China Daily
October 13, 2006

Eight construction projects have been blacklisted by the country’s environmental watchdog for failing to meet environment impact assessment (EIA) targets. The move came as the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) wrapped up its first round of investigation into the EIA’s of 2,453 construction projects that had been approved to start during the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2000-05). Luliang Coking Plant in North China’s Shanxi Province, the worst offender, built coking ovens in 2003 and 2004 with a total annual production capacity of 600,000 tons. The inspection found that the plant did not perform an EIA. The plant also failed to build the required treatment facilities for wastewater, which was instead discharged into a local river, a tributary of the Yellow River. The plant did not build the required coal gas purification system and ground dust removal station. Two other newly built ovens, which did go through EIA, failed tests. The coking plant has been ordered to suspend operations. It will be given a limited time to bring operations up to standard, and if not it will face further punishment, SEPA said. Another infamous project on the blacklist is the first and second phases of Shanghai’s outer ring road. The project was criticized in 2004 by SEPA for failing to build sound-proofing in its first phase. The problem has not been solved, and the second phase, completed in 2003, also lacks effective noise control. “High energy consumption and seriously polluting projects have been launched blindly by local governments in recent years,” said the SEPA spokesman. “The main reason is that local governments pursue fast economic growth but neglect the price of environmental destruction. They did not support the EIA.” SEPA said that full inspection results would be made public by the end of this year. The other six enterprises on the blacklist were: Zhanhua Power Plant and Shandong Haihua Co Ltd in East China’s Shandong Province; Jiangyou Power Plant in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province; Tangshan Power Plant in North China’s Hebei Province; part of Yongjin Highway in East China’s Zhejiang Province; and part of the highway from Qingdao in Shandong Province to Yinchuan in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Source: China Daily