A number of major cases have been solved

No matter how covert the means of committing crimes, whether it is a cross provincial or a case accumulated in the past, it will eventually be difficult to escape the tianluodi network distributed by the Ministry of ecological environment, the Ministry of public security and the Supreme People's Procuratorate (hereinafter referred to as "three departments").

The action against the illegal crimes against hazardous waste environment organized by three departments has been carried out for more than two months. Recently, the Ministry of ecological environment publicly informed six key cases found in the operation. The relevant head of the Ministry of ecological environment pointed out that, with the cooperation of the three departments, all of these cases have been broken, and some cases have been adjudicated by courts.

The reporter noted that a reporter in Tianjin will receive 200000 yuan for successful reporting. Sunyouhai, Dean of Law College of Tianjin University, believes that rewards to the informants can effectively solve the problem of insufficient manpower in the ecological and environmental departments.

Zhang Zitai, Professor of Law School of Fudan University, stressed that, after a long-term treatment, the dominant environmental pollution and ecological destruction have gradually disappeared, but the hidden environmental pollution and ecological destruction behavior are both in quantity and damage results, and need to be paid great attention.

Reward the whistleblower to help combat crime

In order to curb the frequent occurrence of cases of illegal discharge, dumping and disposal of hazardous waste and to ensure the health and safety of the people, from July to November 2020, the three departments jointly organized and organized special actions to crack down on the illegal and criminal acts of hazardous waste environment in a nationwide way. As of August 31, 31 provinces (regions, cities) and Xinjiang production and Construction Corps have carried out operations, according to the Ministry of ecological environment.

Recently, the Ministry of ecological environment has opened the first batch of six typical cases. Liu Mou, a member of Wuqing District, Tianjin, has been the first of six cases in the case of illegal collection and disposal of waste lead battery suspected of polluting the environment.

In July, 2020, the masses reported that someone in a town in Wuqing District of Tianjin illegally collected and disposed of the waste lead battery, causing environmental pollution. According to the introduction, the two-level ecological and environmental departments in Tianjin city and the public security organ conduct on-site inspection of this disposal point.

The site inspection found that the disposal point is mainly engaged in the collection and disposal of waste lead battery without the handling license of hazardous waste. "When drilling and disassembling the purchased lead battery for automobile and electric vehicles, the hazardous waste generated will be dumped into the sewer connected by three rigid PVC pipes without treatment." The ecological environment and Public Security Department of Tianjin also found that the waste electrolyte seeps into the soil without seepage prevention measures through the cracks at the sewer mouth, the connection of PVC pipe and the sealing port.

The monitoring personnel sampled and monitored the accumulated waste liquid, and the pH value was 0.61, and the total lead was 10.4mg/l, which was all over the standard; the waste lead-acid battery disposed at the disposal site totaled 82 tons.

According to the provisions of Article 338 of criminal law and the judicial interpretation of the Supreme People's court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, this case has been suspected to constitute a criminal crime of polluting the environment. At present, the case has been transferred to the public security organ for investigation and handling, and the public security organ has controlled the relevant responsible person.

When the three departments launched the action against the illegal crimes against the hazardous waste environment, they publicly stated that the report and reward for the illegal acts of ecological environment should be implemented and the whistleblower should be given a heavy prize. In this case, the Tianjin ecological environment comprehensive administrative law enforcement team confirmed that the reported items were true and met the reward conditions stipulated in the Interim Measures for reporting environmental violations in Tianjin and the special action plan for comprehensive investigation and treatment of hazardous waste in Tianjin. After being reviewed by the Tianjin Ecological Environment Bureau in accordance with relevant procedures, the reporter will be rewarded RMB 200000.

In this regard, the relevant heads of the Ministry of ecological environment pointed out that encouraging and guiding the masses to report major environmental pollution hidden dangers and illegal acts, and giving serious awards to the whistleblowers who meet the requirements, which is effective in forming a high pressure situation of social public opinion.

Sun Youhai believes that the reward itself reflects the remarkable effect of the public participation system of ecological environment protection. He said it is because the people have a strong sense of environmental protection that the people can find out the clues of environmental crimes and report them in time, thus creating favorable conditions for the competent authorities to carry out the environmental crime fighting actions. Therefore, it is necessary to reward the informer of environmental crime clues.

Joint efforts by departments to combat cross regional dumping

Among the six cases reported by the Ministry of ecological environment, Hu and others in Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province not only committed cross provincial cases, but also lasted for 4 or 5 years.

According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of ecological environment, in May 2016, the Environmental Protection Bureau of Zhangjiagang City, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province (now Zhangjiagang Ecological Environment Bureau of Suzhou City), received a report from the public, saying that some people buried solid waste such as sludge in a field on the north side of a bridge, and the Environmental Protection Bureau immediately organized professionals to visit the site for investigation, sampling and analysis, and take emergency control measures to control pollution diffusion. Meanwhile, through further investigation by public security departments, it is found that the solid waste from a certain Machinery Co., Ltd. in Zhejiang Province.

The results show that in December 2015 and March 2016, a Zhejiang Machinery Co., Ltd. dumped acid washing water treatment sludge at the junction of a wharf and a mountain in Zhangjiagang City and the Yangtze River beach area on the north side of a bridge. After dumping, solid waste is directly exposed to air.

After the case, Zhangjiagang Environmental Protection Bureau immediately commissioned a qualified appraisal institution with the public security organ to carry out the identification of hazardous waste characteristics of sludge dumping and carry out the ecological environmental damage assessment of the land involved. Because the case is sudden and covert, and involves the dumping of provinces, the early tracing investigation and evidence collection work is slow. After the test, the leaching concentration of heavy metals nickel, total chromium, copper and inorganic fluoride in solid waste exceeded the standard limit in different degrees. The results of the further damage investigation and assessment of surface water and groundwater samples in the assessment area show that the surface water and groundwater ecological environment elements in the areas involved in the dumping of solid waste have been damaged. After quantification, the ecological environment damage cost caused by the dumping event is more than 24 million yuan, resulting in the total loss of public and private property of 5.6 million yuan. Under the supervision of Zhangjiagang Environmental Protection Bureau, the total amount of solid waste and adjacent soil dumped is 3152.35 tons, which are all disposed according to the hazardous waste specifications.

The relevant head of the Ministry of ecological environment revealed that, after the restoration, the ecological environment in this region has been restored well.

In response to the case, the relevant head of the Ministry of ecological environment revealed that the local procuratorial organ filed a public prosecution against a certain Machinery Co., Ltd. and the relevant responsible person in Zhejiang Province according to law. In August 2017, the local court made a criminal judgment, and found that a Zhejiang Machinery Co., Ltd. committed the environmental pollution crime and was fined RMB 2 million; Hu, head of safety and environmental protection department of a Machinery Co., Ltd. in Zhejiang Province, committed the crime of environmental pollution The crime of bribery by non state staff members shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of 4 years and a fine of 100000 yuan; the dumping person yuan, who commits the crime of polluting the environment and bribery of non state staff, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of 3 years and 6 months and shall also be fined 110000 yuan.

In this case, Yu Fang, a researcher at the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of ecological environment, said the case was a typical case of illegal dumping of solid waste through cross regional investigation, cross departmental linkage and cross legal responsibility. The ecological environment department, public security organ and procuratorial organ work together, and act quickly and closely, which has effectively attacked the transfer of cross district dumping.

The problem of hidden ecological destruction needs to be paid attention to

In March, 2020, law enforcement officers of Cangnan branch of Wenzhou Ecological Environment Bureau of Zhejiang Province conducted service guidance for the enterprises under the jurisdiction of resumption of work and reproduction. On the way, it was found that there were three electric wheels of vehicle waste oil and ink barrels passing a village highway and trail, and disappeared. Law enforcement officers in plain clothes squatted in this area to investigate, found that some people often in different time period, the waste oil ink bucket to a town of Cangnan County a community of a scrap purchase station for trading, and then empty back. The investigation of the environmental protection law enforcement personnel also found that from june2019, Chen and Han engaged in the recycling, storage, disposal and sales of waste oil and ink barrels without relevant business license and any environmental protection related procedures.

Cangnan branch of Wenzhou Ecological Environment Bureau launched the linkage law enforcement mechanism of environmental protection public security, and the public security organ first went to the scene to control the parties Chen, Han and Liao. According to Chen and Han, from june2019 to january2020, four waste oil and ink barrels with a total of more than 100 tons of waste oil and ink which have been disposed into blocks have been sold to the outside province. On April 16 and July 20, Cangnan County People's Procuratorate sued Chen, Han and Liao, respectively.

In response to this case, Zhang pointed out that the hidden environmental pollution and ecological destruction behavior is not the obvious discharge of large enterprises, but in the form of private or small workshops, and is generally hidden in law enforcement dead corners such as urban and rural joint departments and urban villages. He believes that the renovation of this area has always been a difficult point. It is the key to the next stage of ecological environmental governance in China to rectify the dead corner of environmental law enforcement in the form of multi department linkage law enforcement.

The other three cases are: the others in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, were suspected of polluting the environment by dumping hazardous waste through the infiltration; the illegal dumping of hazardous waste by ZhuMou in Hechi, Guangxi, suspected of polluting the environment; and the crime of environmental pollution caused by the illegal dumping of hazardous waste by Ding, etc.

In view of the bad circumstances of the suspect dumping dangerous wastes into the river, Sun Youhai suggested that the judicial organs should seriously investigate and punish persons directly responsible for the crimes and punish the illegal environmental crimes committed by illegal dumping of dangerous wastes on the basis of finding out the facts.

The relevant heads of the Ministry of ecological environment pointed out that in these typical cases, relevant government departments timely informed clues to effectively control pollution diffusion; public security organs stepped in and fixed evidence and controlled suspects in time; procuratorial organs participated in consultation and guided investigation to ensure that the procedures and evidences met the criminal case litigation standards; the ecological environment department scientifically studied and judged and screened carefully, Effectively trace the sources of dumping waste; implement reporting rewards, respond to the concerns of the masses in a timely manner, and consolidate the mass foundation for combating the illegal crimes against the hazardous waste environment. The Ministry of ecological environment requires that all localities should further optimize the law enforcement methods and improve the efficiency and quality of handling cases of environmental crimes against hazardous waste.