China Environmental Law

I know you have been waiting patiently for us to return to the topic of China’s water pollutant discharge standards. As you will recall there are two referenced standards in Article 9 of the new Water Pollution Prevention and Control Act amendments that a discharger needs to meet:

1. standards for water pollutant discharge, and
2. the total control target for major water pollutant discharge.

When last we addressed this topic we were talking about the first standard, specifically the development of water quality standards in China.  We left off with the question “How do we turn these water quality standards into enforceable discharge standards?”  To answer this question let’s first look at Article 12:

[SEPA] shall, in line with the national standards for water environment quality and the country’s economic and technological conditions, establish the national standards for discharge of water pollutants.

This doesn’t tell us much except that when setting discharge standards the regulators can consider such factors as technological and economic limitations in addition to the water quality standard.  Thus, if control technology is not available to remove COD, for instance, to the level of the water quality standard, this factor can be considered (and is) when setting the discharge standard.  Consequently, discharge standards are often set higher than water quality standards. 

The general set of water pollutant discharge standards in China is the Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard (GB8978-1996). These standards establish two sets of concentration limits for the same suite of pollutants; one for facilities constructed before December 31, 1997 and one for those constructed after January 1, 1998. The pre-December 31, 1997 limits are generally less stringent than the post January 1, 1998 limits, but otherwise are structured in the same way.

Within each of these time-dependent sets, there are generally three limits expressed for each pollutant depending upon the water quality designation of the receiving water. Since we focused last time on the Surface Water Quality Standard (GB3838-2002), we will define the three limit sets according to their reference to this standard (note, however, that they also reference Seawater Quality Standard (GB3097-1997)). The first limits apply to discharges into Class III waters, the second limits into Class IV and V waters, and the third limits are for discharges into public sewage treatment works (these are essentially, to use a US analogy, China’s pretreatment limits). What about discharges into Class I and II waters you ask? The simple answer is there shouldn’t be any. New discharges are prohibited and existing ones should be shut down (see Articles 56 to 62 of the new amendments) in those waters.

We have previously used as example a surface water body that is designated as a Class III water, remember that pursuant to the water quality standard this water body should have a COD concentration of 20mg/L or less, an Ammonia (NH3N) concentration of 1mg/L or less, and so on. The regulators took this water quality standard and considered it in light of China’s “economic and technological conditions.” As a result of this consideration, they developed general wastewater discharge standards applicable to discharges into a Class III water.  Those standards set limits  for COD at 100mg/L, for Ammonia (NH3N) at 15mg/L, and so on. As noted, these are higher than the water quality standards for these waters.  See, Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard (GB8978-1996).

For certain parameters, the discharge standards have been subdivided into industrial categories. Thus, for COD discharges there is a separate limit for petroleum industries (including petroleum refining), for instance. To further complicate matters in addition to the general Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard (GB8978-1996), China has a numerous industry specific standards, e.g., Wastewater Discharge Standards for the Citric Acid Industry (GB8978-1996), Wastewater Discharge Standards for the Meat Packing Industry (GB13457-1992), Wastewater Discharge Standards for the Ammonia Industry (GB13458-2001). These industry specific standards will normally apply in lieu of the specific standards. As a final complicating factor, Article 13 permits sub-national governments to

[E]stablish their own local standards for items that are not specified in the national standards for discharge of water pollutants. With regard to the items that are already specified in the national standards for discharge of water pollutants, they may establish more stringent local standards than the national standards.

Many local governments have developed their own standards, e.g., Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard of Shanghai (DB31/199－1997).

To recap, China has two applicable wastewater discharge standards:

1. standards for water pollutant discharge, and
2. the total control target for major water pollutant discharge.

We’ve now reviewed the first of these. This first set of discharge standards are expressed almost exclusively in terms of concentration of pollutants, and the limits set are in most instances above the water quality standards, although they are based, at least in part, upon those standards. It is not always possible to tell the basis upon which Chinese regulations are promulgated, but I think it would be fair to say that these discharge limitations are a hybrid of technology-based and water-quality based limits.

Concentration limits, of course, will never eliminate (unless they are set at zero), the discharge of pollutants into Chinese waters, and the rapid industrial growth of China’s economy (resulting in ever increasing dischargers) means that even if all concentration expressed limits were complied with, the total volume of discharged pollutants would continue to increase. To come to grips with this problem, China has adopted the second of the applicable discharge standards: “total control targets for major water pollutant discharge.”  We will deal with that component next time. For now, go out and enjoy a dip in a Class III water.