On July 14, 2023, law enforcement officers from the Ecological Environment Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Detachment of Ulanqab City discovered significant deficiencies in the environmental protection self acceptance project report of a certain industrial limited company in Huade County during an off-site law enforcement inspection, suspected of fraud in self acceptance. Law enforcement officers immediately conducted on-site inspections of the company and reviewed relevant materials such as the self inspection report on the completion of the construction project.

After investigation, it was found that the company's No.1 and No.2 ore furnaces had completed independent acceptance on July 27, 2021, and the hazardous waste disposal unit provided in the supporting materials of the acceptance report did not have corresponding treatment qualifications; Failure to monitor fluoride and dioxins in accordance with the requirements of the Emission Standards for Air Pollutants in Steel Sintering and Pellet Industries during environmental protection completion acceptance monitoring; During the noise acceptance monitoring, only the surrounding area of the factory boundary was monitored, and the noise acceptance monitoring was not carried out one by one according to the "Noise Acceptance Objects in the Environmental Acceptance List". A certain environmental technology limited liability company, as a third-party environmental service agency providing acceptance services, issued a project acceptance certificate without strictly following the relevant laws, regulations, and technical specifications for environmental protection facility acceptance after the completion of the construction project.

A certain industrial limited company in Huade County engaged in fraudulent behavior in independent environmental protection acceptance, which violates the provisions of Article 17 (2) of the Regulations on Environmental Protection Management of Construction Projects. According to Article 23 of the Regulations on Environmental Protection Management of Construction Projects and the relevant provisions of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Ecological Environment System Administrative Penalty Discretionary Standards (Trial), a fine of 760000 yuan shall be imposed on the company and relevant responsible persons for their illegal behavior of falsifying information during the self acceptance of environmental protection after the completion of construction projects.

Attachment: Specific Situations and Legal Responsibilities of Falsification in Independent Environmental Protection Acceptance

Related terms

1、 Regulations on Environmental Protection Management of Construction Projects

Article 17: After the completion of a construction project that prepares an environmental impact assessment report or an environmental impact assessment form, the construction unit shall inspect the supporting environmental protection facilities in accordance with the standards and procedures prescribed by the competent administrative department of environmental protection under the State Council, and prepare an acceptance report. During the acceptance process of environmental protection facilities, the construction unit shall truthfully inspect, monitor, and record the construction and commissioning of environmental protection facilities in the construction project, and shall not engage in fraud. Except for situations that require confidentiality according to national regulations, the construction unit shall publicly disclose the acceptance report to the society in accordance with the law.

Article 23: Those who, in violation of the provisions of these Regulations, fail to complete, undergo acceptance inspection or fail to pass acceptance inspection of environmental protection facilities that need to be constructed, and the construction project is put into production or use immediately, or engage in fraud during the acceptance inspection of environmental protection facilities, shall be ordered by the environmental protection administrative department at or above the county level to make corrections within a time limit and fined not less than 200000 yuan but not more than 1 million yuan; Those who fail to make corrections within the prescribed time limit shall be fined between 1 million yuan and 2 million yuan; Impose a fine of not less than 50000 yuan but not more than 200000 yuan on the directly responsible supervisors and other responsible personnel; Those who cause significant environmental pollution or ecological damage shall be ordered to stop production or use, or shall be ordered to close down with the approval of the people's government with approval power. If the construction unit violates the provisions of these regulations and fails to publicly disclose the acceptance report of environmental protection facilities to the society in accordance with the law, the environmental protection administrative department at or above the county level shall order the disclosure, impose a fine of not less than 50000 yuan but not more than 200000 yuan, and make a public announcement.

The situation of falsification

Notice on Severely Punishing Falsification and Strengthening the Supervision and Enforcement of Autonomous Acceptance of Environmental Protection for Completion of Construction Projects (Environmental Protection Office Law Enforcement [2022] No. 25)

1、 Forgery or tampering with critical information

Falsifying or tampering with the following key information in the acceptance report:

① Environmental impact assessment approval status, application for pollution discharge permits and other environmental protection procedures information;

② Basic engineering information such as construction location, nature, scale, and production process;

Construction location: Relocation; Adjustments near the original factory site (including changes in the overall layout) result in changes in the environmental protection distance range and the addition of sensitive points. "Adjustment near the original factory site" refers to the situation where the red line range of the construction project after adjustment overlaps with the red line range of the original factory site.

Nature: Changes in the development and use functions of the construction project.

Scale: If the production, disposal or storage capacity increases by 30% or more, resulting in an increase in the discharge of Class I pollutants in wastewater; Construction projects located in areas with substandard environmental quality have increased production, disposal, or storage capacity, resulting in an increase in corresponding pollutant emissions; Construction projects located in standard areas have increased production, disposal, or storage capacity, resulting in a 10% or more increase in pollutant emissions.

Production process: New product varieties or production processes (including main production equipment, equipment and supporting facilities), changes in main raw and auxiliary materials, and fuel, resulting in one of the following situations:

(1) Newly added types of emitted pollutants (excluding those with reduced toxicity and volatility);

(2) The corresponding increase in pollutant emissions from construction projects located in areas with substandard environmental quality;

(3) The discharge of the first type of pollutant in wastewater has increased;

(4) An increase of 10% or more in the emissions of other pollutants. Changes in material transportation, loading and unloading, and storage methods result in an increase of 10% or more in unorganized emissions of atmospheric pollutants.

③ Main types of pollutants, emission destinations, total emissions, and other pollutant emission information;

④ Acceptance monitoring information such as monitoring points for major pollutants and environmental quality, monitoring factors, monitoring frequency and cycle, monitoring results, and compliance judgments;

⑤ Environmental protection facility type, quantity, installation location, debugging and operation effect, automatic monitoring of facility installation and networking status, and other environmental protection facility information.

2、 Key content missing

The acceptance report is missing the following key content:

① Including those who have not analyzed the main changes and reasons for the project, which belong to significant changes but have not provided environmental impact assessment documents for re approval;

② Failure to analyze the actual construction, commissioning and operation, and treatment effects of the main environmental protection facilities required by the environmental impact assessment documents and approval documents;

③ Failure to monitor characteristic pollutants in accordance with environmental impact assessment documents and approval documents, current pollutant emission standards, and national total control requirements;

④ Failure to record the implementation of ecological and environmental protection measures such as reducing regional pollutants, phasing out outdated production capacity, relocating residents within the protection distance, monitoring during construction, and protecting habitats as required by the environmental impact assessment and approval documents.

3、 Incorrect acceptance conclusion

① If there are significant changes in the nature, scale, location, production process or measures for pollution prevention and ecological damage of the construction project, and the conclusion is still given that it does not belong to significant changes;

② The discharge of major pollutants does not meet the relevant national and local standards, environmental impact assessment documents and approval documents, or national total control requirements, and is still recognized as meeting the emission standards or environmental quality acceptance standards;

③ Other situations listed in Article 8 of the Provisional Measures that cannot pass the acceptance but still provide a qualified acceptance conclusion.

Article 8: If the environmental protection facilities of a construction project fall under any of the following circumstances, the construction unit shall not provide an opinion on passing the acceptance inspection:

(1) Failure to build environmental protection facilities in accordance with the requirements of the environmental impact report (table) and its approval department, or the inability of environmental protection facilities to be put into operation or used simultaneously with the main project;

(2) Pollutant emissions that do not comply with relevant national and local standards, environmental impact reports (tables) and their approval decisions by the approval department, or the requirements for total control indicators of key pollutant emissions;

(3) After the approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIA), if there are significant changes in the nature, scale, location, production process adopted, or measures for pollution prevention and ecological damage prevention of the construction project, and the construction unit fails to reapply for the EIA or the EIA is not approved;

(4) Causing significant environmental pollution during the construction process that has not been fully treated, or causing significant ecological damage that has not been restored;

(5) Construction projects included in pollution discharge permit management that discharge pollutants without a permit or without a permit;

(6) If a construction project that is required to be inspected and accepted in stages according to law cannot meet the corresponding main engineering needs in terms of its ability to prevent and control environmental pollution and ecological damage through the environmental protection facilities constructed, put into production or used in stages;

(7) The construction unit has been punished for violating national and local environmental protection laws and regulations for the construction project, and has been ordered to make corrections, which have not been completed yet;

(8) The basic data of the acceptance report is obviously untrue, with significant omissions or omissions in the content, or the acceptance conclusion is unclear and unreasonable;

(9) Other environmental protection laws, regulations, and rules shall not pass the environmental protection acceptance.

4、 Other fraudulent situations

① Falsifying or tampering with the main proof or supporting materials attached to the acceptance report;

② Any tampering or forgery of monitoring data as listed in Articles 4, 5, and 6 of the Measures for the Determination and Handling of Falsification of Environmental Monitoring Data;

Article 4: Tampering of monitoring data refers to the intentional interference in the normal operation of environmental monitoring activities by taking advantage of certain positions or work conditions, resulting in the distortion of monitoring data, including the following situations:

(1) Unauthorized shutdown, alteration, addition or reduction of environmental monitoring points, or intentional alteration of the attributes of environmental monitoring points without the consent of the approval department;

(2) Using methods such as manual obstruction, blockage, and spraying to interfere with the sampling port or the surrounding local environment;

(3) Human manipulation, intervention, or destruction of the production conditions and pollution source purification facilities of polluting units, resulting in production or pollution conditions that do not match the actual situation;

(4) Diluted emissions or bypass emissions, or discharging some or all pollutants from unregulated discharge outlets to evade automatic monitoring facilities;

(5) Damaging or damaging monitoring equipment, station buildings, communication lines, information collection and transmission equipment, video equipment, power equipment, air conditioning, fans, sampling pumps, sampling pipelines, monitoring instruments or meters, and other monitoring or auxiliary facilities;

(6) Intentionally replacing, concealing, abandoning monitoring samples, or changing the nature of monitoring samples through dilution, adsorption, absorption, filtration, or changing sample storage conditions;

(7) Intentionally failing to detect key items or intentionally changing the monitoring methods of key items without justifiable reasons;

(8) Intentionally altering or interfering with the environmental conditions or operating status of instruments and equipment, or deleting, modifying, adding, or interfering with the data and application programs stored, processed, and transmitted in monitoring equipment, or artificially using reagents or standards to interfere with instruments;

(9) Without filing with the competent environmental protection department, the automatic monitoring equipment may secretly modify the parameters and monitoring data of the automatic monitoring equipment through special codes, combination buttons, remote login, remote control, simulation, and other methods to enter the non-public operation interface;

(10) Intentionally recording or selectively recording raw data without truthfulness;

(11) Tampering, destroying original records, or not transmitting original data in accordance with regulations;

(12) Unreasonable rounding or selection of raw data, or selective evaluation of monitoring data, issuance of monitoring reports or publication of results, resulting in distorted evaluation conclusions;

(13) Unauthorized modification of data;

(14) Other suspected cases of tampering with monitoring data.

Article 5: Forgery of monitoring data refers to the act of fabricating false monitoring data out of thin air without implementing substantive environmental monitoring activities, including the following situations:

(1) The original paper records are inconsistent with the electronic storage records, or the spectra do not correspond to the analysis results, or are replaced by the analysis results and spectra of other samples;

(2) The monitoring report is inconsistent with the original recorded information, or there is no corresponding original data;

(3) The copy of the monitoring report is inconsistent with the original;

(4) Forgery of monitoring time or signature;

(5) Generating monitoring data out of thin air through instrument data simulation function or implanted simulation software;

(6) Directly issuing monitoring data or on-site sampling without conducting sampling or analysis, but without opening a flue sampling port and issuing a monitoring report;

(7) Failure to retain or preserve samples in accordance with regulations, resulting in the inability to review monitoring results;

(8) Other suspected cases of falsifying monitoring data.

Article 6: Acts suspected of instigating tampering or forging of monitoring data, including the following situations:

(1) Forcing or instructing relevant personnel to tamper with or forge monitoring data;

(2) List the achievement of assessment standards or evaluation rankings as the work assessment requirements of subordinate monitoring agencies and monitoring personnel, with the intention of intervening in monitoring data;

(3) Without justifiable reasons, forcing monitoring agencies to monitor multiple times and select data from them, or refusing to sign and report monitoring data without justifiable reasons;

(4) If the personnel of the commissioning party instruct the staff of the monitoring agency to tamper with or forge monitoring data, or carry out multiple or multiple monitoring commissions without rectification, and select "qualified" monitoring reports from them;

(5) Other suspected cases of instigating tampering or forgery of monitoring data.

③ Falsifying or tampering with public feedback and handling situations