From May to June 2017, PECC received several reports from residents in Feng Community, Weiyang Garden, Huaqiang Village, Emerald Bay Community, and Huayin Homestead in Chengxiang Town, Taicang City, reflecting serious air pollution in this area.

On July 12th, 2017, PECC’s staffs rushed to the scene to conduct on-site environmental research on reports from local residents. According to local residents, Taicang Kangmao Electronics and Zhaoji Hardware Products often emitted pungent-smelling gases, especially when the air pressure is relatively low. The staff of PECC made a visual inspection and found that the exhaust outlet of Taicang Kangmao Electronics Co., Ltd. had a problem of insufficient height. The staffs of PECC also smelled a similar strong and pungent odor around the Zhaoji Hardware Products Enterprise, but no discharge outlet was found behind the factory building of the enterprise.

Figure 1: Location of industrial areas and living conditions of surrounding residents

Figure 2: The height of the enterprise chimney is suspected to be substandard

On July 14th, 2017, PECC submitted the “Research Report on Air Pollution in Chengxiang Town, Taicang City” to the environmental protection bureau.

On August 10th, 2017, Taicang Environmental Protection Bureau responded to the above situation one by one: it will investigate and deal with many enterprises involved in the report, and said that it will continue to strengthen the supervision of enterprises in the area with the government of Chengxiang Town to ensure that enterprises can comply with discipline and abide by the law and minimize the impact on surrounding residents.

Figure 3: The partial reply from the environmental protection bureau

It was found at the scene that Taicang Kangmao Electronics had been shut down by the environmental protection department.

On August 18th, 2017, under the coordination of PECC, PECC hosted this roundtable meeting at Taicang Huaqi Electronic Components Co., Ltd.

PECC hopes that through this meeting, it can better enhance the mutual understanding between enterprises and nearby residents, encourage enterprises to strengthen the independent disclosure of environmental information and increase investment in environmental governance, so as to fully assume their environmental responsibilities; let the residents’ reasonable environmental aspirations be expressed; further enhance the level of corporate environmental management, promote green emission reduction and residents’ harmonious coexistence, and form a good environment atmosphere of the community of green co-construction and diverse co-governance.

Figure 4: The scene of the roundtable meeting

After the roundtable meeting on August 18th, 2017, the company felt its own problems again, fulfilled its social responsibilities more solidly, and actively carried out rectification. The company started rectification on April 1st, 2017 and ended on September 20th, 2017, which lasted about 6 months and invested 1.8126 million yuan in rectification.

The items of the specific rectification are as follows:

①　Replace the old and damaged equipment in the factory: check the noise caused by the old equipment, replace the new equipment, and realize the essentialization of the environmental protection of the equipment;

②　For the pure water room with high noise, the roof is replaced with sound-absorbing and heat-insulated rock wool color steel tiles with sound-absorbing cotton on the side, and the partition doors of the pure water room, boiler room and 1# fan room are replaced;

③　Renovation of the soundproof wall: add soundproof walls to the fence on the side of the plant and the residents to reduce the impact of noise;

④　The replacement of the water treatment gate: the existing gate is old, and it is replaced with double-sided galvanized iron, filled with sound-absorbing cotton with acoustic effect;

⑤　Modification of the duct of fan: the existing duct of fan on the roof is modified, the bending part is removed, and the outlet duct is made into a flared mouth with the original material;

⑥　Renovation of boiler room pipes: use galvanized iron pipes for boiler room to discharge upwards and divert them into the factory; on the ducts, rock wool is used to clad the ducts and then galvanized iron ducts are wrapped throughout;

⑦　Erect new compartments in 2#, 3# and 4# fan rooms;

⑧　Renovate the air compressor room and replace the old equipment with loud noise;

⑨　Build a new air compressor room, surrounded by rock wool panels to isolate the transmission of noise.

Before and after the rectification, the company invited a qualified third-party testing company to conduct noise testing. The results show that the noise has reached the national standard after the rectification. However, under the circumstance that Taicang Huaqi Electronic Components Co., Ltd. rectified and reached the standard, some residents made further demands to the enterprise again. Based on the above situation, PECC’s staffs came to the sensitive residential area (2) to conduct a noise test during daytime (11:15-11:50) on October 17th, 2017 and nighttime (19:20-20:50) on October 19th, 2017, respectively. According to the field investigation of PECC and the noise test of sensitive residential area, the noise value of Taicang Huaqi Electronic Components Co., Ltd. in both daytime and nighttime is in line with the Class II standard in the “Standard of the Emission of Environmental Noise for Industrial Enterprises (GB 12348-2008)”, at the same time, the noise difference of the enterprise is not more than 3dB(A) when it is turned on and off. To sum up, Taicang Huaqi Electronic Components Co., Ltd. has completed the noise remediation, fulfilled its commitment at the roundtable meeting, and can eliminate the impact of the company’s noise on nearby residents.

At present, the governance work has been completed, and 1.8126 million yuan has been invested in this rectification.

This project called “Virtuously Cooperate with the Government to Control Environmental Pollution” is a project of Blue Defenders

Thanks to Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology (SEE) 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 SEE.