In 1999, the atmospheric environmental pollution was still mainly the coal smoke pollution. The major pollutants are TSP and SO2. In some metropolitan cities, coal smoke and vehicle emission were rather serious.
The scope with acid rain pollution almost remained unchanged and the pollution was still rather serious.
Urban Air In the 338 cities of the statistics, 33.1% of them met the second national level standard of air quality and 66.9% of them surpassed the second national level standard of air quality, among which 137 cities surpassed the third level standard, accounting for 40.5% of the statistic cities. On the whole, the urban air environmental quality was a little bit better than that in the previous year.
TSP was the major pollutant in urban air in China and 60.0% of the annual urban TSP concentration was over the second national level standard. The cities with annual SO2 over the national second level accounted for 28.4%. Most of the cities with serious NOx pollution were the ones with a population over one million.
In the 47 key environmental protection cities, the air quality in 16 cities met the second national level and the air quality in 13 of them was third level. The air quality in 18 cities was over third level.
Compared with the previous year, the cities that attained the second national environmental ambient air quality level increased from 27.6% to 33.1%. The rate of the cities over the second level standard and the third level standard decreased to certain extent. The degradation of urban air quality slowed down and the air quality in some cities has been improved. However, the pollution in some cities was still rather serious.
Acid Rain The acid rain is widely distributed in China, with complicated reasons. The regions with acid rain have remained stable in recent years, mainly located in the large areas to the south of the Yangtze and to the east of Tibet and Qinghai Plateau, as well as in Sichuan Basin. In mid-China, South China, south-west and East China areas, there are regions with serious acid rain pollution. In the northern part, there is acid rain in some places. The area with acid rain accounts for 30% of the territory.
The pH value monitoring results of the rainfall in 106 cities indicate that the annual pH value of the rainfall was 4.3 ~7.47. There were 43 cities where the annual rainfall pH value was lower than 5.6, accounting for 40.6%. In the 59 southern cities of the statistics, the pH value of annual precipitation in 41 cities was less than 5.6, accounting for 69.5%. The cities with over 80% (including 80%) acid rain frequency include Huaihua, Jingdezhen, Zunyi, Yibin and Ganzhou. In the northern cities, the annual pH value of the precipitation in Tumen and Qingdao was less than 5.6.
Discharge Amount of Waste Gas and Major Pollutants
In 1999, the total SO2 discharge amount in the waste gas in the whole country was 18.57 million tons, among which the discharge amount from industrial sources was 14.60 million tons and that from the household sources was 3.97 million tons; the discharge amount of smoke and dust was 11.59 million tons, among which the industrial smoke and dust discharge amount was 9.53 million tons and the household smoke and dust discharge amount was 2.06 million tons. The industrial dust discharge was 11.75 tons.
Unit (10 thousand)
Environmental Pollution Prevention in Beijing. In accordance with the Environmental Pollution Prevention Targets and Counter-Measures of Beijing ratified by the State Council, Beijing mainly focused on air pollution prevention, conducted environmental treatment on full scale and implemented 68 atmospheric pollution prevention measures in three phases with excellent results. The SO2, NO2 and TSP in the air have decreased by 30.9%, 7.2% and 20.0% respectively, thus achieving the phase targets of controlling the atmospheric pollution. The relevant departments of the State Council have inspected the environmental treatment in Beijing.
Achievements have been made as to the vehicle emission control. By the end of 1999, the areas that completely used lead-free gasoline included: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Hainan Province, Guangdong Province, Liaonin Province and Jiangsu Province. In other provinces and areas, there were 70 cities using lead-free gasoline. The consumption of lead-free gasoline in the whole country accounted for over 70% of the vehicle gasoline consumption in the whole country. The State Environmental Protection Administration issued "Standards on Controlling the Hazardous Materials in the Vehicle Gasoline" and "Economic Policy of Vehicle Pollution Prevention Technologies". Relevant departments of the State Council enacted "Suggestions on Cleaner Vehicle Action".
Coal Industry Sector Closed Mines and Limited Production According to the Notice on Relevant Issues of Closing the Illegal and Unreasonably Located Coal Mines of the State Council, the leading group of closing mines and limiting the production of the coal industry sector consisted of State Economy and Trade Commission, State Coal Industry Administration, State Environmental Protection Administration and so on conducted joint enforcement inspection for six times in 1999. By the end of 1999, 31200 illegal and unreasonably located coal mines had been closed and the coal production decreased by 268,000 million tons, among which the production of high sulfur content coal was reduced by over 22 million tons.
Closing Small-sized Heat Power Plants In accordance with the requirements of the Notice on Relevant Issues of Closing Small-Sized heat Power Plants, by the end of 1999, a total capacity of 2.90 million kw heat power plants had been closed down. In the "Two-Control-District", a total capacity of 2.00 million kw heat power plants had been closed down.
Cleaning-up of Small-sized Cement Plants By the end of 1999, a total capacity of 20 million tons of small-sized cement production had been shut down.
Closing Down Small-Sized Refineries Seventy refineries of the 166 ones with the annual capacity under one million tons in the whole country have been shut down. Relevant department of the State Council published the Notice on Relevant Issues of Closing the Indigenous Method Refineries in June 1999, which required the local governments to close the indigenous refineries. The number of indigenous refineries being closed was over 5600.
Adjustment of Iron and Steel and Metallurgical Industries Structures. There were 250 small-sized blast furnaces being closed. The iron puddling capacity being reduced and phased out was 4 million tons, the steel puddling capacity being reduced and phased was 5 million tons, and that of steel rolling was 10 million tons.
