ordered at the 20 sites will cost 1.6 billion yuan
(US$200 million).
"Environmental law enforcement capability should be strengthened," said Lu,
the SEPA department chief.
"However, we are seriously understaffed. We need about 100,000 to 150,000 law
enforcement staff to better fulfil our duties."
At present, 3,854 environmental supervision and environmental law enforcement
organs with more than 50,000 workers nationwide are responsible for supervising
nearly 300,000 industrial polluters and about 700,000 other industrial
enterprises.
They also take charge of collecting pollutant discharge fees, which total
more than 12 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) a year, and handle 60,000 cases of
environmental incidents and disputes each year.
By the end of 2010, the environmental supervisory force nationwide is slated
to expand to 80,000, and equipment for environmental law enforcement will also
be upgraded.
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