Lanzhou pushes forward with sweeping environmental reforms

Authorities spearhead streamlined assessment processes and systems

Lanzhou, capital city of Northwest China's Gansu province, is promoting reforms on environmental impact assessments to further benefit companies, local officials said.

They aim to root out some prominent problems such as the assessment's complicated examination and approval procedures and the fact that companies pay more attention to the procedures than to the protection effort itself.

The reforms are in line with the principle of offering companies and people services that are more transparent, convenient and efficient, officials said.

Rui Wengang, director of Lanzhou's environmental protection bureau, said that it is important to make the relationship between environmental protection authorities, construction organizations and environmental impact assessment agencies clearer.

The reform of the examination and approval procedures of environmental impact assessments should properly delegate powers and reduce bureaucracy to bring about the best solution for improving government reviews and approval flows, Rui said.

Lanzhou has carried out 11 such reforms. According to the city, environmental protection authorities no longer need to organize experts to examine each and every relevant technology; instead, construction projects are allowed to carry out preparation work in the early stages of construction.

Since the reforms were carried out at the beginning of this year, 1,945 construction projects in Lanzhou have undergone environmental impact evaluation. About 75 percent of those projects were assessed by experts invited by the companies rather than by environmental protection administrations.

In addition, before punishment is carried out, the companies involved will be informed in advance to give them an opportunity to defend themselves. Following the changes, 45 projects have been examined and approved. These reforms are said to have greatly improved efficiency.

The reforms give construction organizations absolute decision-making power and selection rights in terms of organizing experts to review technologies.

Chen Xuemin, a professor at the school of environmental and municipal engineering at Lanzhou Jiaotong University, said that previously construction organizations only sent a department head to attend review meetings and it was unknown whether they understood and they then informed their decision-making leaders of the experts' advice and suggestions.

After the reforms were carried out, at the very least a manager from the construction organizations would preside over the review meetings, Chen said, the addition of which meaning that a representative at the decision-making level directly joined the meeting, which is necessarily beneficial for the later execution of experts' advice and suggestions.

Related authorities in Lanzhou delegated powers while strengthening management. Environmental protection administrations at the city, urban district and county levels assumed responsibility of environmental regulation and law enforcement. They gradually established a project supervision system where city-level authorities supervise law enforcement and those at urban district and county levels carry out on-site inspections and enforce the law.

The city also established systems for automatic pollution source monitoring, comprehensive key pollution source monitoring and intelligent early warnings, pollution source video monitoring and air pollutant aerial photography. Related authorities said they, utilizing these systems, regularly monitor the city's environmental quality and changing trends, sources of pollutant discharge and potential environmental risks.

They found and dealt with projects that started construction before obtaining approval in a timely manner, and recorded videos as proof while investigating illegal actions. They said they want to fully utilize new technology to improve environmental law enforcement.

An ultra high-power graphite electrode project, which is developed by a carbon materials science and technology company, has benefited from the reforms, local media in Lanzhou reported. It organized related agencies to perform spot-surveys and held a technical examination meeting on the second day after the Lanzhou environmental protection bureau released a notice on furthering the reforms in October.

Representatives from the company said the bureau has the will to undertake self-reform and assume wide-reaching responsibilities. The reforms have allowed companies to handle the relevant environmental impact assessment procedures, they said.

The project's site selection conforms to the planning requirements of the Honggu park area of the Lanzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, local officials said, adding it will greatly promote the economic development of the area and Lanzhou as a whole.

The Lanzhou environmental protection bureau held a meeting on Oct 24, briefing media, companies in Lanzhou, environmental influence assessment organizations and environmental protection authorities from the city's districts and counties on the reforms and related policies.

As explained in the meeting, related authorities should increase supervision efficiency and strengthen communications between environmental influence assessment and law enforcement of environmental supervision.

Yan Cuiying, project leader at Lanzhou Reproducible Resource Reclaim Co, found it was much easier to go through environmental influence evaluation procedures after having heard Xing Lifeng, deputy director of the Lanzhou environmental protection bureau, comprehensively explain the reforms.

songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/12/2018 page12)