Firms try to impede pollution inspectors
Print Edition
TWO companies are under investigation after they tried to prevent pollution inspection teams from carrying out their duties, the environment ministry said yesterday.
Production at the firms, in Hebei and Shandong provinces, have been suspended and several employees detained, it said.
China has identified law enforcement as one of the biggest priorities in its three-year war on pollution, but local governments are still struggling to crack down on firms that flout standards and regulations.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said inspectors in Jinan, Shandong’s capital, were detained for an hour last Sunday by employees of the Shandong Lujie Environmental Protection Co Ltd. The firm manufacturers energy-efficient boilers and kilns but was accused of using obsolete equipment and exceeding emission standards.
The firm was ordered to suspend production and undergo “rectification,” the ministry said. Four people are being investigated.
A sales manager with the firm confirmed the company had suspended operations, but denied they had deliberately prevented inspectors from doing their job.
“It was just that they came on a Sunday, and they weren’t wearing environmental protection department uniforms or driving special law enforcement vehicles,” he said. “Our chairman thought they weren’t genuine, and had come to swindle us.”
In Xingtai in Hebei, one of China’s smoggiest cities, the ministry said two people were detained after environmental inspectors had their credentials “seized” by employees of a firm accused of violating pollution regulations.
The two cities have been ordered to investigate the incidents and impose appropriate punishments.
The ministry has embarked on what it has described as its biggest inspection campaign in history as it bids to ensure it meets 2017 pollution targets following a substantial deterioration in air quality in the first two months of the year.
By Friday last week, the ministry’s 28 inspection teams had investigated 1,335 companies, with 917, or 68.7 percent of the total, found to be in violation of state environmental standards.
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