The General Office of the Ministry of Environmental Protection ("MEP") has recently issued four national standards, including the Pollutant Discharge Standards for the Activated Carbon Industry (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment"), to solicit opinions from the entities concerned by April 8, 2018.
The Draft for Comment sets forth the control requirements on the atmospheric and water pollutants discharged by the activated carbon industry, discharge monitoring, judgement on whether the discharge conforms to given standards, and the implementation of standards and supervision thereof, and the standards apply to the administration of the discharge of atmospheric and water pollutants by enterprises in the activated carbon industry and to the environmental impact assessment, design of environmental protection facilities, completion acceptance for environmental protection purposes, and discharge administration after being put into production, for construction projects in the activated carbon industry. According to the Draft for Comment, enterprises must comply with control requirements in these standards on the emission of pollutants and take necessary measures to ensure the normal operation of pollution prevention and control facilities under any circumstances. Environmental protection authorities can use the real-time sampling or monitoring results on the site as the basis for determining whether the discharge of pollutants meets discharge standards and for implementing relevant management measures environmental protection.