Laws of the Guangdong Province

Regulations on Prevention and Control of Pollution of the Sea Areas of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone

(Adopted at the Thirty-sixth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Second Shenzhen Municipal People' s Congress on November 22, 1999 and promulgated by Public Notice No. 97 of the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People' s Congress on November 22, 1999.)

Chapter I General Provisions

       Article 1 In order to prevent and control the pollution of sea areas, protect the environment and resources of sea areas, and promote economic development, these regulations are formulated hereby in accordance with The Marine Environmental Protection Law of the People' s Republic of China as well as in the light of the practical conditions of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.

       Article 2 Any ships and owners of the ships sailing, anchoring and operating in the Shenzhen sea areas and any units and individuals doing production and business along the coast of the Shenzhen sea areas shall abide by these regulations.

       Article 3 The prevention and control of the sea areas' pollution shall follow the principle to give priority to prevention, combine prevention with control, and hold anyone causing pollution liable.

       Article 4 The Shenzhen Municipal People' s Government' s (hereinafter referred to as "the Municipal Government" ) responsible administrative department of environmental protection and all the districts' people' s governments' responsible administrative departments of environmental protection (hereinafter referred to as "the municipal and district departments of environmental protection" ) shall be in charge of the environmental monitoring of the sea areas and supervising of prevention and control of the land-sourced pollutants  and coastal projects from polluting the sea areas.

       The responsible administrative department of maritime affairs (hereinafter referred to as "the maritime department" ) shall be in charge of surveillance of the sea areas and supervision of preventing and controlling ships and their related operations from polluting the sea areas.

       The Municipal Government' s administrative department of marine management (hereinafter referred to as "the marine management department" ) shall cooperate with the municipal department of environmental protection in the environmental monitoring of the Shenzhen sea areas, participate in settling of serious accidents of pollution in the sea areas.

       The Shenzhen administrative agency in charge of fishery and fishing harbors shall be responsible for supervision of sewage disposal in fishing harbors and ships as well as for surveillance of the sea areas of fishing harbor regions.

       The Shenzhen sub-center for maritime search and salvage (hereinafter referred to as "the salvage center" ) shall be responsible for unified organization, command of control and cleaning for pollution accidents in the sea areas.

       Article 5 When making economic and technological policies for the development of marine and coastal resources, development plans and major development projects, the Municipal Government and the related departments shall evaluate the possible environmental effects and also propose the policies and measures to prevent and control pollution and to protect the ecological environment.

       Article 6 The municipal department of environmental protection shall work out environmental functional divisions of the sea areas, report to the Municipal Government and proceed to implementation after approval.

Chapter II Prevention and Control of Ship Pollution

       Article 7 Captains shall be responsible for prevention and control of pollution of their own ships.

       Article 8 Ships shall have valid certificates or documents of pollution preventing in accordance with international conventions and the laws and rules of the state. Ships operating with oil or poisonous and harmful liquid in bulk, disposing of consumer sewage, recycling ship waste shall be on record in accordance with the related rules.

       Article 9 The ship waste shall be put in containers or garbage bags, the poisonous and harmful waste or other dangerous articles shall be placed separately.

       Article 10 The facilities of a ship for pollution preventing shall be operated, maintained and repaired by persons specially assigned to such work in order to ensure the regular usability of the facilities.

       Article 11 It shall be forbidden for ships to discharge pollutants to the sea areas. If a ship has pollutants which need to be disposed of, a receiving unit approved by the maritime department shall be entrusted with accepting the pollutants, and the information of names, properties and amounts of the pollutants shall be provided for the receiving unit. If the receiving unit has to transfer and dispose of the ship pollutants in the city, it shall have approval from the municipal department of environmental protection at the same time.

       The receiving unit shall gather the accepted ship pollutants together and transfer them to the place designated by the municipal department of environmental protection.

       The receiving unit shall report such acceptance to the maritime department every month.

       Article 12 If a ship coming from an epidemic-stricken port has to dispose of garbage, consumer sewage and ballasting water, it shall apply to the inspection and quarantine agency at port of entry for sanitizing treatment. Only after the sanitizing treatment may a receiving unit be entrusted with accepting the waste; if the waste has not gone through the sanitizing treatment, the receiving unit shall not accept such delegation.

       Article 13 Any unit engaged in ship refueling shall obtain an operation permit approved and issued by the maritime department in accordance with the related rules of the state, and also report to the maritime department about the names of ships, the time and sites of operation, and the quality of fuel, etc. before refueling has been in operation.

       Article 14 When a ship is loading or unloading at a dock or transshipping cargo at an anchorage, the ship and operator of the dock shall abide by the operation rules, assign a special person to supervise on the spot, and take effective measures to prevent pollution in the sea areas.

       Article 15 It shall be forbidden for a ship with cargo in bulk to wash its polluted decks within a harbor.

       Article 16 The maritime department shall have the waste water discharging facilities of the following ships sealed by lead:

(1)    ships specialized in operations within a harbor;

(2)    ships with the facilities of pollution preventing which cannot operate normally;

(3)    ships which has anchored in a harbor area more than 30 days.

Without approval from the maritime department, any units and individuals may

not remove the lead sealing themselves.

       Article 17 It shall be forbidden for the following ships to load and unload:

(1)    ships loaded with more than 2,000 tons of cargo oil in bulk and having no insurance for civil damage liability of oil contamination or other letters of financial guarantee;

(2)    ships causing more than two (including two) "serious or major" accidents of pollution within one year.

Article 18 Any units engaged in ship repair and maintenance shall be provided with equipments and materials for preventing pollution. When ships are under repair and maintenance, effective measures shall be taken to prevent the pollution of the sea areas.

       Article 19 Before salvaging a sunken ship, the owner of the ship or operator shall provide the related information of the ship and the loaded pollutants for a salvage unit; the salvage unit shall make a plan to prevent pollution before operation and report it to the maritime department for examination and approval.

       When salvaging a sunken ship, the salvage unit shall keep watch on the spot, and also control the damage of pollution according to the plan to prevent pollution and clean away pollutants promptly.

Chapter III Prevention and Control of Pollution Caused by Pollutants

Originating in Land and Coastal Projects

       Article 20 If coastal projects of new construction, reconstruction, extended construction affect the environment, evaluation reports about environmental effects shall be worked out, submitted to the department of environmental protection for approval, and the rules concerning environmental management for construction projects shall be strictly followed.

       Article 21 Sea-filling projects shall be under strict control. If a project of sea-filling is indeed necessary, in addition to complying with the procedure for examination and approval of environmental effects according to Article 20 of these regulations, it shall do enclosing in the first place and then fill in the sea, and also use the specified filling materials, in order to prevent damages to the marine environment.

       Article 22 Any construction, reconstruction, extended construction of a dock shall build facilities as accessories to receive ship pollutants, the receiving facilities shall be checked and accepted at the same time when the principal part of the construction is done with this procedure, and put into use only after approval from the department of environmental protection and the maritime department in the overall check and acceptance.

       Article 23 It shall be forbidden to open new sites for waste discharging in the first class environmental functional divisions of the sea areas such as maritime conservation areas, conservation areas for rare and endangered marine organism, etc. and their coastal areas.

       Article 24 It shall be forbidden in the second class environmental functional divisions of the sea areas such as aquiculture areas, bathing beaches, etc. and their coastal areas to undertake any projects of construction, reconstruction, extended construction for printing and dyeing, textile printing, papermaking, tanning, electroplating, chemical engineering, smelting, brewing, chemical fertilizer producing, dye making, pesticide producing, slaughtering or to engage in projects and facilities to discharge oil, the acid liquid, lye, radioactive water or waste water with poisonous, harmful substances such as pathogen, cyanogens compound, etc.

       Article 25 The facilities for waste water disposal shall be built up if the discharge of the consumer sewage of holiday villages, hotels, guesthouses, residential quarters along the coast of the second class environmental functional divisions of the sea areas has not been able to be integrated into the urban facilities of waste water disposal for centralized treatment; the consumer sewage shall be discharged only after it meet the standard for discharging after treatment.

       Article 26 Any construction in the third class environmental functional divisions of the sea areas such as general industrial areas, etc., the fourth class environmental functional divisions of the sea areas such as harbor areas, the operation areas for marine development, and their coasts shall meet the environmental requirements for the corresponding environmental functional divisions of the sea areas.

       Article 27 Any unit to discharge land-sourced pollutants shall apply, according to the stipulation, to the department of environmental protection for a permit of pollutant discharge, without such permit it shall be forbidden to discharge pollutants.

       Any unit to discharge pollutants shall not change the way of discharging without authorization.

       Article 28 If any unit holding a permit of pollutant discharge has pollutants discharged to the sea areas to overstep the index of density control and the index of total amount control, the department of environmental protection shall order taking measures for rectification by a deadline; if the pollution is serious, it shall be ordered to stop production for rectification.

       Any unit being ordered to take rectifying measures by a deadline or to stop production for rectification shall complete rectification in compliance with the designated deadline and requirements, and also apply for check and acceptance to the department of environmental protection which has decided to make this rectification; within the prescribed time limit for the rectification, the discharged pollutants shall not overstep the index of density control and the index of total amount control set by the department of environmental protection for pollutant discharge.

       Article 29 The following acts to pollute the sea areas shall be forbidden:

(1)    discharging and dumping industrial solid waste and consumer waste to the sea areas;

(2)    piling, discarding and disposing of chemicals, industrial solid waste and consumer waste on the coast and beaches;

(3)    operating in ship dismantling.

Article 30 The units to use the sea areas or the coast such as harbors, docks,

shipyards, seaside resorts, etc. shall prevent waste from getting into the sea, and also be responsible for cleaning away consumer waste and floating solid matters within the sea areas of their use. If the duty to do cleaning has been refused, the maritime department shall assign professional units to do it instead, and the user-units of the sea areas or the coast shall be held liable for the cost.

       The cleaning of floating solid matters in the sea areas other than those included in the above section shall be entrusted by the maritime department to professional units, the Municipal Government shall make a comprehensive arrangement for the cost.

Article 31 If a unit has to throw mud into the sea in its operation for a coastal project, it shall obtain a permit issued by the marine management department, report the information of the mud-throwing ships as well as the location, amount and time of the mud-throwing operation to the maritime department, and start the operation after approval.

       Mud-throwing shall be in operation on the approved sea areas.

Chapter IV Pollution Surveillance and Monitoring

       Article 32 All ships, operator-units of docks, user-units of the coastline and individuals shall have an obligation to protect the environment of the sea areas, and also have a right to report the acts of polluting the sea areas to the related responsible departments.

       Article 33 The municipal and district departments of environmental protection shall monitor the waste discharging in all the sites assigned for this purpose; the maritime department and the marine management department shall keep watch on the sea areas according to their respective duties and deal with the acts of polluting the sea areas in accordance with law if these acts have been found.

       Article 34 The municipal department of environmental protection shall regularly monitor the quality of water of the sea areas and inform the public regularly of the environmental situation in the sea areas.

       Article 35 When a serious accident of pollution has taken place in a sea area or might affect the environment of the neighboring sea areas, the salvage center shall promptly report the related development to the related responsible department at the higher level and inform the responsible departments of the neighboring areas.

Chapter V Emergency Management of Pollution Accidents

       Article 36 The salvage center shall be responsible for organizing the related departments to make an emergency plan for pollution preventing in the sea areas, and, after complying with the stipulated procedure for reporting and approving the plan, organize its implementation.

       Any units engaged in oil, chemicals such as docks, coastal warehouses, etc. shall make an emergency reaction plan of pollution preventing in compliance with the stipulations, report it to the salvage center and implement it upon approval.

       Article 37 The salvage center shall regularly organize units engaged in oil, chemicals such as docks, coastal warehouses, etc. to exercise themselves in the emergency reaction to prevent pollution.

       Article 38 Any ship or unit causing an accident of pollution in the sea areas shall promptly report to the responsible department and implement an emergency plan, take effective measures immediately to control, eliminate or reduce the damages of the pollution, and accept the investigation and settlement made by the maritime department or the municipal and district departments of environmental protection.

       Article 39 After receiving a report about an accident of pollution, the salvage center shall quickly organize an evaluation of the level of the emergency reaction according to the nature of the accident, the degree of pollution and the requirements of salvage, and also organize manpower, mobilize equipments for waste cleaning to put salvage into operation.

       In order to control or reduce the damages of pollution, the salvage center shall have a right to take compulsory measures of pollutant cleaning, all the costs arising therefrom shall be born by the person responsible for the accident; but, as for the unrecoverable costs of pollutant cleaning such as the cost that the insolvent ship owner is incapable of paying, the cost that goes beyond the limit of the ship owner' s responsibility, and the cost that results from the pollutants of unknown origin, the Municipal Government shall make a comprehensive arrangement.

       Operator-units of ships, harbors, docks and other user-units of the coastline, and individuals shall have a responsibility to assist the governmental departments to clean pollutants.

       Article 40 If a ship has caused pollution in the sea areas, it shall clear a bill of the related cost or provide the related economic guarantee before its departure.

       Article 41 If a deoiling agent is indeed necessary for cleaning away pollutants in the sea areas, the user shall apply in writing to the maritime department, submit documents and materials such as the certificate of the state' s approval of this agent, its trademark, the amount planned for use, the operating location, the way of use, etc., and start to use only after approval.

Chapter VI Legal Liability

       Article 42 If one of the following acts has been found, the maritime department shall order making a correction and also impose a fine of 5,000 RMB:

(1)    in violation of Article 8 of these regulations, failing to provide a certificate or a document of pollution preventing for a ship in compliance with the rules, or failing to keep a record in compliance with the stipulation;

(2)    in violation of the second section of Article 36 of these regulations, failing to make an emergency reaction plan for pollution preventing.

Article 43 If one of the following acts has been found, the maritime department

shall order making a correction and also impose a fine of more than 10,000 but less than 30,000 RMB:

(1)    in violation of Article 9 of these regulations, failing to store the ship waste in compliance with the rules;

(2)    in violation of Article 10 of these regulations, dismantling or stopping use of facilities for a ship to prevent pollution without authorization;

(3)    in violation of Articles 14, 18, 19 of these regulations, failing to take effective measures to prevent pollution in the sea areas;

(4)    in violation of Article 41 of these regulations, using a deoiling agent without approval.

Article 44 If one of the following acts has been found, the maritime department

shall order stopping operation and also impose a fine of 50,000 RMB:

(1)    in violation of the first section of Article 11 of these regulations, entrusting an unqualified unit to receive ship pollutants or receiving such pollutants without authorization;

(2)    in violation of Article 13 of these regulations, operating in refueling without obtaining a permit for such operation;

(3)    in violation of Article 22 of these regulations, failing to build facilities to receive ship pollutants on a dock or putting such facilities into use without complying with the procedure for check and acceptance;

(4)    in violation of Article 31 of these regulations, operating in mud-throwing without authorization or operating in mud-throwing within an unapproved sea area.

Article 45 If one of the following acts has been found, the maritime department shall order making a correction and also impose a fine of 10,000 RMB: 

(1)    in violation of Article 15 of these regulations, washing polluted decks within a harbor;

(2)    in violation of the second section of Article 16 of these regulations, removing lead sealing without authorization.

Article 46 If, in violation of these regulations, any ship, operator-unit of refueling,

unit to receive ship pollutants has caused an accident of oil pollution, the maritime department shall order taking effective measures to prevent expanding the pollution and to clean away the pollutants, and also impose a fine of 5,000 RMB in case of less than 100 kilograms of spilled oil; in case of more than 100 kilograms of spilled oil, a fine of 1,000 RMB per 100 kilograms shall be imposed for the part of the spilled oil exceeding 100 kilograms, but the total amount of the fine shall not exceed 500,000 RMB.

         Article 47 If, in violation of Article 20 of these regulations, a coastal project is under construction without approval or without following the requirements of an approved evaluation report of environmental effects, the department of environmental protection shall order stopping construction, dismantling and removing by a deadline, or taking remedial measures, and also impose a fine of more than 50,000 but less than 100,000 RMB; if the case is serious, a fine of more than 100,000 but less than 200,000 RMB shall be imposed.

       Article 48 If one of the following acts has been found, the municipal or district departments of environmental protection shall order making a correction or cleaning, and also impose a fine of more than 10,000 but less than 50,000 RMB; if the case is serious, a fine of more than 50,000 but less than 100,000 RMB shall be imposed:

(1)    in violation of Article 22 of these regulations, using filling materials other than the designated ones or engaging in a project of sea enclosure without following the stipulated way;

(2)    in violation of Article 25 of these regulations, failing to build facilities for waste water discharge or discharging the waste water which does not meet the standard after treatment;

(3)    in violation of Article 27 of these regulations, discharging waste without a permit or changing the way of waste discharge without authorization;

(4)    violating Article 29 of these regulations.

Article 49 If a unit which, in violation of Article 28 of these regulations, was ordered to make rectification by a deadline has failed to do so and continued its excessive waste discharge, the department of environmental protection shall order stopping use of the facilities causing pollution, and also impose a fine of more than 50,000 but less than 100,000 RMB; if the case is serious, stopping production and stopping operation shall be ordered.

       Article 50 All fines shall be turned over in full amount to the municipal and district departments of public finance.

       Article 51 If the staff members of the responsible departments, in violation of these regulations, have neglected duties, abused power, practiced favoritism and engaged in irregularities, the units they belong to or supervisory departments shall discipline them by administrative penalties; if there is a criminal offence, the criminal responsibility shall be ascertained according to law.

       Article 52 If a person concerned has refused to accept a penalty imposed by a district department of environmental protection or a representative office of the maritime department, an application may be filed to the municipal department of environmental protection or the maritime department for review within 60 days after receiving the penalty notice; if a person concerned has refused to accept the penalty imposed by the municipal department of environmental protection or the maritime department, an application may be filed to the Municipal Government for review within 60 days after receiving the penalty notice; if a review decision has been refused to accept, an appeal may be lodged to a people' s court within 15 days after receiving the review decision. A person concerned may also appeal directly to a people' s court within 15 days after receiving a penalty notice.

       If a person concerned has not applied for review or appealed to a people' s court, and also failed in implementation, the responsible departments may apply to a people' s court for compulsory implementation.

       Article 53 Any unit and individual falling a victim to the damages caused by environmental pollution in the sea areas shall have a right to claim compensation for loss from the party responsible for pollution. A person concerned in a compensation dispute may apply to the related responsible departments for mediation, and may also bring a suit or apply for arbitration.

Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions

       Article 54 The following terms used in these regulations are defined as follows:

(1)    ships are referred to all vessels with water draining or without water draining, rafts, seaplanes, scubas, and mobile platforms;

(2)    ship pollutants are referred to those produced by ships such as waste water with oil, consumer sewage, residual oil, garbage, paint, rust, etc.;

(3)    cargo oil is referred to the oil carried and delivered by ships but not used by ships;

(4)    land-sourced pollutants  are referred to those water pollutants which are directly discharged from land to the sea areas or indirectly discharged on the way of municipal pipelines, ditches directing to the sea areas, but not including the urban waste water after the second class treatment and the water pollutants discharged to the sea areas through rivers;

(5)    coastal projects are referred to those construction projects which have their principal part or operations below the coastline, in order to control sea water or to use the sea to complete part of or all of their functions, and affect the marine environment.

Article 55 The management of pollution preventing for the facilities within the sea areas (not including fixed drilling platforms) and for ships traveling in navigable waters of inland rivers shall be implemented by referring to these regulations.

        Article 56 These regulations shall take effect as of March 1, 2000.