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On January 14, 2019, the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) issued a notice seeking feedback on revisions to Emission Standard of Pollutants for Petroleum Chemistry Industry (GB 31571-2015). The public consultation is scheduled to end on February 21, 2019.
According to the notice, after GB 31571-2015 was put into practice, the former Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection filed multiple reports pinpointing problems in the implementation of indirect emission standards. Thus some revisions are proposed to address relevant problems, further refine the emission standard system of water pollutants, and facilitate the future implementation of GB 31571-2015. The revisions majorly involve two aspects:
The application scope of the standard is expanded to further include “the emission management of water pollutants discharged by industrial park sewage treatment plants when petroleum chemistry enterprises and such plants determine the indirect discharge limits of water pollutants through negotiations”.
Excluding water pollutants which are subject to monitoring at the sewage outlets of workshops and production facilities, the indirect discharge limits of other water pollutants can be determined through negotiations when they enter industrial park sewage treatment plants at the provincial level or above, if the following five prerequisites are met:
Industrial park sewage treatment plants can provide documents to prove that they are able to effectively remove such pollutants;
Sewage of enterprises should enter the sewage treatment plants through separate drainage pipes;
Enterprises and industrial park sewage treatment plants should sign an agreement to accurately specify indicators like flow and concentration and relevant monitoring and management responsibilities;
The quantity of such pollutants discharged by industrial park sewage treatment plants shall not exceed the total quantity of such pollutants in sewage disposed by enterprises themselves according to relevant emission standards and requirements when there are no industrial park sewage treatment plants;
Enterprises and industrial park sewage treatment plants should facilitate automatic monitoring of pollutants which are subject to the negotiated limits and water volumes, and establish an information system connected to the MEE to enable sharing of monitoring data. Where automatic monitoring is not feasible for the moment, samples should be kept every day and manual monitoring shall be conducted at least on a weekly basis.
