Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution
Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution
Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution
Order of the President of the People's Republic of China No.8
August 31, 2018
The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution, adopted at the Fifth Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on August 31, 2018, is hereby promulgated and will take effect from January 1, 2019.
President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping
Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Soil Pollution
(Adopted at the Fifth Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on August 31, 2018)
Contents
Chapter I General Provisions
Chapter II Planning, Standards, General Survey and Monitoring
Chapter III Prevention and Protection
Chapter IV Risk Management and Control and Restoration
Section 1 General Provisions
Section 2 Farming Land
Section 3 Construction Land
Chapter V Guarantee and Supervision
Chapter VI Legal Liability
Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 For the purpose of protecting and improving the ecological environment, preventing and cleaning up soil pollution, securing the health of the general public, promoting the perpetual use of soil resources, facilitating the building of an ecological civilization, and bolstering the sustainable economic and social development, this Law is formulated.
Article 2 This Law applies to the prevention and control of soil pollution and activities in this regard, within the territory of the People's Republic of China and other sea areas under China's jurisdiction.
For the purpose of this Law, soil pollution means the phenomenon where changes to chemical, physical or biological characteristics of soil, attributed to the permeation of certain substances into land surface soil due to human factors, affect the functions and effective use of soil and jeopardize the public's health or damage the ecological environment.
Article 3 Prevention and control of soil pollution shall conform to the principles of putting prevention first, prioritizing protection, operating the category-based administration, managing and controlling risks, bearing liability for pollution and advocating public participation.
Article 4 Any organization or individual is obligated to protect soil and prevent soil pollution.
Land use right holders that conduct land development activities, and enterprises and public institutions and other manufacturers and operators that carry out production and operation activities, shall take effective measures to prevent and reduce soil pollution and bear liability according to the law for the soil pollution they cause.
Article 5 All levels of local people's governments take charge of the prevention and control of soil pollution and the safe utilization within their respective administrative region.
The State operates an accountability system and assessment system regarding the objectives of preventing and cleaning up pollution, and takes the achievement of objectives for preventing and cleaning up pollution as a gauge to assess the performance of all levels of local people's governments as well as the heads thereof, and of departments in people's governments above the county level that are responsible for the supervision and administration of the prevention and control of soil pollution, as well as the heads thereof.
Article 6 All levels of people's governments shall strengthen their leadership of the work on prevention and control of soil pollution, and arrange for, coordinate and urge related departments to fulfill their duties according to the law of supervising the prevention and control of soil pollution.
Article 7 The competent authority of ecology and the environment of the State Council shall supervise and administer, in a unified manner, nationwide work on the prevention and control of soil pollution; the competent authorities of agriculture and rural affairs, natural resources, housing and urban-rural development, and forestry and grassland, of the State Council shall, within their respective functions, supervise and administer the work on the prevention and control of soil pollution.
The competent authority of ecology and the environment of the local people's government shall supervise and administer, in a unified manner, the work on the prevention and control of soil pollution within the local administrative region; the competent authorities of agriculture and rural affairs, natural resources, housing and urban-rural development, and forestry and grassland, of the local people's government shall, within their respective functions, supervise and administer the work on the prevention and control of soil pollution.
Article 8 The State will institute a soil environmental information sharing mechanism.
The competent authority of ecology and the environment of the State Council shall, in concert with the competent authorities of agriculture and rural affairs, natural resources, housing and urban-rural development, water resources, health, and forestry and grassland, create the basic soil environmental database, develop the national soil environmental information platform, and realize dynamic data updating and information sharing.
Article 9 The State supports efforts in researching and developing science and technology to prevent and clean up pollution, such as for the management and control of soil pollution risks, soil restoration, and monitoring of soil pollution, transforming achievements, and promoting the application of such achievements, encourages the development of the industry of preventing and controlling soil pollution, strengthens the cultivation of professional technicians specialized in the prevention and control of soil pollution, and fosters the scientific and technological advancements in the prevention and control of soil pollution.
The State also supports international exchange and cooperation regarding the prevention and control of soil pollution.
Article 10 All levels of people's governments, as well their related departments, grassroots autonomous organizations, and news media shall ramp up their efforts in regard to publicizing and education on the prevention and control of soil pollution and popularizing science in this regard, raise the general public's awareness of the prevention and control of soil pollution, and instruct the general public to join activities to prevent and clean up pollution.
Chapter II Planning, Standards, General Survey and Monitoring
Article 11 People's governments above the county level shall include the work on the prevention and control of soil pollution in the planning for the national economy and social development as well as environmental protection planning.
The competent authority of ecology and environment of the people's government above the level of a city with districts shall, in concert with the competent authorities of development and reform, agriculture and rural affairs, natural resources, housing and urban-rural development, and forestry and grassland, prepare a plan for the prevention and control of soil pollution, based on the requirements of environmental protection planning, land use, the general survey of soil pollution status, and monitoring results, and submit the plan to the people's government at the same level for approval before putting it into practice.
Article 12 The competent authority of ecology and the environment of the State Council shall formulate national standards for the management and control of soil pollution risks, according to soil pollution status, public health risks, ecological risks and the level of science and technology, and improve the building of a standard system for the prevention and control of soil pollution.
The provincial people's government may institute the local standards for the management and control of soil pollution risks to clarify matters that are not provided for in the national standards for the management and control of soil pollution risks; and for matters that have been clarified in the national standards for the management and control of soil pollution risks, it may formulate the local standards for the management and control of soil pollution risks that are stricter than the national ones. Local standards for the management and control of soil pollution risks shall be submitted to the competent authority of ecology and the environment of the State Council for record-filing.
Standards for the management and control of soil pollution risks are compulsory standards.
The State supports studies of the environmental background value and environmental quality criteria.
Article 13 Experts shall be organized to review, expound and prove the formulated standards for the management and control of soil pollution risks, and comments shall be invited from related departments, industry associations, enterprises, public institutions and the general public on such standards.
Regular assessment shall be conducted to look at the implementation of standards for the management and control of soil pollution risks, and such standards shall be amended in due time based on the assessment outcomes.
The competent authority of ecology and the environment of the people's government above the provincial level shall formulate public standards for the management and control of soil pollution risks on its official website, enabling the public to read and download such standards free of charge.
Article 14 The State Council will lead the national general survey of soil pollution status in a centralized manner. The competent authority of ecology and the environment of the State Council shall, in concert with the competent authorities of agriculture and rural affairs, natural resources, housing and urban-rural development, and forestry and grassland, launch a national general survey at least once every ten years to inspect the soil pollution status.
Related departments of the State Council, and local people's governments above the level of a city with districts, may initiate the comprehensive survey of soil pollution status, depending on the actualities of the industry concerned and in the local administrative region.
Article 15 The State will operate the soil environmental monitoring system.
The competent authority of ecology and the environment of the State Council will formulate norms for the monitoring of the soil environment, and, in concert with the competent authorities of agriculture and rural affairs, natural resources, housing and urban-rural development, water resources, health, and forestry and grassland, of the State Council, establish a monitoring network, and schedule the setting up of national soil environmental monitoring stations (sites) in a unified manner.
Article 16 The competent authorities of agriculture, and forestry and grassland, of the local people's government, shall, in concert with the competent authorities of ecology and the environment, and natural resources, pay special attention to monitoring plots of the following farming land,
1. Farming land where the agricultural products produced contain pollutants higher than the upper limit;
2. Farming land which is or was wastewater-irrigated areas;
3. Farming land which is or was used for scaled cultivation, or for piling up or burying solid waste;
4. Farming land which was used as industrial and mining areas or where a major or extra serious pollution accident took place;
5. Farming land adjacent to facilities that are used to produce, store, use or dispose of poisonous or harmful substances; and
6. Other circumstances specified by the competent authorities of agriculture and rural affairs, forestry and grassland, ecology and the environment, and natural resources, of the State Council.
Article 16 The competent authority of ecology and the environment of the local people's government, shall, in concert with the competent authority of natural resources, pay special attention to monitoring plots of the following construction land,
1. Construction land that was used to produce, use, store, recycle, or dispose of poisonous or harmful substances;
2. Construction land that was used to pile up or bury solid waste;
3. Construction land where a major or extremely serious pollution accident took place; and
4. Other circumstances specified by the competent authorities of ecology and the environment, and natural resources, of the State Council.
Chapter III Prevention and Protection
Article 18 Any plan relating to land use, and any construction project likely to cause soil pollution, shall be assessed according to the law to look into the environmental impact. The environmental impact assessment document shall specify the likely adverse impacts on the soil, corresponding precautions that should be taken, etc.
Article 19 Any entity or individual that produces, uses, stores, transports, recycles, disposes of, or discharges poisonous or harmful substances, shall take effective measures to prevent poisonous or harmful substances from leaking, flowing or being blown away, and avoid soil pollution.
Article 20 The competent authority of ecology and the environment of the State Council shall, in concert with the competent authorities of health, etc., of the State Council, sift through and evaluate poisonous and harmful substances in soil, according to the extent of harm and influences on the public's health and ecological environment, and publish and update in due time the catalog of poisonous and harmful soil substances under strict control.
Article 21 The competent authority of ecology and the environment of the people's government above the level of a city with districts shall, in line with the provisions of the competent authority of ecology and the environment of the State Council, formulate a list of entities under major supervision in regard to soil pollution within the local administrative region, according to the situations on the discharge of poisonous and harmful substances, and make public and update in due time such list.
An entity under major supervision in regard to soil pollution shall fulfill the following obligations,
1.
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