Recently, multiple ecological and environmental departments have announced cases of companies being punished for failing to prepare environmental emergency plans due to multiple reasons. The company operates normally and has not had any accidents, but was fined for not preparing emergency plans. This issue deserves the attention of all enterprises! So, which companies need to write environmental emergency plans and what are the preparation processes?



Cases and legal links related to environmental emergency plans

Environmental emergency plans are an important component of the environmental impact assessment work of industrial enterprises. Failure to prepare environmental emergency plans or file them with the ecological and environmental authorities as required will result in penalties and rectification orders.

The failure to establish an environmental emergency plan has not only resulted in fines of 10000 to 30000 yuan. Recently, the Ningde Ecological Environment Bureau released a typical case: a new material enterprise did not develop measures to prevent hazardous waste accidents, did not prepare an emergency plan for sudden environmental events, did not build an accident emergency pool, and was not equipped with emergency disposal equipment for hazardous material leakage, resulting in a fine of 202500 yuan.

The failure to build an accident emergency pool and equip emergency response equipment for hazardous material leakage are all caused by the failure to prepare an environmental emergency plan. It can be seen that the environmental emergency plan may bring a series of safety issues, leading to high fines.

Legal responsibility

According to Article 38 of the Emergency Management Measures for Sudden Environmental Incidents, if an enterprise or institution falls under any of the following circumstances, the competent environmental protection department at or above the county level shall order it to make corrections and may impose a fine of not less than 10000 yuan but not more than 30000 yuan:

Failure to carry out risk assessment of sudden environmental events and determine the risk level in accordance with regulations;

Failing to carry out environmental safety hazard investigation and treatment work in accordance with regulations, and establishing hazard investigation and treatment files;

Failure to file emergency plans for sudden environmental events as required;

Failure to carry out emergency training for sudden environmental incidents as required and truthfully record the training situation;

Failure to reserve necessary environmental emergency equipment and materials in accordance with regulations;

Failure to disclose information related to sudden environmental events in accordance with regulations.

Key Points for Enterprises to Know about Environmental Emergency Plans

Which companies should develop environmental emergency plans?

According to Article 3 of the "Management Measures for the Filing of Emergency Plans for Environmental Emergencies in Enterprises and Public Institutions (Trial)" (HF [2015] No. 4) issued by the former Ministry of Environmental Protection on January 8, 2015, the guidance and management of environmental emergency plan filing by the competent environmental protection department for the following enterprises shall be governed by these measures:

Pollutant discharge enterprises that may experience sudden environmental events, including operating enterprises with centralized sewage and household waste treatment facilities;

Enterprises engaged in the production, storage, transportation, and use of hazardous chemicals;

Enterprises that generate, collect, store, transport, utilize, and dispose of hazardous waste;

Tailings storage enterprises, including wet storage of industrial waste residue and power plant ash residue storage enterprises;

Other enterprises that should be included in the scope of application.

The filing of emergency plans for nuclear and radiation environments does not apply to these measures.

The provincial environmental protection supervisory department may, based on the actual situation, publish a list of enterprises that should be registered for environmental emergency plans in accordance with the law.

Who will prepare an environmental emergency plan?

Article 8 of the "Management Measures for the Filing of Emergency Plans for Environmental Emergencies in Enterprises and Public Institutions (Trial)" (HF [2015] No. 4) stipulates that enterprises are the responsible entity for formulating environmental emergency plans. They carry out the development of environmental emergency plans according to the needs of responding to sudden environmental events and are responsible for the authenticity and operability of the content of the environmental emergency plans.

Enterprises can prepare their own environmental emergency plans or entrust relevant professional technical service institutions to prepare environmental emergency plans. For those commissioned by relevant professional technical service institutions, the enterprise shall designate relevant personnel to participate in the entire process.

How to prepare an environmental emergency plan?

Establish an environmental emergency plan preparation team, clarify the team leader and members, work tasks, preparation plan, and budget; Conduct environmental risk assessment and emergency resource investigation.

Environmental risk assessment includes but is not limited to: analyzing the evolution law of various accidents and the impact degree of natural disasters, identifying environmental hazard factors, analyzing the relationship with the surrounding residents, units and regional environment that may be affected, building the scenario of emergency environmental events and their consequences, and determining the environmental risk level. Emergency resource investigation includes but is not limited to: investigating the status of environmental emergency teams, equipment, materials, venues and other emergency resources that can be mobilized by enterprises, as well as the status of emergency resources that can be requested or agreed upon for assistance; Develop an environmental emergency plan.

Reasonably select the category, determine the content, and focus on explaining the disposal measures that need to be taken in the event of possible sudden environmental events, the content and methods of reporting to potentially affected residents and units, the content and methods of reporting to environmental protection authorities and relevant departments, and the connection with government plans to form an environmental emergency plan. During the preparation process, opinions from employees and representatives of potentially affected residents and units should be sought;

Review and exercise environmental emergency plans. Organize experts from enterprises and representatives of potentially affected residents and units to review environmental emergency plans and conduct drills for inspection;

The review experts should generally include personnel from relevant government management departments involved in environmental emergency plans, representatives of relevant industry associations, and personnel with relevant field experience.

The preparation of emergency plans for environmental emergencies should meet the following requirements:

（1） Comply with national environmental laws, regulations, rules, standards, and preparation guidelines;

（2） In line with the actual emergency work for sudden environmental events in the local area, department, and unit;

 (3)  Based on the analysis of environmental sensitive points, adapting to environmental risk analysis and emergency response capabilities for sudden environmental events;

（4） Clear division of responsibilities and effective implementation of responsibilities for emergency personnel;

（5） The preventive measures and emergency procedures are consistent with the certification of the enterprise environmental management system, clear and specific, with strong operability;

（6） Clear emergency guarantee measures and able to meet the emergency work requirements of the local area and unit;

（7） The basic elements of the plan are complete, and the attached information is correct;

（8） Connect with other relevant emergency plans.

Revision of Environmental Emergency Plan

Article 12 of the "Management Measures for the Filing of Emergency Plans for Environmental Emergencies in Enterprises and Public Institutions (Trial)" (HF [2015] No. 4) stipulates that enterprises shall conduct a retrospective evaluation of the environmental emergency plans at least every three years based on their implementation. Timely revise in case of any of the following situations:

Significant changes in environmental risks that require a new environmental risk assessment;

Significant changes in the command system and responsibilities of emergency management organizations;

Significant changes have occurred in the environmental emergency monitoring, warning and reporting mechanism, response processes and measures, and emergency support measures;

Significant changes in important emergency resources;

Significant adjustments to the environmental emergency response plan are required when problems are discovered in the actual response to emergencies and emergency drills;

Other situations that require revision.

For major revisions to the environmental emergency plan, the revision work shall follow the steps for formulating the environmental emergency plan. If individual contents of the environmental emergency plan are adjusted, the revision work can be appropriately simplified.

What are the submitted materials for filing environmental emergency plans?

Emergency response plan filing form for sudden environmental events; The paper and electronic documents of the environmental emergency plan and its preparation instructions. The environmental emergency plan includes: the signing and release documents of the environmental emergency plan, and the text of the environmental emergency plan; The preparation instructions include: an overview of the preparation process, an explanation of key content, an explanation of soliciting opinions and adoption, and an explanation of the review situation; Paper and electronic documents of environmental risk assessment reports; Paper and electronic documents of environmental emergency resource investigation reports; Paper and electronic documents of environmental emergency plan review opinions. If there are significant revisions to the enterprise's environmental emergency plan, it shall be changed and filed with the original accepting department within 20 working days from the date of release.