In order to pay less pollution discharge fees, the cement plant artificially modified the online monitoring data of pollutants, and was discovered because the modified pollutant emission concentrations were significantly low. Yesterday afternoon, Beijing Lima Cement Co., Ltd. in Fangshan District received a 200,000 yuan fine from the Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau for artificially modifying the parameters of automatic monitoring equipment. It is reported that this is the first case of data fraud in Beijing's cement industry to date.

>>Monitoring

Pollutant emission concentrations significantly low

In order to improve real-time and effective supervision of key pollution sources, Beijing has built an automatic pollution source supervision system to achieve real-time monitoring of more than 200 key pollution sources in the city, making it convenient for environmental protection departments to grasp the pollutant emission situation of pollution source units in a timely manner. This measure uses technological means to strengthen government supervision of the emission behavior of pollutant discharge units. Key pollution source units can also adjust their own production and pollutant emission management at any time based on automatic monitoring data to achieve compliant emissions. However, some enterprises tamper with monitoring equipment in order to pay less pollution discharge fees.

Xu Ruiguo, a principal staff member of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Inspection Corps, introduced that in the monitoring center of the Environmental Inspection Corps, data from more than 200 key pollution sources can be checked at any time, and staff are on duty 24 hours a day. In early June this year, staff at the monitoring center found that the concentration levels of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter at Beijing Lima Cement Company were significantly lower than those of units in the same industry, and this situation lasted for many days.

“If there is a deviation in data for one or two days, it is allowed, but lasting more than 5 days is certainly abnormal.” Xu Ruiguo said that on June 24, law enforcement officers from the Municipal Environmental Inspection Corps conducted a comprehensive and systematic inspection of the enterprise and found that the parameters of its automatic monitoring industrial control machine had been artificially modified, causing the measured concentrations of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter to be only 70%, 50%, and 50% of the actual emission concentrations, resulting in significantly low converted emission concentrations of the three main pollutants.

>>Penalty

Maximum fine imposed and pollution discharge fees recovered

It is understood that by modifying parameters, the enterprise made the emission data obtained by the environmental protection department much lower than the actual emission values, thereby achieving the purpose of paying less pollution discharge fees. The Municipal Environmental Inspection Corps stated that the behavior of Lima Cement Company has violated relevant environmental protection laws and regulations. The Municipal Environmental Inspection Corps immediately ordered it to stop the illegal act, required it to make corrections within a time limit, and proposed to impose a fine of 200,000 yuan on its illegal act.

Yesterday afternoon, the Municipal Environmental Inspection Corps issued a notice of administrative penalty hearing to the unit. In response to the unit's illegal act, in addition to imposing the maximum penalty, the environmental protection department will also recover pollution discharge fees in accordance with the law, but the specific amount to be paid still needs to be further verified by the district environmental protection bureau.

Xu Ruiguo said that the automatic pollution source supervision system provides technological means for the government to strictly supervise and strengthen law enforcement. Judging from the current online monitoring situation, most units can abide by the law and self-discipline. Lima Cement Company is the first case of data fraud in Beijing's cement industry to date.

>>Response

Cement company “blames” third party

Facing a 200,000 yuan fine, Gong Xuefei, the production manager of Lima Cement Company, repeatedly protested his innocence. “We entrusted a third-party company to manage the automatic monitoring equipment. After they completed debugging, we thought everything was fine.”

Gong Xuefei said that on June 17 this year, the company spent more than 360,000 yuan to replace a new set of automatic monitoring equipment. The equipment was debugged by technicians from Liuhe Tianrong Company, a third party entrusted by them. The next day, the technicians said debugging was complete. After they checked and confirmed that the monitoring data showed pollutant emissions were compliant, they thought there was no problem. On June 22, the new equipment stopped being used due to problems with the company's production line. When it was restarted on the morning of the 24th, environmental law enforcement officers arrived. “Our emissions are all compliant; there is no need to modify the data.” Gong Xuefei said the company will apply for a hearing.

Li Bin, deputy head of the Municipal Environmental Inspection Corps, said that whether a third party is entrusted to manage the equipment or the enterprise monitors itself, the enterprise has the obligation to ensure the normal operation of automatic monitoring equipment and the authenticity and accuracy of data. Next, the Legal Affairs Office of the Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau will accept the company's request for a hearing and organize relevant personnel to participate in the hearing in accordance with the law.

>>Clarification

Can data be modified at will?

Xu Ruiguo said that the daily operation and maintenance of the automatic pollution source supervision system is usually entrusted to a third party. Parameter settings should be set in accordance with the specifications and requirements of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and are relatively fixed. However, sometimes they can be adjusted according to the enterprise's production process, operating conditions, and the operation of monitoring equipment. But parameter modifications must be reported to the environmental protection department for approval, and arbitrary modification is absolutely not allowed.