Washing Seafood with Water Causes Wastewater?… Ministry of Environment Rationalizes Water Environment Conservation Act Regulations

The regulation designating facilities that simply wash seafood with water as wastewater discharge facilities will be eliminated.

On the 6th, the Ministry of Environment announced that the 'Enforcement Rules of the Water Environment Conservation Act' will be implemented to reasonably improve difficulties occurring at wastewater treatment sites and to supplement the total water pollution load management system.

According to the revised enforcement rules, processes that wash seafood with water will be excluded from wastewater discharge facilities. Under the current law, the scope of facilities that purchase products in their harvested state or boiled products and only perform simple water washing has been limited to 'seaweed, crustaceans, and shellfish.' As a result, washing other seafood with water required registration as a wastewater discharge facility and installation of water pollution prevention facilities.

Wastewater generated inside waste disposal companies can now be introduced and treated within their own facilities. Until now, it had to be treated with separate water pollution prevention facilities, which imposed a significant burden on companies. Also, when outsourcing wastewater treatment to companies, there was an inconvenience of reporting annually to the local government in charge, but if the performance is confirmed through the electronic system, reporting will be exempted.

Park Jae-hyun, Director of Water Management Policy at the Ministry of Environment, said, "We will continue to collect stakeholders' opinions and reflect the vivid voices from the field in improving the system."