The parade of pollution incidents in China has continued over the past few months and the Chinese (and international) media should be applauded for their continued coverage.  In addition to pollution incidents in Shaanxi, Hunan, Inner Mongolia and elsewhere (see our earlier post here), a new spate of cases have come to light:

• In Linyi, Shandong Province, 3 people were convicted on criminal charges for dumping massive amounts of arsenic-laden waste water into the Yellow River. This case was another instance of the use of the criminal provision regarding "spreading of toxic or hazardous substances," with its heavier criminal penalties, that we wrote about previously.
• In August 2009, more than 1,300 children in Wugang, Hunan Province were found to have abnormally high levels of lead, believed to be caused by coal, manganese and iron smelting plants in the area;
• More than 200 children in Kunming, Yunnan Province were found to have excessive levels of lead - the source of the pollution is disputed;
• In September 2009, at least 121 children living near a battery plant in the southern province of Fujian tested with high-levels of blood lead;
• In October 2009, 968 children in Jiyuan, Henan Province - China's biggest lead smelting base - showed excessive lead levels, leading to a plan to move the 15,000 local residents away from the pollution zone.

In response, the central government has announced several measures:

• In response to the Fengxiang and Wugang incidents, China's Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) approved in principle a draft "Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Handling of Heavy Metal Pollution" on August 28, 2009.  A final draft is still in preparation as of this writing. MEP has stated that this plan will include strengthening reform of industrial structure, raising the environmental threshold for projects, strengthening regulation of enterprise pollution, and rapidly establishing a regulatory system for managing heavy metal pollutant emissions and a complete inspection and supervision system for prevention and control of such pollution.
• On September 29, 2009, MEP announced that it would - along with eight (8) other ministries or bureaus** - commence a three-month nation-wide campaign to investigate enterprises that involve significant amounts of heavy metals (lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium and arsenic) in production, storage or transport processes.

The heightened media atte ntion, public concern and proposed government action are all necessary actions, but they are not enough.  Perhaps the most important announcement MEP made concerns "rapidly establishing a regulatory system for managing heavy metal pollutant emissions and a complete inspection and supervision system for prevention and control of such pollution."  This is an important recognition of the systemic nature of the problem.  Development of a system that can address pollution risks before they explode into major incidents is a must for protection of human health, minimization of costs and maintenance of social stability in China.  There are a host of measures that can be taken to fix the post-hoc nature of the current environmental regulatory system for heavy metal pollution (in no particular order).

• Give central environmental officials stronger authority and resources to step in when local governments fail to regulate. To break up local protectionism China's central environmental authorities need sufficient legal authority and resources (human and financial) to intervene in a sustained way in areas where  local governments fail to fulfill their legal duties.  MEP's authority should be expanded (even beyond its recent elevation to full ministry status). Such a move would be critical to addressing the types of heavy metal incidents that have been filling the headlines in recent months.
• Tie government official career prospects more closely to reduction of heavy metal pollution.China has had relatively good success with its total emissions control (TEC) system, which for now sets volume reduction targets for emissions of sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand (COD), a measure of water pollution.  Part of its success is the incorporation of pollution reduction targets into government official job evaluations.  This has the impact of focusing the minds of officials even at the lowest levels of the system.  This is one of those systems with "unique Chinese characteristics" and its strengths should be harnessed in the name of controlling heavy metal pollution as well.
• Disclose emissions to the public. This is perhaps the simplest measure government can take to help reduce pollution.  Information disclosure can assist overburdened enforcement officials by driving enterprises to reduce their own pollution, empowering the public the monitor loc al polluters and providing other stakeholders (like banks and corporate purchasers) with the tools to channel business away from bad environmental actors.  China has already moved in this direction and expanding use of information as a regulatory tool is low-hanging fruit for pollution reduction.
• Establish serious penalties for data falsification and illegal operation. When companies provide false data to the government, this weakens the very foundation of the environmental regulatory system.  Yet, penalties for lying to the government and obstructing inspections are extremely low (capped at around US$7,000 in China's water pollution law with no criminal penalties, for example).  There should be criminal liability for intentionally lying about environmental data or obstructing government inspection work.  Moreover, many enterprises often begin operations without going through basic registration and environmental impact assessment procedures.  This makes it more difficult for authorities to regulate these entities and leaves some of the worst polluters out of the scope of environmental regulation.  Stronger penalties and enforcement authorities (such as the ability to attach personal liability to company officials) should be put in place for such behaviors.
• Ramp-up the monitoring network. There is an urgent need to establish an effective ambient air monitoring network for pollutants with ambient air quality standards.  Without a monitoring network continuously measuring air quality in population centers and near priority pollution sources, the air quality standards in place provide little protection to those who most need them.  In addition, the monitoring data will provide an important check against fraudulent pollution reports that may be filed by large emitters.  China has already invested much in this and is planning to expand its nation-wide monitoring network.  The need to ramp-up quickly is more urgent than ever now.
• Develop a comprehensive approach to responding to pollution incidents. Finally, the response to pollution incidents should be expanded to incorporate the full-range of tools for reducing health risk from heavy metal pollution, including human and environmental sampling, emergency response activities, environmental remediation, exposure reduction, and human health protection measures.  These tools should be established on the polluter pays principle, but provide the resources for governmental agencies to act immediately and seek reimbursement later if the polluter is unwilling or unable to react immediately and responsibly.  China is using some, but not all, of these tools now and work can be done to make the response system more robust and more standardized around the country.

Experts in China have been calling for these reforms and the time is right to put these recommendations in place.  Where China has applied its full array of governance tools - say in the areas of energy efficiency and reduction of sulfur dioxide - there has been progress.  Heavy metal pollution has been taking a drastic toll on China and the time is right to apply that type of approach here.

Visit Greenlaw! See NRDC's bilingual blog dedicated to discussion of China's environmental law, policy and civil society at http://www.greenlaw.org.cn (Chinese) and http://www.greenlaw.org.cn/enblog (English).        

** In addition to MEP, the other ministries or offices involved in this campaign are: the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC; http://www.ndrc.gov.cn); Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT; http://www.miit.gov.cn); Ministry of Supervision (MOS; http://www.mos.gov.cn); Ministry of Justice (MOJ; http://www.moj.gov.cn); Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD; http://www.cin.gov.cn); State Administration for Industry & Commerce (SAIC; http://www.saic.gov.cn); State Administration of Work Safety (http://www.chinasafety.gov.cn); State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC;http://www.serc.gov.cn).