On May 21st, the environmental organization Greenpeace, in collaboration with the Ecological Environment Research Institute of Nanjing University (Lishui), jointly released the "ChinaIndustrial park wastewaterThe report "Research on Treatment Management" points out that domestic sewage treatment plants face three major challenges: insufficient infrastructure construction, incomplete discharge standard system, and multi head management of sewage treatment.

In 2018, 56% of the key polluting units punished for serious exceeding standards nationwide were sewage treatment plants. According to data recently released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, "pollution control professionals" specializing in sewage treatment have become the "main force" of excessive pollution discharge.

On May 21st, the environmental organization Greenpeace and the Ecological Environment Research Institute of Nanjing University (Lishui) jointly released a report titled "Research on Wastewater Treatment Management in Industrial Parks in China", stating that sewage treatment plants have become the main source of pollution,Domestic sewage treatment plants face three major challenges: insufficient infrastructure construction, incomplete discharge standard system, and multi head management of sewage treatment.

Why did the sewage treatment plant, which was supposed to be a line of defense after sewage treatment, end up polluting? The above report provides recommendations for introducing social capital. Dong Zhanfeng, Deputy Director of the Environmental Policy Department at the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, bluntly stated, "Many issues are simply about incentives and money. The funding issue of enterprises is particularly important, and a long-term mechanism should be established

Wastewater treatment plants often take the blame

Wastewater treatment plants become a source of pollution, often passively taking the blame.

As of 2018, incidents of illegal and excessive discharge by front-end enterprises have frequently occurred. Among the 78 sewage treatment plants that severely exceeded the discharge standards for major pollutants in the 2018 quarter announced by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment to the society, 36 sewage treatment plants exceeded the standards due to upstream water exceeding their acceptance standards, resulting in frequent malfunctions and unstable operation of their pollution control facilities.

Deng Tingting, director of the Greenpeace pollution prevention and control project, analyzed that there are multiple issues involved, “Firstly, there is no relevant regulatory department to control the information on pre-treatment water discharge of front-end enterprises.”

Meanwhile, Deng Tingting introduced,At present, there is no departmental supervision on the pipeline network of sewage transportation.At this stage,Front end enterprises may illegally or excessively discharge through pipeline networksAnd once there is a leakage in the pipeline network, it will be difficult to hold accountable for the leakage due to unclear regulatory authorities.

The incomplete understanding of upstream unit sewage discharge by sewage treatment plants is also a major reason for their shift from pollution control to pollution causing. Therefore, the report "Research on Wastewater Treatment Management in Chinese Industrial Parks" suggests that,Gradually clarifying the source of incoming water for sewage treatment plants is an urgent task to ensure their stable and compliant operation.

This situation is expected to improve after the improvement of the pollutant discharge permit system. Associate Professor Tian Jinping from the School of Environment at Tsinghua University told the Daily Economic News reporter that after the full implementation of the pollutant discharge permit system at the end of October this year, sewage treatment plants will be able to clearly grasp the information of incoming water, which may better avoid being punished due to excessive discharge of sewage by higher-level enterprises.

The issue of funding has always been a challenge faced by sewage treatment plants. At present, the cost of sewage treatment in our country is relatively low, and there are differences in the cost of wastewater treatment in different regions and industrial parks, which have not been considered, resulting in some sewage treatment plants not being able to cover their costs with their revenue.

Regarding this, Dong Zhanfeng stated that in the future, it is necessary to consider differences and comprehensively establish a reasonable sewage treatment fee mechanism, ensuring that the cost of fees covers the cost of wastewater treatment operations.

Difficulty of making ends meet

Lack of funds makes it difficult for some sewage treatment plants with insufficient initial design capabilities and outdated processes to upgrade and renovate; On the other hand, it makes it difficult for existing sewage treatment plants to operate.

Since 2018, the challenges faced by environmental protection companies have made this problem even more complex. Since 2013, the water treatment sector has introduced a large number of PPP models. After several years of aggressive expansion, in 2018, under the policy environment of financial deleveraging, it was cleaned up and rectified. Many winning companies in PPP projects are facing financial difficulties.

A large number of domestic private environmental protection enterprises, including listed water treatment companies such as Bishuiyuan and Botian Environment, have begun to introduce state-owned assets, relying on the strength of state-owned shareholders to alleviate the risks of equity pledge and reduction, and enhance the company's operational strength in various aspects.

In addition, some local governments have not included specific infrastructure operating costs in their fiscal budgets when launching PPP projects, or the corresponding budget is seriously insufficient, and there is no clear and stable source of payment funds, resulting in their inability to pay the relevant expenses of enterprises on time and in full, leading to high accounts receivable of enterprises.

In 2018, Beijing Enterprises Water Group, which operates 704 sewage treatment plants, was criticized by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment for long-term excessive discharge. Subsequently, according to a report by China Environment News, Beijing Enterprises Water Group pointed out in a special notice issued for supervision that its Dashiqiao sewage treatment plant exceeded the standard due to various factors such as continuous deterioration of water inflow. As of the end of June 2018, the local regulatory authorities had accumulated outstanding fees of 44.97 million yuan.

An industry insider from a water company stated that the sewage treatment plant operated by a park has created a new model: the upper end enterprises connected can directly discharge the sewage to their sewage treatment plant without any pre-treatment, which is cost-effective from the perspective of the entire life cycle of sewage. We hope to see more space at the policy and regulatory levels for companies and sewage treatment plants to do this