In early November 2017, SIP Lvse Jiangnan Public Environment Concerned Centre (hereinafter referred to as “PECC”) received a report from a number of residents in Jinhu County, Huai’an City, claiming that Jiangsu Leoch Battery Co., Ltd. used pipeline secretly discharges strong acid wastewater outside the site, and they hoped to get help from PECC. Based on the desk research conducted by The Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (hereinafter referred to as “IPE”), PECC conducted several on-site studies of the company.
Figure 1: The map of the location where Jiangsu Leoch Battery drained the wastewater secretly
On November 20th, 2017, the researchers was led by the reporting resident to the fence of the sewage treatment area located at the northeast corner of Leoch Battery and found that the enterprise was discharging an unknown water from the site to the off-site green belt with a large discharge and the ground water was flowing. PECC took a water sample and sent it to a third party with testing qualifications - “Bureau Veritas Commodity Testing (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.” for testing.
The test results showed that the pH value of the sewage sample of Leoch Battery was 2.23 (strongly acidic) and the concentration of heavy metal lead in the water sample was as high as 8150 micrograms per liter. (The limits of wastewater discharge for enterprises are PH: 6-9, lead concentration: ≤500 micrograms / liter)
Figure 2: On-site figure of the secret drainage of Jiangsu Leoch Battery Co., Ltd.
On November 30th, 2017, PECC entrusted the staff of a third-party “Bureau Veritas Commodity Testing (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.” with testing qualifications to extract soil samples on-site from the location where the sewage containing strong acid and heavy metal lead was secretly discharged.
After the soil sample was extracted (sample 1), a hidden hole in the wall was found under the fence at a distance of a few meters from the end of the soil sample extraction, and the soil outside the hole had been washed into a mud pit, and the area around the mud pit had been washed into a state of sand, which was obviously not a phenomenon formed in one day.
The investigators entrusted the sampling personnel of Bureau Veritas Commodity Testing (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. to sample and test the sand at the cavity of the wall (sample 2).
Figure 3: Sampling personnel from Bureau Veritas Commodity Testing (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. conduct sampling and positioning
Figure 4: Condition of wall cavity
One week later, the test results showed that:
The pH value of No. 1 soil sample is 3.66, which is strongly acidic, and the content of heavy metal lead is as high as 4610 mg/kg;
The pH value of No. 2 soil sample is 3.91, which is strongly acidic, and the content of heavy metal lead is as high as 1990 mg/kg.
PECC and IPE jointly submitted the “Research Report on Water Pollution of Jiangsu Leoch Battery Co., Ltd. in Jinhu County, Huai’an” to the environmental protection department.
In addition to the letter to the environmental protection departments, IPE and PECC also sent the “Letter to Leoch International on Environmental Pollution” to the email address disclosed in Leoch International’s 2016 Annual Report (ir@leoch.com) on December 14th, and later couriered the joint letter to Leoch Battery.
After receiving no reply from Leoch Battery and Jinhu Environmental Protection Bureau, PECC, in order to solve environmental problems as soon as possible, tweeted “The largest exporter of lead-acid battery in China is suspected of secretly discharging lead-containing wastewater - Research Report on the Pollution of Jiangsu Leoch Battery Co., Ltd.” on WeChat on December 18th, 2017.
On the afternoon of December 19th, 2017, the Environmental Protection Bureau of Jinhu County (Director Pan of Jinhu Environmental Protection Bureau and Environmental Supervision Bureau, Ms. Guo from Jinhu Economic and Information Bureau, Chief Liu of Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau of Jinhu Environmental Protection Bureau, etc.) visited PECC, and communicated on the “Research Report on Environmental Pollution of Jiangsu Leoch Battery Co., Ltd.” and conducted further research on the information of pollution site.
Figure 5: Environmental Protection Bureau of Jinhu County come to visit PECC
On the afternoon of December 20th, 2017, General Manager Yin Haiyan and her colleagues of Leoch Battery visited PECC to discuss “The largest exporter of lead-acid battery in China is suspected of secretly discharging lead-containing wastewater - Research Report on the Pollution of Jiangsu Leoch Battery Co., Ltd.” issued by the environmental protection organization to carry out dialogue and communication.
On December 21st, 2017, the Environmental Protection Bureau of Jinhu County issued a notice of administrative penalty (Jinhuan Penalty Notice [2017] No. 46), and proposed to impose the following penalties on Leoch Battery: (1) the act of discharging pollutants without legal outlets will be transferred to the public security authorities for further investigation and punishment; (2) a fine of 100,000 yuan will be imposed.
On December 23rd, 2017, Leoch Battery completed the sealing of the cavity of the east fence. Under the supervision of the Environmental Protection Bureau of Jinhu County, the soil of the area of the drainage outlet under the east fence was excavated and replaced. The excavated area was 21 ㎡ (the thickness is unknown). And the soil is currently placed in the hazardous waste warehouse of Leoch battery, which is planned to be disposed of by the end of January 2018 to Dahua Energy Technology Co., Ltd. in Taihe County.
Figure 6: The photo of on-site treatment
On January 8th, 2018, Manager Yin of Jiangsu Leoch Battery visited PECC and communicated again on related issues. According to Leoch Battery, the soil in question has been transferred to Leoch Company under the on-site and verbal guidance of the staff of the local Environmental Supervision Bureau and treated as hazardous waste. On November 20th, 2017, the staff of the third party who carried out the drainage directly has been dealt with by public security. Leoch Battery said: The following documents will be provided to PECC as soon as possible: a detailed description of the incident (time, place, character, etc.), a decision on administrative penalty, pictures and videos of on-site guidance of the staff of the Environmental Supervision Bureau, etc., the contract signed with the hazardous waste treatment company, and the qualification of the hazardous waste treatment company.
On January 12th, 2018, Director Lingcheng, Deputy Director of the Environmental Protection Bureau of Jinhu County, and Director Pan of the Environmental Supervision Bureau of Jinhu County visited PECC to communicate on relevant issues. In response to the problems reflected by PECC, the Environmental Protection Bureau of Jinhu County made the following explanations:
① Investigation and processing: The discharge of lead-containing wastewater of Leoch Battery Company was due to the renovation of the network of rainwater pipes. The third-party maintenance workers took over the discharge without permission due to the waste water contained in the rainwater pipes. Jinhu Environmental Protection Bureau issued a decision on the administrative penalty on Leoch Battery for this reason, which was announced on January 11th, 2018.
② Regional rectification: Leoch Battery has managed the construction site of the diversion of rain water and sewage water, which is expected to be completed within a week. At the same time, the Environmental Protection Bureau of Jinhu County has sealed up the soil at the drainage site for treatment.
③ Strengthening supervision: The Environmental Protection Bureau of Jinhu County stated that it will strengthen the supervision of the surrounding soil and drainage outlets of Leoch batteries in the future.
Figure 7: Environmental Protection Bureau of Jinhu County come to visit PECC
On January 22th-23th, 2018, under the on-site supervision of representatives from PECC and IPE, a third-party audit agency conducted a two-day on-site environmental audit on Jiangsu Leoch Battery Co., Ltd.
Figure 8: On-site environmental audit
On March 9th, 2018, the third-party audit agency issued an audit report, confirming that the implementation of Leoch Battery’s rectification met the acceptance conditions and passed the third-party on-site inspection; Leoch Battery submitted this report to PECC, which was submitted to the Network of Green Choice Alliance involving 56 environmental organizations.
On March 16th, 2018, the Network of Green Choice Alliance accepted the conclusion of the audit report and agreed to remove the bad environmental record of Leoch Battery on the IPE website.
The scope of the third-party audit is mainly in the factory area of Jiangsu Leoch Battery Co., Ltd. The intention has also been formed on the review of the environmental risk assessment of the off-site soil and groundwater, and PECC will continue to follow up on the following progress.
This project is a project of protecting water source Alibaba Foundation’s “Qingyuan Action”
Thanks to Alibaba Foundation for its financial support. The content and opinions in this article only represent the author’s personal views and have nothing to do with the position or policies of Alibaba Foundation.