Xu Yun's 2023 began with joy.
At the beginning of January, the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" for Noise Pollution Prevention and Control (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") was just issued, and Xu Yun, as the director of the Environmental Assessment Division of Taizhou Ecological Environment Bureau of Jiangsu Province, studied the document in detail.
Among them, one sentence drew her attention: "Issue the application and technical specifications for industrial noise emission permits, issue emission permits or carry out emission registration according to law, and strengthen supervision."
Xu Yun is familiar with the fact that industrial noise is included in the regulation of emission permits. Since 2021, Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, as a pilot area, has explored the management content and implementation path of incorporating noise into emission permits. "This is an affirmation of our work. We are naturally delighted that Taizhou can pilot the noise pollution prevention and control action in advance for the 14th Five-Year Plan," Xu Yun said.
From the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution" (hereinafter referred to as the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution"), which clearly includes industrial noise into the management of emission permits, to the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan", which points out that specific work will be carried out from the aspects of permit application, issuance and supervision, "strict supervision of industrial noise" is coming into reality step by step.
Industrial noise accounts for 47.9% of noise complaints, and supervision is limited by the absence of upper law
Li Ru returned to work after graduating from college last year. His life in his hometown was comfortable and secure, but things have changed in recent months.
"Every morning, I was awakened by the 'thumping' crash, and my daily life was also affected by the continuous and sharp noise, and I felt that my spirit was going to collapse." A factory not far from home kept making constant noise, which made Li Ru miserable. After the negotiation with the factory failed, Li Ru chose to complain and report on the national ecological environment complaint management platform.
There are not a few people like Li Ru who are deeply troubled by industrial noise.
According to the 2022 China Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Report released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, among the more than 450000 public environmental complaints and reports received by the National Ecological Environment Complaints and Complaints Management Platform in 2021, the noise nuisance problem accounted for 45.0% of all reports. Among the noise complaints and reports accepted, industrial noise is the main, accounting for 47.9%.
"Industrial noise is a common noise source with high sound level and high low frequency components. It has a serious impact on the surrounding environment, hinders people's normal work and life, and damages the human hearing system and nervous system." Xu Yun said that in her daily work, she has also been paying attention to industrial noise pollution, but she is still confused about how to prevent and control it.
As the core system of environmental management of fixed pollution sources, the pollution discharge permit system is of great significance to the implementation of the main responsibility of enterprises for pollution control. If the prevention and control of noise pollution can be included in the emission permit, it will further promote the refinement, element and systematization of the prevention and control of noise pollution.
In fact, the country has considered this very early. In November 2016, the General Office of the State Council issued the Implementation Plan of the Permit System for Controlling Pollutant Discharge, which proposed to promote the revision of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution, and explore the inclusion of relevant pollutants in the management of pollutant discharge permits.
However, there has been no progress in the introduction of noise into the management of emission permits for a long time. Xu Yun believes that it is limited by the fact that the upper law of the time, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution, has no relevant content of emission permits.
On December 24, 2021, the 32nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress passed the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution, which clearly included industrial noise in the management of pollution discharge license, and finally supported by the upper law.
The implementation of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution has greatly accelerated the process of bringing industrial noise into the management of emission permits. A reporter searched the website of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and found that on December 26th last year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Application for and Issuance of Pollution Discharge Permits and Technical Specifications for Industrial Noise (Draft for Comments)" to solicit public opinions.
It is mentioned in the preparation note that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment entrusted the Environmental Engineering Assessment Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment to take the lead and cooperate with the Institute of Urban Safety and Environmental Sciences of the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology to jointly carry out the preparation of the Technical Specifications for the Application and Issuance of Emission Permits and Industrial Noise.
Full coverage of fixed pollution source emission permits, laying a foundation for the pilot work in Taizhou
Although it was not until the implementation of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution that noise was included in the management of pollutant discharge permits was supported by the upper law, Taizhou City began the relevant pilot work as early as 2021.
Originally, in order to comprehensively promote the emission permit system, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has carried out the pilot implementation of the Implementation Plan for the Establishment of a Fixed Pollution Source Supervision System with the Emission Permit System as the Core in some regions since June 2021, trying to explore replicable, referential and promotable experience.
"Taizhou City has achieved the 'full coverage' of the fixed pollution source emission permit in July 2020, which has a good working basis. Considering the work requirements of the Ministry and the actual needs of the city's noise supervision, we have successfully applied for the pilot of the content and implementation path of environmental noise into the emission permit management." Xu Yun introduced.
To try to build a management mode of "source control - process control" of environmental noise, it is necessary to collect and analyze a large number of basic data of noise emission permits. The pilot work of Taizhou City also started from the establishment of the database.
"The project team followed the principle of full coverage of the industry and the proportion of enterprises not less than 10%, and selected 385 enterprises to summarize the noise-related data such as their emission permits (copies), environmental impact assessment documents, routine monitoring, etc." Zhang Jie, a member of the Taizhou emission permit pilot work and deputy general manager of Jiangsu Environmental Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters.
When the basic database of Taizhou noise emission permit was completed, nearly 11000 duplicate data of emission permit, nearly 1700 environmental impact assessment data and nearly 350 routine monitoring data were put together, and the characteristics of Taizhou's industrial noise pollution prevention and control naturally emerged.
According to the chart provided by Zhang Jie, the reporter can clearly see that the noise intensity of each noise-generating equipment is arranged from high to low. The largest noise intensity is the boiler exhaust pipe, which is mainly used in the power and steel industries.
"In addition, we analyzed the noise reduction measures by industry, and found that all industries did not adopt the way of adjusting the layout of the factory buildings to reduce noise. The analysis of the routine monitoring data of enterprises found that there were errors in the routine monitoring period of the third party or could not normally reflect the noise pollution of enterprises," Zhang Jie said.
Based on the results of data analysis, the Taizhou Municipal Emission Permit Pilot Working Group selected a total of 45 typical enterprises in the power, steel, petrochemical and other industries to conduct on-site investigation and monitoring, further understand the key noise-producing equipment and characteristics of each industry, so as to clarify the industrial scope, management content and technical requirements of the noise emission permit pilot management in Taizhou City.
In August 2022, the "Implementation Plan of Taizhou City Environmental Noise Included in the Management of Pollution Discharge Permit" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan") was completed. Specify the completion time of the issuance of the noise emission permit for each industry, and implement the responsibilities of each department; Strictly implement the ecological environmental protection responsibility of noise emission units, implement the main responsibility of noise emission according to the certificate, and require self-monitoring and regular reporting.
"We have also developed an information management platform for environmental noise emission permits, in which environmental noise is included in the scope of declaration, implementation and supervision of emission permits. The entire Implementation Plan provides a reasonable and feasible implementation path for the management of noise emission permits in Taizhou City, and explores the realization of the whole-cycle and refined management of noise emission units by categories and zones," Xu Yun told reporters.
Scientifically designate key pollutant discharge units, and the implementation process still needs to be advanced step by step in an orderly manner
At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in January, the relevant person in charge of the Department of Environmental Impact Assessment and Emission Management once again mentioned the work of industrial noise emission permit: "Industrial noise and marine engineering shall be included in the emission permit in an orderly manner according to law, and all-factor management shall be implemented."
Hu Wencheng, deputy director of the Institute of Urban Safety and Environmental Sciences of the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, spoke highly of the inclusion of industrial noise in the emission permit. He believes that this is the active implementation of the relevant provisions of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution, the need to build the core system of pollutant discharge permit, the realization of the full element and systematization of industrial pollution prevention and control, and the compaction of the main responsibility of enterprises for industrial noise pollution prevention and control.
"The up-to-standard emission is the prerequisite for applying for the license. The inclusion of industrial noise in the management of the emission license can force enterprises to take noise reduction measures to ensure that the emission meets the standard. The emission license puts forward requirements for the daily management of enterprises throughout the operation stage, such as regular monitoring of noise emissions, recording of standing books, and submission of implementation reports, which will urge enterprises to pay attention to noise management, self-inspection and self-correction, find noise environmental problems as soon as possible, and reduce the risk of complaints 。” Hu Wencheng explained.
In addition, the enforcement of emission permits belongs to local environmental law enforcement. Hu Wencheng believes that after the industrial noise is included in the emission permits, the problems of enterprise noise management can be found in time through daily law enforcement, which is conducive to strengthening the supervision of industrial noise prevention and control.
There is also Jin Jianhong, the leader of the squadron directly under the Dongyang Ecological Environmental Protection Administrative Law Enforcement Team in Zhejiang Province, who holds the same view.
On June 5 last year, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution was officially implemented. On the same day, Jin Jianhong led a team to investigate and deal with a case of excessive industrial noise emission. He believed that after the industrial noise was included in the emission permit, there would be more clear requirements for the self-monitoring and environmental management account records of enterprises, and the daily law enforcement and supervision would be more convenient.
On the other hand, the implementation of emission permits and management of key emission units for industrial noise involves many industries, many noise sources, complex pollution causes, different local characteristics, and the implementation of specific work is not easy.
Hu Wencheng pointed out that the implementation process should be carried out step by step in an orderly manner, not in one step, to avoid "one size fits all". At the same time, it is necessary to comprehensively consider factors such as noise emission level, enterprise scale, geographical location and population impact, and scientifically and reasonably designate key pollutant discharge units.
"We should not only meet the local requirements for noise pollution prevention and control, but also not add too much burden to enterprises. At the same time, we should avoid 'grasping the big and letting the small'." Hu Wencheng told reporters that large-scale industrial enterprises generally have a high level of environmental management, while small enterprises may often neglect environmental management in order to save costs, which is particularly obvious in noise pollution prevention and control.
In addition, Hu Wencheng reminded that in the process of incorporating industrial noise into the implementation of the emission permit, all localities should pay attention to the investigation and summary, actively carry out assistance to enterprises, listen to the voice of enterprises, play the role of the industry association, collect and sort out reasonable suggestions, timely modify technical requirements, and promote the prevention and control of industrial noise.
At the beginning of January, the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" for Noise Pollution Prevention and Control (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") was just issued, and Xu Yun, as the director of the Environmental Assessment Division of Taizhou Ecological Environment Bureau of Jiangsu Province, studied the document in detail.
Among them, one sentence drew her attention: "Issue the application and technical specifications for industrial noise emission permits, issue emission permits or carry out emission registration according to law, and strengthen supervision."
Xu Yun is familiar with the fact that industrial noise is included in the regulation of emission permits. Since 2021, Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, as a pilot area, has explored the management content and implementation path of incorporating noise into emission permits. "This is an affirmation of our work. We are naturally delighted that Taizhou can pilot the noise pollution prevention and control action in advance for the 14th Five-Year Plan," Xu Yun said.
From the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution" (hereinafter referred to as the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution"), which clearly includes industrial noise into the management of emission permits, to the "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan", which points out that specific work will be carried out from the aspects of permit application, issuance and supervision, "strict supervision of industrial noise" is coming into reality step by step.
Industrial noise accounts for 47.9% of noise complaints, and supervision is limited by the absence of upper law
Li Ru returned to work after graduating from college last year. His life in his hometown was comfortable and secure, but things have changed in recent months.
"Every morning, I was awakened by the 'thumping' crash, and my daily life was also affected by the continuous and sharp noise, and I felt that my spirit was going to collapse." A factory not far from home kept making constant noise, which made Li Ru miserable. After the negotiation with the factory failed, Li Ru chose to complain and report on the national ecological environment complaint management platform.
There are not a few people like Li Ru who are deeply troubled by industrial noise.
According to the 2022 China Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Report released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, among the more than 450000 public environmental complaints and reports received by the National Ecological Environment Complaints and Complaints Management Platform in 2021, the noise nuisance problem accounted for 45.0% of all reports. Among the noise complaints and reports accepted, industrial noise is the main, accounting for 47.9%.
"Industrial noise is a common noise source with high sound level and high low frequency components. It has a serious impact on the surrounding environment, hinders people's normal work and life, and damages the human hearing system and nervous system." Xu Yun said that in her daily work, she has also been paying attention to industrial noise pollution, but she is still confused about how to prevent and control it.
As the core system of environmental management of fixed pollution sources, the pollution discharge permit system is of great significance to the implementation of the main responsibility of enterprises for pollution control. If the prevention and control of noise pollution can be included in the emission permit, it will further promote the refinement, element and systematization of the prevention and control of noise pollution.
In fact, the country has considered this very early. In November 2016, the General Office of the State Council issued the Implementation Plan of the Permit System for Controlling Pollutant Discharge, which proposed to promote the revision of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution, and explore the inclusion of relevant pollutants in the management of pollutant discharge permits.
However, there has been no progress in the introduction of noise into the management of emission permits for a long time. Xu Yun believes that it is limited by the fact that the upper law of the time, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution, has no relevant content of emission permits.
On December 24, 2021, the 32nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress passed the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution, which clearly included industrial noise in the management of pollution discharge license, and finally supported by the upper law.
The implementation of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution has greatly accelerated the process of bringing industrial noise into the management of emission permits. A reporter searched the website of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and found that on December 26th last year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "Application for and Issuance of Pollution Discharge Permits and Technical Specifications for Industrial Noise (Draft for Comments)" to solicit public opinions.
It is mentioned in the preparation note that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment entrusted the Environmental Engineering Assessment Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment to take the lead and cooperate with the Institute of Urban Safety and Environmental Sciences of the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology to jointly carry out the preparation of the Technical Specifications for the Application and Issuance of Emission Permits and Industrial Noise.
Full coverage of fixed pollution source emission permits, laying a foundation for the pilot work in Taizhou
Although it was not until the implementation of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution that noise was included in the management of pollutant discharge permits was supported by the upper law, Taizhou City began the relevant pilot work as early as 2021.
Originally, in order to comprehensively promote the emission permit system, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has carried out the pilot implementation of the Implementation Plan for the Establishment of a Fixed Pollution Source Supervision System with the Emission Permit System as the Core in some regions since June 2021, trying to explore replicable, referential and promotable experience.
"Taizhou City has achieved the 'full coverage' of the fixed pollution source emission permit in July 2020, which has a good working basis. Considering the work requirements of the Ministry and the actual needs of the city's noise supervision, we have successfully applied for the pilot of the content and implementation path of environmental noise into the emission permit management." Xu Yun introduced.
To try to build a management mode of "source control - process control" of environmental noise, it is necessary to collect and analyze a large number of basic data of noise emission permits. The pilot work of Taizhou City also started from the establishment of the database.
"The project team followed the principle of full coverage of the industry and the proportion of enterprises not less than 10%, and selected 385 enterprises to summarize the noise-related data such as their emission permits (copies), environmental impact assessment documents, routine monitoring, etc." Zhang Jie, a member of the Taizhou emission permit pilot work and deputy general manager of Jiangsu Environmental Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters.
When the basic database of Taizhou noise emission permit was completed, nearly 11000 duplicate data of emission permit, nearly 1700 environmental impact assessment data and nearly 350 routine monitoring data were put together, and the characteristics of Taizhou's industrial noise pollution prevention and control naturally emerged.
According to the chart provided by Zhang Jie, the reporter can clearly see that the noise intensity of each noise-generating equipment is arranged from high to low. The largest noise intensity is the boiler exhaust pipe, which is mainly used in the power and steel industries.
"In addition, we analyzed the noise reduction measures by industry, and found that all industries did not adopt the way of adjusting the layout of the factory buildings to reduce noise. The analysis of the routine monitoring data of enterprises found that there were errors in the routine monitoring period of the third party or could not normally reflect the noise pollution of enterprises," Zhang Jie said.
Based on the results of data analysis, the Taizhou Municipal Emission Permit Pilot Working Group selected a total of 45 typical enterprises in the power, steel, petrochemical and other industries to conduct on-site investigation and monitoring, further understand the key noise-producing equipment and characteristics of each industry, so as to clarify the industrial scope, management content and technical requirements of the noise emission permit pilot management in Taizhou City.
In August 2022, the "Implementation Plan of Taizhou City Environmental Noise Included in the Management of Pollution Discharge Permit" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan") was completed. Specify the completion time of the issuance of the noise emission permit for each industry, and implement the responsibilities of each department; Strictly implement the ecological environmental protection responsibility of noise emission units, implement the main responsibility of noise emission according to the certificate, and require self-monitoring and regular reporting.
"We have also developed an information management platform for environmental noise emission permits, in which environmental noise is included in the scope of declaration, implementation and supervision of emission permits. The entire Implementation Plan provides a reasonable and feasible implementation path for the management of noise emission permits in Taizhou City, and explores the realization of the whole-cycle and refined management of noise emission units by categories and zones," Xu Yun told reporters.
Scientifically designate key pollutant discharge units, and the implementation process still needs to be advanced step by step in an orderly manner
At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in January, the relevant person in charge of the Department of Environmental Impact Assessment and Emission Management once again mentioned the work of industrial noise emission permit: "Industrial noise and marine engineering shall be included in the emission permit in an orderly manner according to law, and all-factor management shall be implemented."
Hu Wencheng, deputy director of the Institute of Urban Safety and Environmental Sciences of the Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, spoke highly of the inclusion of industrial noise in the emission permit. He believes that this is the active implementation of the relevant provisions of the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution, the need to build the core system of pollutant discharge permit, the realization of the full element and systematization of industrial pollution prevention and control, and the compaction of the main responsibility of enterprises for industrial noise pollution prevention and control.
"The up-to-standard emission is the prerequisite for applying for the license. The inclusion of industrial noise in the management of the emission license can force enterprises to take noise reduction measures to ensure that the emission meets the standard. The emission license puts forward requirements for the daily management of enterprises throughout the operation stage, such as regular monitoring of noise emissions, recording of standing books, and submission of implementation reports, which will urge enterprises to pay attention to noise management, self-inspection and self-correction, find noise environmental problems as soon as possible, and reduce the risk of complaints 。” Hu Wencheng explained.
In addition, the enforcement of emission permits belongs to local environmental law enforcement. Hu Wencheng believes that after the industrial noise is included in the emission permits, the problems of enterprise noise management can be found in time through daily law enforcement, which is conducive to strengthening the supervision of industrial noise prevention and control.
There is also Jin Jianhong, the leader of the squadron directly under the Dongyang Ecological Environmental Protection Administrative Law Enforcement Team in Zhejiang Province, who holds the same view.
On June 5 last year, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Noise Pollution was officially implemented. On the same day, Jin Jianhong led a team to investigate and deal with a case of excessive industrial noise emission. He believed that after the industrial noise was included in the emission permit, there would be more clear requirements for the self-monitoring and environmental management account records of enterprises, and the daily law enforcement and supervision would be more convenient.
On the other hand, the implementation of emission permits and management of key emission units for industrial noise involves many industries, many noise sources, complex pollution causes, different local characteristics, and the implementation of specific work is not easy.
Hu Wencheng pointed out that the implementation process should be carried out step by step in an orderly manner, not in one step, to avoid "one size fits all". At the same time, it is necessary to comprehensively consider factors such as noise emission level, enterprise scale, geographical location and population impact, and scientifically and reasonably designate key pollutant discharge units.
"We should not only meet the local requirements for noise pollution prevention and control, but also not add too much burden to enterprises. At the same time, we should avoid 'grasping the big and letting the small'." Hu Wencheng told reporters that large-scale industrial enterprises generally have a high level of environmental management, while small enterprises may often neglect environmental management in order to save costs, which is particularly obvious in noise pollution prevention and control.
In addition, Hu Wencheng reminded that in the process of incorporating industrial noise into the implementation of the emission permit, all localities should pay attention to the investigation and summary, actively carry out assistance to enterprises, listen to the voice of enterprises, play the role of the industry association, collect and sort out reasonable suggestions, timely modify technical requirements, and promote the prevention and control of industrial noise.
