Measures for Pollutant Discharge Permitting Administration (For Trial Implementation) (2019 Version)

Measures for Pollutant Discharge Permitting Administration (For Trial Implementation) (2019 Amendment PKULAW Version) Measures for Pollutant Discharge Permitting Administration (For Trial Implementation) (Promulgated by Order No. 48 of the Ministry of Environmental Protection on January 10, 2018; and amended by Order 7 of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in accordance with the Decision of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment to Repeal and Amend Certain Rules on August 22, 2019) Chapter I General Provisions Article 1 For the purposes of regulating the pollution discharge permitting administration, these Measures are developed under the Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China , the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China , the Atmospheric Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China , and the Implementation Plan for the Permit System for Controlling Pollutants Emission as issued by the General Office of the State Council. Article 2 These Measures shall apply to the application for and the issuance and enforcement of pollution discharge permits and the regulation, punishment and other conduct relating to pollutant discharge permitting. Article 3 The Ministry of Environmental Protection shall develop and issue according to law a classification administration list of pollutant discharge permitting for fixed pollution sources and specify the scope under pollutant discharge permitting administration and the application time limit. The enterprises, public institutions and other producers and businesses (hereinafter referred to as the "pollutant discharging entities") on the list shall apply for and obtain a pollutant discharge permit according to the prescribed application time limit; and those not on the list are required to do so for the time being. Article 4 A pollutant discharging entity shall hold a pollutant discharge permit as legally required and discharge the pollutant as provided in the pollutant discharge permit. Without a required pollutant discharge permit, no pollutant may be discharged. Article 5 Pollution discharging entities generating or discharging high-volume pollutants or highly detrimental to the environment shall be placed under priority pollutant discharge permitting administration, and the others shall be placed under summary pollutant discharge permitting administration. The specific scope of pollutant discharging entities under priority pollutant discharge permitting administration or those under summary pollutant discharge permitting administration shall be governed by the classification administration list of pollutant discharge permitting for fixed pollution sources . The content and requirements of the application of priority administration and summary administration shall be governed by the relevant technical specifications and guidelines relating to pollutant discharge permitting as described in Article 11 of these Measures. The local environmental protection authorities at and above the level of city divided into districts shall determine the pollutant discharging entities subject to priority pollutant discharge permitting administration as priority pollutant discharging entities. Article 6 The Ministry of Environmental Protection shall be responsible for the implementation and supervision of the national pollutant discharge permitting rules. Each provincial environmental protection authority shall be responsible for the organization of the implementation and supervision of the local pollutant discharge permitting rules. The environmental protection authorities at the level of city divided into districts in the places of production and business of pollutant discharging entities shall be responsible for issuing pollutant discharge permits, unless otherwise provided by local rules. Article 7 An pollutant discharging entity under a same corporate entity or any other organization, having more than one place of production and business, shall, in the name of the corporate entity or other organization, apply for a pollutant discharge permit with the environmental protection authority having the issuing power (hereinafter referred to as the "issuing environmental protection authority") in each of the production and business venues. Where the place of production and business and the outlet are in different administrative regions, the issuing environmental protection authority in the place of production and business shall be responsible for issuing the pollutant discharge permit provided that, before doing so, it shall solicit the opinions of the environmental protection authority at the same level in the place of the outlet. Article 8 As required by the relevant laws, the environmental protection authorities shall subject the discharge of water pollutants, air pollutants, and other various pollutants by pollutant discharging entities to comprehensive permitting administration. For pollutant discharging entities that have obtained construction project environmental impact assessment approval opinions on or after January 1, 2015, the main content regarding pollutant discharge in the environmental impact assessment documents and approval opinions shall be included in the pollutant discharge permits. Article 9 The Ministry of Environmental Protection shall place pollutant discharging entities subject to pollutant discharge permitting administration and their production facilities, production prevention and control facilities and outlets under unified coding administration. Article 10 The Ministry of Environmental Protection shall be responsible for building, operating, maintaining and managing the National Pollution Discharge Permits Administration Information Platform. The application for and its acceptance, review, issuance, modification, renewal, deregistration, revocation, and re-issuance as a result of loss of a pollutant discharge permit shall be conducted on the National Pollution Discharge Permits Administration Information Platform. The self-monitoring and enforcement reports of the pollutant discharging entities and the information on the regulation and law enforcement from the environmental protection authorities shall be entered in and made public according to these Measures through the National Pollution Discharge Permits Administration Information Platform. The electronic information relating to pollutant discharge permits recorded in the National Pollution Discharge Permits Administration Information Platform shall have the same effect as the original and duplicate of pollutant discharge permits according to law. Article 11 The Ministry of Environmental Protection shall develop technical specifications of application and issuance of pollutant discharge permits, technical specifications of environmental management ledgers and pollutant discharge permits enforcement reports, technical guidelines on the self-monitoring by pollutant discharging entities, guidelines on feasible pollution prevention and control technologies, and other pollutant discharging permitting policies, standards and specifications. Chapter II Content of Pollution Discharge Permits Article 12 A pollutant discharge permit consists of an original and a duplicate copy, and while the original specifies the basic information, the duplicate contains the basic information, registration items, permitting items, undertaking, etc. The local environmental protection authorities at and above the level of city divided into districts may add more contents that need to be included in the pollutant discharge permit under local environmental protection rules. Article 13 The following basic information shall be included in both the original and the duplicate of a pollutant discharge permit: (1) Name, registered address, legal representative or principal person in charge, persons in charge of technology, address of the place of production and business, industry category, unified social credit code, and other basic information of the pollutant discharging entity. (2) The validity period, issuing authority, issuing date, serial number, QR code, and other basic information of the pollutant discharge permit. Article 14 The following registration items shall be declared by pollutant discharging entities and specified in the duplicate of the pollutant discharge permits: (1) Main production facilities, main products and capacity, and main and accessory raw materials, etc.; (2) Pollutant generating and discharging links and pollution prevention and control facilities, etc.; (3) Environmental impact assessment approval opinions, the total quantity control indicators of the discharge of priority pollutants broken down and assigned to the entities in accordance with the law, and the records of onerous use of and trading in the right of pollutant discharge, etc. Article 15 The following permitting items shall be applied for by pollutant discharging entities and, upon the review of the issuing environmental protection authorities, specified in the duplicate of a pollutant discharge permit: (1) The locations and number of outlets, the manners and destination, among others, of pollutant discharge, and the locations and number of fugitive emission sources of air pollutants. (2) The types of pollutants from outlets and fugitive emissions, permitted pollutant concentrations, and permitted quantity of pollutants discharged. (3) Environmental management requirements which shall be complied with after the pollution discharge permit is obtained. (4) Other permitting items as prescribed by laws and regulations. Article 16 The issuing environmental protection authorities shall determine the permitted concentrations of pollutants from the outlets or fugitive emissions of pollutant discharging entities according to the local and national pollutant discharging standards. Any more stringent pollutant concentrations a pollutant discharging entity undertakes to comply with shall be specified in the duplicate of its pollution discharge permit. Article 17 The issuing environmental protection authorities shall determine the permitted quantity of pollutant discharged by pollutant discharging entities according to the methodology to calculate the permitted quantity of industry priority pollutant discharged as described in the technical specifications of application and issuance of pollutant discharge permits and the requirements for environmental quality improvement. With respect to a pollutant discharging entity to which the total quantity control indicators of priority pollutants has been broken down and assigned in accordance with the law before the implementation of these Measures, the issuing environmental protection authorities shall determine the permitted quantity of pollutant discharged according to the methodology to calculate the permitted quantity of industry priority pollutant discharged, the requirements for environmental quality improvement, and total quantity control indicators of the discharge of priority pollutants. For a pollutant discharging entity that obtained environmental impact assessment approval opinions on or after January 1, 2015, if the quantity of pollutant discharged determined in the environmental impact assessment documents and approval opinions is more stringent than that as determined under paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article, the issuing environmental protection authorities shall determine the quantity according to the environmental impact assessment documents and approval opinions. If any plan for environmental quality coming up to standard within a specified period, or the heavy air pollution response measures, developed by the local people's governments according to the law, require pollutant discharging entities to comply with more stringent total quantity control indicators of the discharge of priority pollutants, the requirements shall be specified in the duplicate of a pollutant discharge permit. The environmental protection authorities shall, upon implementation of these Measures, determine the total quantity control indicators of the discharge of priority pollutants for environmental protection authorities according to the permitted quantity of pollutants discharged as specified in the pollutant discharge permits. Article 18 The following environmental management requirements shall be specified in the duplicate of a pollutant discharge permit by the issuing environmental protection authorities according to the application materials of pollutant discharging entities, the relevant technical specifications, and regulatory needs: (1) The requirements for the operation and maintenance of pollution prevention and control facilities and for the control of fugitive emissions, etc. (2) Self-monitoring requirements, ledger keeping requirements, content and frequency of enforcement reporting, and other requirements. (3) Requirements for disclosing the information of pollutant discharging entities to the public. (4) Other items as required by laws and regulations. Article 19 A pollutant discharging entity shall, when applying for a pollutant discharge permit, prepare a self-monitoring plan according to the self-monitoring technical guidelines. The self-monitoring plan shall include the following: (1) Location and sketch of monitoring stations, monitoring indicators, and monitoring frequency. (2) Adopted monitoring and analysis methodology and sampling methodology. (3) Monitoring quality assurance and quality control requirements. (4) Requirements for recording, reorganization and archiving of the monitoring data. Article 20 A pollutant discharging entity shall, when filling in an application for pollutant discharge permit, undertake that the application materials for the pollutant discharge permit is complete, authentic and lawful; and undertake to discharge pollutants according to the pollutant discharge permit and implement the environmental management requirements contained in the pollutant discharge permit, signed or sealed by the legal representative or the principal person in charge. Article 21 A pollutant discharge permit shall take effect on the date when the permitting decision is made. The validity period of an emission permit issued for the first time shall be three years, and the validity period of a renewed emission permit shall be five years. For any outdated technological equipment, or outdated products, which the industry policy list issued by the comprehensive and macro economic regulation department of the State Council in conjunction with the other relevant departments of the State Council purports to eliminate, the validity period of the pollutant discharge permit shall not exceed the purported time limit for the elimination. Article 22 The environmental protection authorities shall not collect any fees for issuing pollutant discharge permits or conducting supervisory inspection of the enforcement of pollutant discharge permits. Chapter III Application and Issuance Article 23 The provincial environmental protection authorities shall, under Article 6 of these Measures and the classification administration list of pollution discharge licensing for fixed pollution sources, determine and announce the issuing environmental protection authorities responsible for accepting the applications for pollutant discharge permits in their respective administrative regions, application procedures, and other relevant matters. If a region decides to subject part industries to pollutant discharge permitting administration in advance as required for the improvement of environmental quality, the provincial environmental protection authority in the region shall do so after filing with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and make an announcement. Article 24 A pollutant discharging entity that has already been established and discharged pollutants before the time limit as provided in the classification administration list of pollution discharge licensing for fixed pollution sources shall apply for a pollutant discharge permit within the time limit; and a pollutant discharging entity established after the time limit shall do so before launching the production facilities or discharging pollutants. Article 25 A pollutant discharging entity under priority administration shall disclose its undertaking, basic information, and permitted items under the purported application to the public before submitting the application materials for pollutant discharge permitting. The disclosure shall be made through the National Pollution Discharge Permits Administration Information Platform or in any other manner easily accessible to the public, and the disclosure shall not last less than five working days. Article 26 A pollutant discharging entity shall complete and submit its application for a pollutant discharge permit on the National Pollution Discharge Permits Administration Information Platform and submit t......