The heavy metal antimony is an industrial pollutant that is toxic to the human body and environmental organisms. It is even suspected to be a carcinogen. Antimony and its compounds have been listed as key pollutants in many countries. The production wastewater of Jinhong Printing and Dyeing Co., Ltd. in Changshu City, Jiangsu Province contains this toxic pollutant. According to regulations, the company should remove this component from the industrial wastewater discharged. However, this company uses underground pipes to secretly discharge heavy metals. Due to antimony’s toxic sewage, the company and relevant persons in charge were charged with the crime of environmental pollution and shall bear corresponding legal liability.
On December 30, 2019, the Jiangyin Municipal Court heard the first instance and pronounced the verdict in this case in Changshu, Jiangsu City Jinhong Printing and Dyeing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jinhong Company) and the relevant persons in charge of the enterprise were involved in the case of environmental pollution. The enterprise was sentenced to a fine for the crime of environmental pollution and was accompanied by a civil public interest lawsuit to compensate for ecological environment restoration costs. The legal representative of the enterprise, Zhou Mou, Factory directors Gu and Zhang were respectively sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment.
Jinhong Company is a printing and dyeing enterprise established in 1995, specializing in woven fabrics, fabric printing, dyeing and finishing processing and other businesses. The enterprise’s production wastewater is mainly printing and dyeing wastewater. According to regulations, the wastewater should be pre-treated in self-built sewage treatment facilities and then discharged into the manhole through a special pressure single pipe and merged into the urban sewage pipe network. According to the acceptance and treatment agreement signed between Jinhong Company and the sewage treatment plant, its discharge is only the unit’s production wastewater and requires effective pretreatment. The pretreated discharged water must not contain heavy metal ions and other components that affect the operation of sewage treatment.
The printing and dyeing wastewater produced by Jinhong Company contains heavy metal antimony. After the company completed the construction of the third phase of sewage treatment facilities in 2016, the wastewater discharge treatment process was changed from the original “collection tank- “Coagulation sedimentation tank (primary sedimentation tank) – discharge tank” is adjusted to “collection tank – primary sedimentation tank – intermediate tank – anaerobic tank – aerobic tank – secondary sedimentation tank – final sedimentation tank – discharge tank”. The case files reviewed by the court found that the reason why Jinhong Company committed environmental pollution crimes was to use the renovation process of sewage treatment facilities to implement illegal discharges.
From January 2017 to early June 2018, Jinhong Company abandoned and idled the third phase of sewage treatment facilities. In order to facilitate illegal discharge, Gu Mou, the then person in charge of sewage treatment, asked the construction unit to retain the underground pipeline from the primary sedimentation tank to the discharge tank that should have been dismantled, and set up a three-way pipe and valve, instructing Su and other workers to pass through the three-way pipe. Discharge printing and dyeing wastewater directly.
At the end of May 2018, Zhang took over Gu’s responsibility for Jinhong Company’s sewage treatment and continued to use the tee pipe to directly discharge printing and dyeing wastewater. Zhou, as the legal representative of Jinhong Company People and actual operators knew that there was illegal discharge but failed to stop it, and failed to take timely measures to prevent the expansion of losses and eliminate pollution.
In early June 2018, after discussion, Zhou, Gu, and Zhang organized personnel to connect private pipes at the intermediate pool of Jinhong Company’s sewage treatment facility directly to the outside of the discharge pool. A dedicated single pipe connected to a sewage treatment plant. From June 8 to 16, 2018, Su Moumou and other workers were instructed by Zhang to discharge printing and dyeing wastewater directly into the urban domestic sewage pipe network without subsequent treatment after passing through the intermediate tank.
On June 15 and June 16, 2018, the Changshu Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau conducted secondary sampling of the water effluent from the pipes connected to the urban sewage pipe network manholes of Jinhong Company , and sample the water discharged from the primary sedimentation tank into the discharge tank through the tee pipe. After testing and analysis, the total antimony concentrations of the three water samples were 0.561mg/L, 0.735mg/L and 0.745mg/L, respectively, exceeding the “Textile Dyeing and Finishing Industry Water Pollutant Discharge Standard” (GB4287-2012) Table 2 Indirect The emission concentration limit (0.1 mg/L) is 5 times, 7 times, and 7 times.
According to the appraisal by the Forensic Appraisal Institute of Nanjing University Environmental Planning and Design Institute Co., Ltd., Jinhong Company illegally discharged excessive wastewater from January 2017 to June 2018 when it was investigated and punished, causing environmental The total virtual damage management cost was 2.126439 yuan, and transaction expenses were 165,000 yuan.
The court of first instance held that Jinhong Company violated relevant laws and regulations on environmental protection and discharged pollutants containing heavy metals through hidden pipes and other methods to evade supervision, including the heavy metal antimony. Exceeding the national pollutant discharge standards by more than three times constitutes a crime of environmental pollution. Zhou, as the directly responsible person in charge, and Gu and Zhang, as other directly responsible persons, should all bear criminal liability for the crime of environmental pollution.
The court ruled that Jinhong Company was guilty of environmental pollution according to law and was fined 600,000 yuan.
At the same time, it was accompanied by a civil public interest litigation and sentenced Jinhong Company to compensate ecological environment restoration fees of 2.126439 yuan and bear administrative expenses of 165,000 yuan within ten days from the date of the judgment. Jinhong Company was also sentenced to Hong Company publicly apologized in the municipal media for its environmental pollution behavior.
Zhou, the legal representative of Jinhong Company, committed the crime of environmental pollution and was sentenced to one year and four months in prison and fined 30,000 yuan; Gu, the person in charge of Jinhong Company, committed the crime of environmental pollution. Environmental crimes, sentenced to one year and two months in prison� and was fined 20,000 yuan; Zhang was convicted of environmental pollution and sentenced to one year and one month in prison and fined 20,000 yuan. </p
