China’s ecology and environment authority fined a sewage plant 600,000 yuan for falsifying water quality monitoring by using a chemical oxygen demand (COD) remover, and those involved have been detained, thepaper.cn reported on Tuesday, the first case of this kind released to the public.
China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment recently announced that Shenmu Sewage Treatment Plant, located in northwest China and affiliated with the Shaanxi Environmental Protection Group Water Environment (Shenmu) Co., Ltd., has been involved in illegal releases of sewage by falsifying the monitoring data by adding a COD remover, and improperly using water pollution prevention facilities.
This is the first case in the country that authorities have punished a company for such an action in public.
COD, chemical oxygen demand, is an important and effective parameter of the organic pollution in the sewage treatment process. A high index always represents a serious sewage pollution.
However, in the Ministry’s recent experiment, it showed that COD could not be removed when using this remover. Instead, it falsified the monitor and manipulated the data to keep the index low.
From September to November 2020, the plant added 131 tons of COD removers to deal with the sewage. The provincial Ecology and Environment authority has fined the plant 600,000 yuan.
The police have detained two people from the plant. Senior officials from the mother company have been removed from their positions or punished.
Photo: CFP
