Gyeonggi-do Catches 648 Illegal Environmental Pollutant Discharge Sites Last Year

Gyeonggi Provincial Government Gwanggyo New Office Building

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] It has been revealed that illegal discharge of pollutants continues in industrial complexes in Gyeonggi Province.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Environmental Management announced on the 26th that it inspected 6,772 pollutant-emitting businesses within industrial complexes last year and found 648 violations of environmental laws.

Key violations and measures include ▲improvement orders for 125 businesses exceeding emission standards ▲suspension of operations for 9 businesses operating emission and prevention facilities abnormally ▲cessation of use for 38 businesses operating emission facilities without permits ▲administrative actions against 476 businesses for minor violations such as failure to keep logs and non-compliance with environmental technician requirements.

In particular, 81 businesses, including 38 that installed air and wastewater emission facilities without permits or failed to report, causing serious environmental pollution, and 9 that operated emission and prevention facilities abnormally, were referred to judicial authorities for investigation.

Additionally, in accordance with the Air Environment Conservation Act and the Water Environment Conservation Act, information on 212 violating businesses?including business name, location, representative, industry type, violation details, and measures taken?was disclosed on the Gyeonggi Province website for 30 days.

The Provincial Office of Environmental Management also conducted environmental consulting for 227 businesses newly entering industrial complexes last year. The consulting covered essential practices companies must follow to operate pollutant emission and prevention facilities stably, and a satisfaction survey showed that 97.9% of businesses responded as 'very satisfied,' requesting continued support.

A representative from the Provincial Office of Environmental Management stated, "This year, before conducting guidance and inspections on violations such as failure to report changes in air and wastewater emission facilities and failure to keep operation logs, we shared major violation cases in the air and wastewater sectors with related businesses. We plan to conduct not only guidance and inspections on environmental pollution acts targeting industrial complexes densely populated with pollutant-emitting businesses but also continuous environmental consulting."