China’s 1st public interest lawsuit on pollution
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Shanghai Daily, March 21, 2015
An environmental group is demanding nearly 30 million yuan (US$4.85 million) from a glass factory in the country’s first public interest lawsuit on pollution since laws giving non-governmental organizations the right to sue polluters took effect.
The All-China Environmental Federation took its case against Zhenhua Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the Shandong Jinghua Goup, to the Dezhou Intermediate People’s Court on Thursday, yesterday’s Beijing News reported.
The federation wants the plant, based in Dezhou in east China’s Shandong Province, to stop emitting excessive pollutants, install air cleanup facilities and make public apologies.
The federation is also seeking 30 million yuan for environmental damage, with the money to be used in local cleanup projects.
The court will decide whether to accept the case within seven days.
Zhenhua has been on the environmental authorities blacklist for several times.
Last October, the Ministry of Environmental Protection criticized it in a public statement, saying its glass plant let out high levels of harmful nitrogen oxides due to lack of exhaust gas processing facilities.
The plant was also ordered to suspend one of its production lines and fined 150,000 yuan by the provincial environmental protection department.
However, in January, the department still tested excessive nitrogen oxides from the plant. “We have punished it three times but it still hasn’t taken any measure to decrease emissions,” a department statement said.
Ma Yong, deputy director of the federation’s legal service center, said it started to receive complaints from nearby residents early this year.
“They said they dared not to open windows because of the smell,” Ma said. “And they said their cars would be covered with dust if parked outside.”
Federation investigators went to Dezhou and found the complaints justified. They decided on legal action to defend local residents, Ma said.
An unnamed official told the newspaper that the plant had taken some cleanup measures.
“Last year, we spent about 30 million yuan installing desulfurization devices. But we still need another 20 million yuan to buy denitration devices. And we have to borrow money,” he said.
“We don’t want pollution either,” he added.
Amendments to environmental legislation, the first in 25 years, were passed in April 2014 and took effect on January 1. They have specified harsher punishments and allowed green groups to sue polluters.
Chinese courts had previously rejected many lawsuits because there was no framework to clarify who was eligible to sue.
The first case to be accepted under the new law was filed by the All-China Environmental Federation and Friends of Nature on January 1.
They sued four Chinese mining executives, demanding they fund restoration of a forest to its natural state, at the Nanping Intermediate People’s Court in southeast China’s Fujian Province.
The four cleared about 2 hectares of forest on Hulu Mountain in 2008 to extract granite. Three were jailed for illegally occupying agricultural land.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)