OFFICIAL REPLY OF THE STATE COUNCIL CONCERNING ACID RAIN CONTROL AREAS AND SULPHUR DIOXIDE POLLUTION CONTROL AREAS

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OFFICIAL REPLY OF THE STATE COUNCIL CONCERNING ACID RAIN CONTROL AREAS AND SULPHUR DIOXIDE POLLUTION CONTROL AREAS

Category	ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION	Organ of Promulgation	The State Council	Status of Effect	In Force
Date of Promulgation	1998-01-12	Effective Date	1998-01-12

Official Reply of the State Council Concerning Acid Rain Control Areas and Sulphur Dioxide Pollution Control Areas

Appendix I: Acid Rain Control Areas
Appendix II: Sulphur Dioxide Pollution Control Areas

(January 12, 1998)

State Bureau of Environmental Protection:

We have received the Request of your Bureau for Approval of the Plan for
Delimiting Acid Rain Control Areas and Sulphur Dioxide Pollution Control Areas
(Huanfa [1997] No. 634). Our reply is hereby sent to you as follows:

1. We have approved the Plan for Delimiting Acid Rain Control Areas and
Sulphur Dioxide Pollution Control Areas in principle and Your Bureau can
promulgate the plan. We also approve the delimitation of acid rain control
areas and sulphur dioxide pollution control areas (Hereinafter referred to
"the two types of control areas". See the appendices for the details).

2. The objectives of the two types of control areas: By the year 2000, the
industrial pollution sources discharging sulphur dioxide will have attained
the standard for discharging sulphur dioxide and a system for controlling the
total amount of discharged sulphur dioxide will have been practised; in
municipalities directly under the Central Government, capital cities of
provinces, cities as special economic zones, open coastal cities and major
tourist cities which are polluted by sulphur dioxide, the density of sulphur
dioxide in the environment air will have attained the national environmental
quality standards and the worsening of acid rain in the acid rain control
areas will have been alleviated. By the year 2010, the total amount of
discharged sulphur dioxide shall be controlled under the level of sulphur
dioxide discharged in 2000; the density of sulphur dioxide in the environment
air in cities shall have reached the national environmental quality standards
and sections of the acid rain control areas in which the precipitation has pH
value below 4.5 shall be obviously decreased by comparing with those in 2000.

3. It is prohibited to establish new mines with the coal bed having above
three percent sulphur contents. Those having already been established with the
coal bed having above three percent sulphur contents shall be step by step
ordered to cut down the output, suspend the production or close up. For the
construction or transformation of coal mines with above 1.5 percent sulphur
contents, coal washing facilities shall be set up correspondingly. Existing
coal mines shall be according to planning fitted with coal washing facilities
by stages and in groups. The sulphur contents of fuel coal and fuel heavy oil
in cities shall conform to the prescriptions of the local people's governments
of cities.

4. Construction of any new coal-burning thermal power plant in urban areas
and suburbs of large or medium-sized cities is prohibited except for those
heat and power plants generating power by producing heat. For the construction
and transformation of power plants with fuel coal having above one percent
sulphur contents, desulphurization equipment shall be set up correspondingly.
Existing power plants with fuel coal having above one percent sulphur contents
shall take measures to reduce the discharge of sulphur dioxide before the year
2000, and shall be fitted with desulphurization equipment by stages and in
groups or take other similarly effective measures to reduce the discharge of
sulphur dioxide before the year 2010. Enterprises engaged in chemical
industry, metallurgical industry, building materials industry, nonferrous
metal industry and other industries causing serious pollution must be fitted
with technical facilities for treatment of waste gas or take other measures to
reduce the discharge of waste gas.

5. At the time of readjusting the industrial structure and the structure
of products, great effort shall be made to carry out cleaning production,
strengthen technological transformation, promote the saving and comprehensive
utilization of resources and lower the level of discharged sulphur dioxide in
real earnest.

6. The collection, administration and use of fees for discharging sulphur
dioxide shall be conducted conscientiously as required by the Reply of the
State Council Concerning Expanding Experiments of Collecting Fees for
Discharging Sulphur Dioxide (Guohan [1996] No. 24). Special funds for major
pollutant-discharging units to treat sulphur dioxide pollution shall not be
less than 90 percent of the discharge fees.