Soil pollution must be curbed urgently; prevention and control of farmland pollution brooks no delay
Just as the blue sky cannot be shrouded in smog and rivers cannot run with sewage, the earth likewise cannot bear pollution on its thick soil. The “Air Ten Measures” and “Water Ten Measures” have already been issued one after another; when will the long-awaited “Soil Ten Measures” be introduced?
2015 is the “International Year of Soils” designated by the 68th United Nations General Assembly. Recently, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China Association for Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and other departments jointly held the “Soil and Ecological Environment Security——International Year of Soils in China” high-level forum on strategy and decision-making, paying close attention to the progress of the “Soil Ten Measures” and jointly taking the pulse of land quality and safety issues.
Soil security constrains food security
Although China's grain production has achieved a historic “eleven consecutive increases,” Vice Minister of Agriculture Zhang Taolin still feels heavily pressured, because the source guarantee of food security——land quality——is not optimistic.
“The consecutive annual increases in grain output have, to a certain extent, been built on the high-intensity development and utilization of agricultural natural resources such as soil and water and the massive input of pesticides and chemical fertilizers,” Zhang Taolin said. In 2013, China's agricultural chemical fertilizer application amounted to 59.12 million tonnes; calculated by agricultural planting area, the fertilizer application rate was 321.5kg/hm2, far higher than the world average, 2.6 times that of the United States and 2.5 times that of the European Union. China's pesticide usage also remains relatively large, stable at around 320,000 tonnes in recent years, accounting for 1/7 of total world pesticide usage.
“At present, the various resource elements and environmental ecology supporting grain production are stretched very tight,” Zhang Taolin said. As for the soil quality of cultivated land, according to a report released by the Ministry of Land and Resources in 2009 and the data of the Second National Land Survey released in 2013, the overall quality of China's cultivated land is on the low side; the contribution rate of the basic soil fertility of cultivated land to grain output is about 50%, far lower than the 70% to 80% level of European and American countries. Medium- and low-yield fields account for 2/3, sloping cultivated land accounts for about 40%, and soil nutrient imbalance is fairly common.
Moreover, unreasonable development and utilization have led to severe soil degradation in some regions, such as soil erosion and desertification and secondary salinization in the northwest, thinning of black soil in parts of the northeast, accelerated acidification of red and yellow soils in the south, and increasingly prominent degradation problems such as soil acidification, salinization and continuous cropping obstacles in protected vegetable land (greenhouses). In addition, some cultivated land is no longer suitable for growing grain crops because it has suffered moderate to severe pollution.
As the foundation of human survival, soil has even become the main sink for most pollutants, and its quality has been significantly affected. “The ‘National Soil Pollution Status Investigation Bulletin’ issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land and Resources in April 2014 shows that the overall national soil environmental situation is not optimistic, soil pollution in some areas is relatively severe, the soil environmental quality of cultivated land is worrying, and soil environmental problems at abandoned industrial and mining sites are prominent, with the national total exceedance rate of soil points at 16.1%,” said Li Ganjie, Vice Minister of Environmental Protection.
“Soil security issues have seriously constrained national food security, food safety, water security and ecological environment security, and further affect national security and the capacity to comply with international obligations,” emphasized Shang Yong, Party Secretary and Executive Vice Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology. Around soil security, coordinating and giving play to the production function, environmental protection function and ecological support function of soil is both an international frontier topic of soil science and an urgent practical need for China.
Why soil pollution is difficult to measure and difficult to manage
“Once soil is polluted, it cannot be restored so easily,” Li Ganjie sounded a warning for people and also pointed out the difficulty of soil remediation: compared with water and air pollution, soil pollution is hidden, delayed and difficult to reverse. This is especially true of heavy metal pollution, because it is difficult to degrade, so heavy metal pollution of soil is basically irreversible. Once soil pollution occurs, it is very difficult to restore merely by cutting off pollution sources. Overall, the cost of remediating soil pollution is high, the cycle is long and the difficulty is great.
Zhang Taolin believes that targeted resource and environmental utilization, protection and restoration management should be carried out, and that current methods for monitoring and evaluating agricultural resources and the environment still need to be improved. “Because of the diversity and complexity of the types and causes of China's soil and production area environments, the current methods for monitoring and evaluating agricultural resources and the environment are still imperfect, and the monitoring and evaluation results often cannot objectively and accurately reflect the true state and trends of resources and the environment, which to a certain extent affects the scientific nature and effectiveness of agricultural resource and environmental management.”
Taking the investigation of heavy metal pollution in soil as an example, the 2014 “National Soil Pollution Status Investigation Bulletin” showed that the exceedance rate of soil points in cultivated land nationwide reached 19.4%, of which severely polluted points accounted for 1.1%; while the results of the investigation of major farming production areas in central and eastern China completed by the Ministry of Land and Resources in 1999 showed that 12.1% of the soil had potential heavy metal pollution risks; and the Ministry of Agriculture has conducted four investigations of cultivated land soil in some key areas since 2001, with the result being a total exceedance rate of 10.2%. “The reason for the above differences is, first, that the purposes, methods, layout choices of sampling points and sampling density of the investigations differ, and second, that the evaluation index system is still not sound,” Zhang Taolin said.
“General surveys and fact-finding should be strengthened, and the types, scope, degree and causes of agricultural non-point source pollution and soil degradation should be clarified as soon as possible; national-level databases on non-point source pollution and heavy metal pollution of production area soil should be established, and the status and dynamic trends of agricultural resources and the environment should be grasped in a timely manner. We should plan scientifically and provide guidance by category, and formulate national and local plans for controlling agricultural environmental pollution,” Zhang Taolin said.
⟦NL> In addition to pollution being “unmeasurable,” soil remediation also faces an even more prominent difficulty: “unmanageable.” Shen Renfang, Director of the Nanjing Institute of Soil Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that backward management technology and the lack of policies and laws also make soil remediation difficult to carry out smoothly.
“Although China has developed corresponding management technology systems for fertilization, water, agronomy, biology and tillage in soil degradation control and obstacle reduction, unreasonable tillage management measures have led to serious waste of nutrient resources in China, reduced soil quality and also posed a threat to the ecological environment. Especially in terms of soil remediation and conservation technology systems, management technologies and policies and laws are very insufficient. Moreover, relatively complete soil protection and management policies and corresponding laws and regulations have not yet been issued and established,” Shen Renfang said.
Legislation on soil pollution control brooks no delay
China currently has no special laws or regulations on soil pollution prevention and control; there are only some relevant provisions scattered in other related legal documents or policy documents. These provisions have obvious defects. “First, these provisions are scattered and unsystematic; often a related legal document contains only one or two relevant legal norms, which makes it impossible to carry out soil pollution prevention and control systematically and effectively. Second, their operability is weak. The existing legal provisions on soil pollution prevention and control only point out in principle and in general terms that we should ‘prevent soil pollution’ and ‘improve soil,’ but they do not make clear and specific provisions on how to protect the soil environment from pollution or how to remediate, restore or improve already polluted soil environments, making them difficult to implement concretely. In addition, these provisions are clearly outdated and cannot meet current requirements.” Li Ganjie stressed that accelerating the advancement of legislation on soil pollution prevention and control brooks no delay.
The Central Committee's “Opinions on Accelerating the Advancement of Ecological Civilization Construction” clearly proposed to “formulate and implement an action plan for soil pollution prevention and control, give priority to protecting the soil environment of cultivated land, strengthen the remediation of industrially polluted sites, and carry out pilot projects for soil pollution remediation and restoration,” and the “Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law” was also included this year in the legislative plan of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection began launching legislative research on soil pollution prevention and control in 2006. In 2013, the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress included soil pollution prevention and control legislation in the first category of projects in its legislative plan, and the Environment and Resources Protection Committee of the National People's Congress entrusted the Ministry of Environmental Protection with drafting the “Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law.” At present, the draft proposal has been submitted to the Environment and Resources Protection Committee of the National People's Congress. The Ministry of Environmental Protection, together with relevant departments, is stepping up the compilation of a national action plan for soil pollution prevention and control.
Li Ganjie pointed out that China's soil pollution prevention and control will highlight two priorities and three links. “We must firmly grasp the two priorities of agricultural land and polluted sites, prescribe the right remedy for the case, put forward a series of institutional requirements such as classified and graded management, adapt measures to local conditions, treat what can be treated, and for what cannot be treated for the time being, do a good job of risk control to ensure safe use,” Li Ganjie said. The three links are “prevention, control and treatment.” “Prevention” means establishing strict laws and regulations and implementing strict supervision and oversight to strictly prevent the emergence of new soil pollution. “Control” means carrying out investigations and screening, grasping the status and distribution of soil pollution, and adopting effective means to prevent and control pollution risks. “Treatment” means carrying out soil pollution remediation and restoration, implementing policies by category, organizing pilot demonstrations of soil pollution treatment in typical areas, gradually establishing a technical system for soil pollution remediation and restoration, and advancing soil pollution remediation and restoration in a planned and step-by-step manner.
Li Ganjie also disclosed that before the “Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law” is issued, supporting policies, standards and technical systems will be actively studied and formulated. In the early stage, regulations and rules such as the “Regulations on Soil Pollution Prevention and Control of Construction Land,” the “Measures for the Management of Soil Environment of Polluted Sites” and the “Measures for the Management of Soil Environment of Agricultural Land” will be studied and formulated. The “New Standard for Soil Environmental Quality” and related soil environmental standards will be revised and issued, pilot demonstrations of soil pollution remediation and restoration will be carried out, and a technical system for soil pollution and remediation and restoration will be established, providing strong technical support for the introduction and implementation of the law.
“We will use 6 to 7 years to curb the trend of worsening soil pollution and keep the national soil environmental situation stable and improving. Specifically, this means effectively protecting the soil environment of agricultural land, achieving orderly recuperation for severely polluted cultivated land, basically safeguarding the soil environmental safety of construction land, and achieving notable results in pilot demonstrations of soil pollution prevention and control,” Li Ganjie said.