Yeongsangang Environment Office, Promotion of the 2nd Seasonal Fine Dust Management Plan

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] The Yeongsangang River Basin Environmental Office announced on the 26th that from next month until March of next year, it will promote the 2nd Seasonal Fine Dust Management System in cooperation with related organizations such as Gwangju Metropolitan City, Jeollanam-do, and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province.

The Seasonal Fine Dust Management System is a system that implements strengthened fine dust reduction and management measures from December each year to March of the following year to mitigate the occurrence of high-concentration fine dust.

In October, the Yeongsangang Environmental Office established a regional network with 23 workplaces that voluntarily signed an agreement with the Ministry of Environment to reduce fine dust.

They plan to cooperate with the agreement workplaces by sharing excellent reduction measures so that workplaces can voluntarily reduce fine dust, and workplaces with high reduction performance will be awarded commendations and given incentives such as publicity through evaluations.

In addition, the head of the agency plans to directly inspect major fine dust emission facilities such as waste incineration facilities, power generation facilities, large workplaces, and concentrated management roads.

To prevent illegal incineration of agricultural waste, abandoned waste around industrial complexes, etc., a reporting situation room will be operated together with cities and provinces, and a mobile crackdown team using drones will be formed and operated in high-risk areas.

In particular, by utilizing advanced air monitoring equipment owned by the Environmental Office, monitoring of illegal emissions will be conducted for industrial complexes and major high-risk emission facilities, and management of workplace emission facilities will be strengthened.

The newly introduced drones this year can collect and measure pollutants from chimneys, and mobile measurement vehicles can measure air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in real time (about once every 5 seconds).

In the 2nd Seasonal Management System, cooperation among related organizations will also be promoted to secure the implementation of the enforcement plan.

Joint inspections of the detailed implementation plans for the seasonal management system established by cities and provinces will be conducted twice a month to spread best practices and supplement insufficient cases, thereby enhancing the execution power of the seasonal management system.

Together with Gwangju City and others, a 'Fine Dust Reduction Campaign in Daily Life' will be carried out, and publicity for reduction projects such as refraining from driving grade 5 emission vehicles and low-emission measures for exhaust gases will be strengthened.

Director Ryu Yeon-gi said, "If high-concentration fine dust overlaps in this difficult situation due to COVID-19, the suffering of the people will intensify," and added, "Our office will do its best to reduce fine dust emissions together with related organizations during the seasonal management period."