"Around the boundless mountains and waters, thousands of trees and thousands of walls embrace the twilight; the yellow leaves in the sparse forest are ripe, and the reeds in the shallow water fly with wild geese." This is a vivid description of the scenery along the lower reaches of the North Fei River in his hometown by Xu Suowang, a great poet from Huaiyuan during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty. North Feihe River, formerly known as Xiashui, Hongshui, Beishui, also known as North Feishui and North Huaishui, originates in Shangqiu, Henan Province, flows all the way to the southeast, passes through counties such as Bozhou, Woyang, Mengcheng, Suixi and Huaiyuan in Anhui, and flows into the Huaihe River at Mohekou, Huaishang District, Bengbu City today. As an important tributary of the Huaihe River, the two banks of the North Fei River are densely populated, and the industry and agriculture are concentrated. The people's production and life depend on it, and they dare not overstep it for a moment. However, for a period of time, the ditch on one side of the economic development zone of a county (hereinafter referred to as "the economic development zone") adjacent to Huaishang District of Bengbu City was full of garbage, and the water body was black and smelly. The sewage from this place finally flowed into the Huaishang section of the North Fei River, seriously affecting the river ecology and the living environment of surrounding residents, which was strongly reflected by the local people. Under the continuous follow-up and supervision of the procuratorial organ, the water quality of the ditches involved in the case has been significantly improved and the public interest has been well maintained. In March 2022, this administrative public interest litigation case for urging the treatment of transboundary water pollution of the North Feihe River, handled by the Procuratorate of Huaishang District, Bengbu City, was rated as a typical case of procuratorial public interest litigation "looking back" to follow up and supervise.
NPC deputies provide clues about transboundary water pollution
The clue of this public interest litigation case originally came from the suggestions made by the local NPC representatives.
On July 13, 2020, the Standing Committee of Huaishang District People's Congress of Bengbu City handed over to the Huaishang District People's Procuratorate the opinions of the deputies to the District People's Congress on "strengthening the protection of public interest litigation for transboundary water pollution control of the North Feihe River". The letter of assignment said that the North Fei River flows through the main grain producing areas of Huaishang District and is the main water source for agricultural irrigation in Huaishang District. Huaishang District has developed agriculture, and farmland irrigation extends in all directions. At the same time, water pollution is also easy to spread and affect a wider range. In particular, cross-border water pollution problems need to be solved urgently. It is suggested that procuratorial organs should intervene in the investigation, play the role of procuratorial public interest litigation, safeguard social and public interests, and solve the problem of river ecological governance.
According to the suggestions of the Standing Committee of the District People's Congress, the Procuratorate of Huaishang District took immediate action, relying on the working mechanism of "River Chief+Procurator General" and cooperating with the River Chief's Office to check by means of drones, etc., and found that more than 800 tons of garbage were stacked in the economic development zone of a county on the upper reaches of the North Fei River and on the border with Meiqiao Town of Huaishang District, and the black and smelly water produced flowed into the Huaishang section of the North Fei River through the No. 2 ditch of Meiqiao. Upon detection, the involved water body is 15.5mg/L of ammonia nitrogen, - 202mv of redox potential and 281.33mg/L of chemical oxygen demand, which is inferior to Class V water.
In view of the fact that the source of pollution and the place of damage are respectively the Economic Development Zone of a county and Huaishang District, which belong to cross regional pollution, on October 16, 2020, Huaishang District Procuratorate asked Bengbu Municipal Procuratorate for instructions on the designation of jurisdiction. Under the guidance and coordination of the Provincial Procuratorate, the Bengbu Municipal Procuratorate transferred the case to the jurisdiction of the Huaishang District Procuratorate where the downstream damage was caused, and established a special case team led by the deputy chief procurator in charge to guide the handling of the case.
On October 29, 2020, the Huaishang District Procuratorate officially filed this pollution case. Through investigation, it is found that the management committee of a county economic development zone has legal responsibilities such as environmental governance and supervision, but the park's garbage and sewage treatment capacity is insufficient. On November 2, the procuratorate of Huaishang District issued procuratorial suggestions to the management committee of the economic development zone of a county, urging it to perform its responsibilities of territorial management of environmental protection and pollution prevention according to law, investigate and deal with environmental violations, actively coordinate relevant departments to clean up garbage in a timely manner, dredge ditches, strengthen publicity, establish a long-term system of garbage collection and treatment in the park, and curb littering at the source.
"Looking back" found that the rectification was not in place
After receiving the procuratorial suggestions, the management committee of a county economic development zone attached great importance and organized a centralized special rectification for one month. On December 4, 2020, the management committee of a county economic development zone replied to the Huaishang District Procuratorate that the problems listed in the procuratorial proposal had been effectively rectified and the expected work goals had been achieved.
The reporter learned that the reply letter to the procuratorial proposal mainly stated two points: first, strictly implement the requirements of the river leader system, and take multiple measures to solve the water quality problem and meet the standard of normal rainwater discharge through vigorous renovation. At the same time, we should make great efforts to improve and consolidate, constantly improve the hardware support, practically strengthen the supervision and disposal, source control, and maintain the long-term mechanism of environmental protection. Second, we will increase publicity and set up warning signs; Entrust a third party to collect and dispose the garbage regularly and keep it clean and tidy; Fulfill the responsibility of territorial management according to law, and resolutely investigate and deal with environmental violations; Dredge the ditches, timely dispose the floating garbage in the ditches, and maintain the water quality and sense.
Since then, the Huaishang District Procuratorate has preliminarily verified this reply and confirmed that more than 800 tons of garbage has been cleared up. In order to continuously follow up, supervise and rectify the situation, from January to February 2021, the public interest litigation department of the Huaishang District Procuratorate went to the scene of the crime and the surrounding areas for many times to conduct field investigations. Through inspection and interviews with the masses, it was found that there were still large pieces of garbage on the roadside of the crime scene, and the ditch banks along the road, especially the water body, were also full of garbage, which made the water body smell pungent.
In March of the same year, the two procuratorates of Bengbu City and Huaishang District jointly launched a public interest litigation "looking back", and found that although there was no new garbage after the large amount of garbage was cleared, the ditches were not effectively treated, and the water was still muddy. In order to find out the situation of water pollution control in the place where the crime occurred, the Bengbu Municipal Procuratorate and the Public Interest Litigation Joint Testing Laboratory of Bengbu Municipal Bureau of Ecological Environment sent personnel to go deep into the site to investigate and sample, and professional testing personnel tested the water quality around various indicators of water pollution such as black and odorous water bodies, so as to grasp the information about turbidity, oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, heavy metals and identification of black and odorous water bodies. Upon detection, the ammonia nitrogen in this water body exceeds the standard by nearly 8 times, which is still a black and odorous water body.
Obviously, the economic development zone of a county still has problems such as inadequate and incomplete rectification, and social and public interests are still in a state of infringement, which needs continued supervision. On April 13, 2021, with the approval of the Bengbu Procuratorate and the Bengbu Intermediate Court, the Huaishang District Procuratorate filed an administrative public interest lawsuit to the Bengbu Huaishang District Court in accordance with the law, emphasizing that at present, various pollution problems have not been effectively solved, various pollution acts still exist and continue to occur, the defendant failed to fully perform his duties according to the law, and the social and public interests continue to be violated, So he requested that the management committee of a county economic development zone be ordered to perform its environmental protection responsibilities according to law, clean up the garbage involved in the case, and control the black and odorous water pollution.
Bringing a lawsuit to promote full performance of duties according to law
On June 17, 2021, the court of Huaishang District, Bengbu City held a court session to hear this administrative public interest litigation case. The procuratorate of Huaishang District, as the public interest litigation prosecutor, sent personnel to the court to put forward the lawsuit request, explain the facts and reasons, and show the on-site photos, videos, inspection proposals, replies and other evidence before and after the sending of the procuratorial suggestions.
The Standing Committee of Huaishang District People's Congress also paid close attention to the hearing of the case. A deputy director of the Standing Committee of Huaishang District People's Congress led the team and invited 16 deputies of the District People's Congress who had made suggestions to attend the hearing of the case. The representatives praised the proposal of the procuratorial organ to handle cases in a lawsuit manner to promote the treatment of water pollution problems across basins.
After the opening of the first instance, a county government and its Economic Development Zone Management Committee invited the procuratorial organ to discuss rectification measures for many times. After discussion, the Management Committee of the Economic Development Zone further refined the remediation plan, invested 130 million yuan in succession, accelerated the construction and operation of a sewage treatment plant with a daily treatment capacity of 15000 tons, leased emergency sewage treatment equipment with a daily treatment capacity of 5000 tons, and disposed of more than 600000 tons of residual sewage in the pipeline network. At the same time, 2.1 kilometers of ditches were treated, 15 kilometers of pipe networks were reconstructed, and 67 water related enterprises were investigated and rectified to ensure that the industrial sewage treatment in the park reached the standard. In addition, the Management Committee of the Economic Development Zone also entrusted a third party to collect and treat waste, comprehensively renovate the ditches involved, and set up warning signs and isolation nets to eliminate pollution risks such as garbage dumping. After rectification, the water quality of the ditches involved in the case meets the Class IV surface water standard.
In view of the fact that the management committee of a county economic development zone has fully performed its duties in accordance with the law, and the purpose of public welfare protection has been achieved, the Huaishang District People's Procuratorate suggested that on August 20, 2021, the court of Huaishang District ruled to terminate the lawsuit.
