Liaoning is a well-known old industrial base in my country, especially the heavy chemical and raw material industrial base, and has a long history of industrial production. It is known as the "eldest son of China's industry". For a long time, while making outstanding contributions to China's economic development, Liaoning has also left behind various serious pollution problems. Among them, the restoration of industrial contaminated sites is one of the key environmental problems that need to be solved urgently.

In recent years, Liaoning Province has carried out a lot of work on the pollution remediation of industrial sites and achieved remarkable results.

Case 1: "Scraping Soil to Treat Toxins" in Tiexi District

In terms of the treatment and restoration of contaminated sites, Liaoning can be said to have taken the earliest action and achieved fruitful results. If the remediation of industrial pollution sites in Liaoning began in Shenyang, then Shenyang began in Tiexi District.

Tiexi District, once known as the "Ruhr" in China, was an old industrial base built during the country's "First Five-Year Plan" and "Second Five-Year Plan" period, and later became a famous heavily polluted area. In 2003, Shenyang seized the opportunity of the country’s implementation of the northeast old industrial base revitalization strategy, and lavishly operated the merger of the Shenyang Development Zone and the old Tiexi District to form the new Tiexi District, that is, to relocate the industrial enterprises in the old Tiexi District by using the land difference. To the development zone; implant new service industries into the old Tiexi District, making it a focus area for modern service industries.

As early as August 2000, the Shenyang Smelter, known as my country’s "cradle of the non-ferrous metal industry" in Tiexi District, Shenyang City, was declared bankrupt due to serious pollution problems that could not be solved. The largest state-owned enterprise closed. At the same time, the contaminated site restoration project was initiated. By 2006, a total of 120 million yuan was invested to complete the treatment and restoration of 300,000 square meters of contaminated sites. This was not only the earliest restoration project of contaminated sites after the closure of enterprises in China, but also the largest area of contaminated sites in the country at that time.

Subsequently, Tiexi District launched the treatment project of the contaminated site of the Shenyang Storage Battery Factory; later, the contaminated site of the Shenyang Heavy Machinery Manufacturing Factory was implemented. At that time, the treatment method of "scraping the soil and treating poison" was adopted. The poisonous soil from the contaminated land was dug out and handed over to a qualified disposal unit to be responsible for clearing and safe disposal, and then backfilling with new soil. This experience has been fully affirmed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and has become a "model" for my country to solve environmental problems left after the relocation and bankruptcy of polluting enterprises.

Moreover, Liaoning Province has also treated the contaminated land of the "Shenfu Irrigation Canal" with decades of sewage irrigation history, effectively solving the problem of soil pollution by petroleum organic matter, and exploring new ways for the treatment of rural contaminated land. In addition, Shenyang turned the cadmium-contaminated area into an economic development zone, which was also a successful example of the reuse of contaminated sites.

Case 2: Shenhua and Dongyao's investment management

The Global Environment Facility "China Contaminated Site Management Project" is an international grant-type project developed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank under the framework of the Chinese government’s implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. So far, Liaoning Province and Chongqing City have been included in the project's demonstration provinces. Among them, Liaoning Province also selected "Relocation Site of Shenyang Chemical Co., Ltd." and "Relocation Site of Northeast Pharmaceutical Group" as demonstration projects of the project. Last year, the Foreign Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection formally signed a project implementation agreement with Liaoning Province in Shenyang. Shenhua and Dongyao are respectively important chemical raw materials and pharmaceutical manufacturers in Liaoning. The demonstration projects of the two plots are located in the old city of Tiexi District.

According to relevant personnel from the Liaoning Provincial Contaminated Site Treatment Project Office, the two plots of Shenhua and Dongyao are the first choice because they have been relocating recently and have urgent development needs. The two produced DDT and other products in the 1950s and 1960s, which are persistent organic pollutants. This is a kind of natural material with long-term residue, bioaccumulation, semi-volatile and high toxicity, and long-distance migration through various environmental media (atmosphere, water, organisms, etc.), which has serious harm to human health and the environment. Or synthetic organic pollutants. Currently, the Environmental Protection Department of Liaoning Province has investigated the environmental pollution status of 138 plots, but the number and location of the polluted plots have not been announced.

Although Shenyang used incineration and soil replacement to treat and repair heavy metal contaminated sites in the past, the pollutants of Shenhua and Dongyao contaminated plots are more complicated. Although the contract completion time limit for the project is from 2015 to 2021, the governance time can be controlled according to the company's relocation progress and the specific needs of land development. Liaoning is confident that, in addition to fully completing the "prescribed actions" stipulated in the "China Contaminated Site Management Project" agreement, it will also perform "optional actions" based on the actual conditions of Liaoning, and truly set the Shenhua and Dongyao projects into veritable benchmarks. It truly reflects its demonstration significance.

Ten Years of Land Rule in Liaoning

As one of the pilot provinces for national soil survey, Liaoning took the lead in conducting soil surveys across the province. Over the years, as many polluting companies have moved to the countryside, coupled with the large-scale application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in the countryside, not only have they destroyed the living environment of local farmers, but also made people worry about the safety of agricultural products. For this reason, it is imperative to repair the contaminated land in rural areas.

In accordance with national requirements, Liaoning also investigated the industrial pollution sites that were shut down and transferred and planned to be used in the province, and determined the scope and targets for subsequent pollution control of industrial sites.

Liaoning has formulated the "Work Plan for Pollution Prevention and Control During the Process of Shutdown, Relocation, and Redevelopment and Utilization of Industrial Enterprises in Liaoning Province" in order to prevent the illegal disposal, stealing and unregulated demolition of industrial enterprises during the process of closure and relocation.

The Liaoning Provincial Government recently issued the "Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Work Plan in Liaoning Province", and listed the soil and the atmosphere, water, rural areas, and green mountains as the five major environmental pollution control battles in the province. Liaoning will focus on the problems of soil pollution in heavy industrial cities, key industrial sites, historical sewage irrigation areas, oil fields, and mines that are dominated by petroleum, chemical, and smelting, and effectively strengthen soil pollution prevention and control, and gradually improve soil environmental quality.

Further reading:

Notice on Printing and Distributing the Work Plan for Soil Pollution Prevention and Control in Liaoning Province

Original title: Liaoning soil environmental supervision has entered normalization