Why should information disclosure be done well first in contaminated soil remediation?
■Inadequate disclosure of soil contamination information leaves the public unable to promptly judge whether they are being harmed by soil contamination, and is also not conducive to public participation in and oversight of the remediation of contaminated plots.
■Among soil contamination information, there is actually not much that is truly a "state secret" that must be kept confidential in accordance with the law; most of it is government information and public information that should be disclosed in accordance with the law.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection recently released the "Measures for the Management of Soil Environment of Contaminated Plots (Draft for Comment)" and the "Drafting Explanation", publicly soliciting opinions from all sectors of society, with the deadline for comments being December 6, 2016. The "Management Measures" are divided into seven chapters: General Provisions, Environmental Investigation and Risk Assessment, Risk Control, Treatment and Remediation, Supervision and Management, Penalty Provisions, and Supplementary Provisions. They mainly provide for multiple systems including the plot soil environmental investigation and risk assessment system, the contaminated plot risk control system, and the contaminated plot treatment and remediation system.
In recent years, with the exposure of multiple "toxic land" incidents, the issue of soil pollution prevention and control has increasingly attracted public attention. The release of the "Measures for the Management of Soil Environment of Contaminated Plots (Draft for Comment)" against this macro background can be seen as a positive signal that the top-level design for soil pollution governance is accelerating its layout. The draft for comment clarifies key issues such as plot soil environmental investigation and risk assessment, and contaminated plot risk control, and clarifies responsibilities and norms for the disposal of contaminated land, which deserves recognition and expectation.
Whether controlling the risks of contaminated plots or remediating contaminated soil, both first require a full understanding of contaminated land information. The draft for comment clarifies that local competent environmental protection departments at all levels are responsible for environmental investigation, risk assessment, risk control, or treatment and remediation activities of contaminated plots, and requires that responsible parties of plots disclose relevant information such as environmental investigation and risk assessment through portal websites or relevant media, or print special materials for public inspection. This requirement responds to the public's right to know about soil governance of contaminated plots, but regarding applications to inspect relevant archives of contaminated plots, it provides that only "stakeholders of contaminated plots" may inquire in accordance with the law. So what exactly counts as a "stakeholder"? Do environmental public welfare organizations count? Are public media included? These questions all need to be further clarified; otherwise, the substantive effectiveness of this information disclosure clause may be greatly weakened.
According to the "Blue Book on Land Remediation" released by the Ministry of Land and Resources in 2014, about 50 million mu of China's cultivated land is affected by moderate to severe pollution, and the land faces severe pollution and degradation. The national total point exceedance rate for soil is 16.1%, and the environmental protection situation of soil is not optimistic. These data mainly involve overall macro information, and there is still a considerable gap compared with the public's cognition and understanding of soil contamination information and the efforts they can thereby make for soil pollution prevention and control. Inadequate disclosure of soil contamination information, on the one hand, leaves the public unable to promptly judge whether they are being harmed by soil contamination; on the other hand, objectively, it is also not conducive to public participation in and oversight of the remediation of contaminated plots. In the soil management and remediation of contaminated plots, the public's right to know should be responded to in a more targeted, active, and effective manner, and expanding the scope of soil contamination information disclosure and increasing the intensity of disclosure should be taken as supporting foundational work and implemented well.
Previously, contents such as investigation methods and data information concerning soil contamination conditions were all treated as "state secrets" and kept secret from the public. Now this draft for comment released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection requires relevant responsible parties to disclose to society relevant information such as environmental investigation and risk assessment of contaminated plots. This shows a major change on the issue of soil contamination information disclosure - among soil contamination information, there is actually not much that is truly a "state secret" that must be kept confidential in accordance with the law; most of it is government information and public information that should be disclosed in accordance with the law. The very small amount of soil contamination information that belongs to "state secrets" indeed cannot be disclosed, otherwise it may harm national security and interests; if most soil contamination information were strictly kept confidential, causing soil pollution treatment issues to receive neither the warning nor the attention they deserve, and leaving the public knowing very little or even nothing about soil contamination conditions and lacking vigilance and initiative for self-rescue and risk avoidance, then soil contamination could very likely intensify and deteriorate extremely, leading to an unmanageable situation and ultimately also harming national security and interests. Is the risk greater when soil contamination information is disclosed, or when it is not disclosed? The answer is obvious.
The prevention, control, and remediation of soil in contaminated plots are closely related to the vital interests of the people. Only by enhancing society's oversight capacity can efficient oversight and governance be achieved. Information disclosure is not frightening; on the contrary, concealment more easily creates safety anxiety among the public. This has already been proven in air pollution prevention and control, and soil pollution prevention and control should be no exception.