List of Major Changes in Five Projects including Starch Issued to Ensure Effective Implementation of Environmental Impact Assessment System

Economic Daily - China Economic Net, Beijing, January 8th - Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued a notice on the issuance of a list of major changes in construction projects in five industries including starch (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), clarifying the major changes in the starch, water treatment, fertilizer manufacturing, magnesium titanium smelting, nickel cobalt tin antimony mercury smelting and other industries, and stipulating that the environmental impact assessment documents need to be re approved for any changes in construction projects in the above-mentioned industries.

Following the release of the major change list for nine industries including thermal power in 2015 (Environmental Protection Office [2015] No. 52 document) and fourteen industries including pulp and paper in 2018 (Environmental Protection Office Environmental Impact Assessment [2018] No. 6 document), the issuance of this notice aims to effectively strengthen the supervision and management of environmental impact assessment, solve the problems of lack of quantitative indicators for defining major changes in some industry construction projects, difficulty in unifying environmental management scales, and excessive administrative discretion, standardize the environmental management of major changes in construction projects, ensure the effective implementation of environmental impact assessment system, and cooperate with the application and issuance of pollutant discharge permits.

In order to maintain the coherence and consistency of management, this Notice defines major changes in the same principle as the Environmental Protection Office Document [2015] No. 52 and the Environmental Impact Assessment Document [2018] No. 6. It legally defines changes in one or more of the five factors of construction project nature, scale, location, production process, and environmental protection measures that may lead to significant changes in environmental impact (especially aggravated adverse environmental impact) as major changes. One significant change is the addition of new pollution projects and an increase in pollutant emissions due to changes in the types of raw materials, product plans, and production processes used in construction projects. The second reason is that the increase in the scale of construction projects leads to an increase in pollutant emissions and a worsening of adverse environmental impacts. The third is defined as significant changes caused by changes in environmental sensitive targets, evaluation scope, protection distance range, etc. resulting in increased adverse environmental impacts due to changes in the construction site. Fourthly, changes in emission methods and destinations, adjustments from indirect emissions to direct emissions, and significant changes (especially weakening) in environmental protection measures are defined as major changes. The list further strengthens the connection between environmental impact assessment and pollutant discharge permit system, and includes major changes in environmental impact assessment if the height of the main exhaust pipe for pollutant discharge permit management is reduced by 10% or more.

The five major change lists released this time highlight the differences in processes and production and discharge characteristics among different industries, enhancing the operability of identifying major changes.

The list of major changes in starch industry construction projects emphasizes the situation of changes in the direction of wastewater discharge. Considering that starch production enterprises use production wastewater as irrigation water or directly for land use, it clearly stipulates that the direction of wastewater discharge should be changed to agricultural irrigation or land use that meets relevant national or local laws, regulations, standards, and technical specifications, and is listed as a major change.

The list of major changes in water treatment construction projects highlights the changes in the quality of incoming water, which is equivalent to the inflow of other industries; Raw materials;, The change in the inflow will lead to a change in the discharge of pollutants, so the change in the quality or quantity of wastewater inflow is a significant change. The solid waste in the water treatment industry is mainly sludge, and the list of significant changes specifically specifies that adverse environmental impact changes in sludge production or self treatment capacity and methods are classified as significant changes.

Strengthen the control of total phosphorus pollutants and strictly enforce the control requirements for major changes in phosphate fertilizer construction projects in the fertilizer industry; Clearly list the situations where significant changes in environmental impact are caused by process changes, including the production process of phosphoric acid (wet process) from semi water to; Two water method or two water method‐ The semi water method has been changed to the dihydrate method, and the production process of compound fertilizer (compound fertilizer) has been changed from physical blending method to chemical method.

The list of major changes in magnesium and titanium smelting construction projects has increased the control of projects that use magnesium chloride as raw material to produce electrolytic magnesium and rutile as raw material to produce sponge titanium. The requirements for major changes in magnesium smelting construction projects are strictly enforced, and the major changes in facilities such as sponge titanium chlorination furnaces and magnesium electrolysis tanks, corresponding emission outlets, fuel changes, solid waste disposal capacity, and disposal methods are clarified.

The list of major changes in nickel, cobalt, tin, antimony, and mercury smelting construction projects strengthens the control of metal containing waste disposal projects, strictly controls the scale changes of mercury smelting construction projects, and clarifies the major changes in production facilities, solid waste disposal capacity, and disposal methods corresponding to the main discharge outlets.