EPA ANNOUNCES INDUSTRIES REQUIRED TO SUBMIT SOIL POLLUTION REPORTS

11/01/2004

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In two announcements dated 1 October 2004, the Environmental Protection Administration listed the industries required to submit soil pollution test reports under Paragraph 1, Article 8 and Article 9 of the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Act, along with the pollutants re-quired to be tested for by each industry, with effect from 1 January 2005. Paragraph 1, Article 8 requires the owner of a piece of land used by an enterprise in a designated industry to provide soil test data when transferring ownership of the land. Whereas, Article 9 requires an enterprise in a designated industry to file soil test data to its local environmental protection authority before applying with the competent authority for the establishment, suspension of operations, or ces-sation of operations.

The designated industries are as follows:

Any factory in the following sectors if its site, including the associated facilities, and unoc-cupied land, covers an area of 100 square meters or more: Leather and fur finishing, ba-sic industrial chemicals, petrochemicals manufacturing, manmade fiber manufacturing, synthetic resin and plastic materials manu-facturing, synthetic rubber manufacturing, pesticides and herbicides manufacturing, pe-troleum refineries, plastic sheet, board and pipe manufacturing, imitation leather products manufacturing, iron and steel refining, metal surface treatment, semiconductor manufac-turing, bare printed circuit board manufactur-ing, and electric battery manufacturing.

Electric power supply.

Gasoline stations.

Waste disposal.

If an enterprise has not operated with a pollutant designated for testing, it may state this in its test report as grounds for not testing for that sub-stance. If its operations may have produced any controlled soil pollutant other than those desig-nated for testing, it should additionally test for that substance.

An enterprise in a designated industry must complete soil pollution testing on its site before proceeding with any of the following matters:

Establishment: An enterprise that is required by law to register its establishment and has not conducted soil pollution testing must complete such testing before work is performed to ex-cavate and prepare its site or to alter the to-pography of its site. If no such work is to be performed, the enterprise must complete soil testing before commissioning its factory or facilities.

Suspension or cessation of operations: A designated enterprise must complete soil testing before applying to the competent au-thority to suspend or cease operations.