Summary

In 2012, under the correct leadership of the provincial government, the province's departments at all levels have thoroughly implemented the scientific concept of development and pushed forward the construction of ecological civilisation. The economic growth has been optimised through environmental protection. Goals set early this year have been achieved. The significant progress includes,

•  The total discharge of major pollutants continues to decline while the economy has maintained rapid growth

•  The emission cut of chemical oxygen demand, ammonia, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide meets the standard assigned by the State

•  The environment is generally stable and sees improvement in certain places

•  Environmental safety has been guaranteed.

However, heavy metal pollution and other environmental problems alike have not been solved thoroughly. Atmospheric haze and other new environmental problems are emerging. The work to improve rural environment has only started, leaving the work on environmental protection uneven. All in all, the environmental situation of Hunan is still grim.

It should be noted that, Hunan, as it is the case in any other provinces, needs to strengthen its ability to analyse environmental quality comprehensively. Technology for monitoring and analysing the quality of water, air, sound and soil is still imperfect; the monitored sites are scarce and set ones mainly in large and medium-sized cities, limiting the analysis to the overall situation only. The actual environmental quality of particular periods and of certain areas might differ from this annual report. This is due to our complex topography, multiple water systems, seasonal and regional climate and especially significant rainfalls and changes on temperature. The report also does not fully reflect the environmental quality of some local areas and it needs to be gradually improved in future.

Water Environment

The overall quality of water environment has improved slightly compared to last year, but the water quality of some rivers flowing through industrial area and cities is bad.

1. Water Quality of Major Rivers

Of the 98 province-controlled monitored sections, 91 are classified into the first, second, and third category, taking up 92.9%; 3 fall into the fourth category, comprising 3.1%; 2 the fifth, accounting for 2.0%; 2 are worse than the fifth category, taking up 2.0%. The water quality of province controlled sections up to the standard is 2.1% higher than that of last year. The major pollutants to be detected are ammonia nitrogen, phosphorus and BOD.

Heavy metal pollution of surface water of a few rivers is still grim. Special monitor on heavy metal showed that among 44 monitored sections, 38 are up to standard, comprising 86.4%; 6, however, fail to meet the standard and these sections are mainly in Chenzhou section of Xiangjiang River tributary, Yiyang section of Zijiang River, Meitian County section of Wujiang River. Manganese, antimony and arsenic in the surface water of Chenzhou City exceed the standard and antimony in Yiyang section of Zijinag River exceeds the standard as well.

Xiangjiang River

The overall water quality is good. Among the 42 province-controlled monitored sections, 37 are classified into the first, second, and third category; 2 the fourth; 1 the fifth; and 2 worse than the fifth. The rate of up-to-standard sections is 88.1%, 0.6% higher than last year. Of Xiangjiang’s tributaries, Xiaoshui River, Chongling River, Leishui River, Mishui River and Lushui River have good water quality, whereas the Hengyang section of Zhengshui River, Loudi and Xiangtan sections of Lianshui River and Changsha section of Liuyang River are heavily polluted. In particular, water of Sanjiaozhou and Heishidu sections of Liuyang River is polluted with ammonia nitrogen, phosphorus and BOD, making the water quality worse than the fifth category.

Heavy metal pollution in the Xiangjiang River in some areas are still outstanding, 2 of 26 special monitored sections have heavy metal exceeding the annual average and a few exceeding the monthly average.

Zijiang River

The overall water quality is excellent. All of the 14 province-controlled monitored sections are classified into the third or higher category. The rate of up-to-standard sections is 100%, 8.3% higher than last year.

However, antimony pollution persists, 3 out of 6 sections exceed the annual average and a few exceeding monthly average.

Wujiang River

The overall water quality is excellent. Of the 25 province-controlled monitored sections, 24 are classified into the first, second, and third category; 1 the fourth. The rate of up-to-standard sections is 96%, 0.8% higher than last year.

Under the impact of contaminated inflowing water, the upstream of Yuanjiang River is heavily polluted by phosphorus. Water quality of Tuokou falls into the fifth category. The downstream is better but a few sections exceed the monthly average occasionally.

All of its tributaries set with monitors are assessed as up to or better than standard but the upstream of Youshui River, the notorious “manganese juncture” of Hunan, Guizhou and Chongqing, have 3 sections out of 5 that exceed the manganese annul average.

Lishui River

The overall water quality is excellent. All of the 9 province-controlled monitored sections are classified into the third or higher category. The rate of up-to-standard sections is 100%, same as last year.

Other Rivers

Water quality of Jinjiangkou, Chenglingji and Lucheng section of Yangtze River in Hunan meets the standard. The quality of Meitian County section of Wujiang River falls into the fourth category, mainly contaminated by ammonia and arsenic. The quality of Songzi River, Xinqiang River and Miluo river is up to or better than the standard. Compared to last year’s result, the quality of these waters is stable.

2. Water Quality of Dongting Lake

Of the 11 province-controlled monitored sections in Dongting Lake, 4 are classified as the third category, comprising 36.4%; 7 fall into the fourth category, accounting for 63.6%. Pollutant affecting the standard of the lake water is phosphorus, which has an annual average range between 0.044-0.081mg/L. Fortunately, of all these sections, 10 witness decreases of phosphorus in varied degrees, declining between 4.7% ~ 33.3%, indicating that the Dongting Lake water quality has improved.

This year, the lake eutrophication status is moderate; the average trophic index is 46.57, 1.47 lower compared with last year. The overall level of eutrophication slightly reduces.

3. Quality of the Sources for Drinking Water

The 31 sources for drinking water for 14 cities in Hunan province have an up-to-standard rate of 81.6%. Apart from Changsha and Xiangtan, all other 12 cities are up to standard. The main pollutants are manganese, iron and ammonia. Mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, arsenic are within standard.

Emissions of Major Pollutants in Wastewater

In 2012, the total emissions of chemical oxygen demand is 1,263,300 tons, enjoying a decrease of 3.21% compared to 2011. Its emissions from industry, agriculture, urban life and treatment of centralised pollution are 149,600 tons, 567,300 tons, 530,400 tons, and 16,000 tons, accounting for 11.84%, 44.91%, 41.98% and 1.27% of total emissions respectively. The total emissions of ammonia is 161,300 tons, having a decrease of 2.21% compared to 2011. Its emissions from industry, agriculture, urban life and treatment of centralised pollution are 25,800 tons, 62,600 tons, 71,400 tons and 1,500 tons, comprising 16%, 38.81%, 44.26% and 0.93% of total emissions respectively.

　　Atmosphere Environment

　　Situation

　　

Based on three monitoring factors (i.e. inhalable particles, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)) according to Ambient Air Quality Standard (GB3095-1996), it is evaluated that the urban air quality over the whole province generally remained good, and the ambient air quality met the national secondary standard. The main pollutants were inhalable particles and sulfur dioxide. Acid rain pollution was still serious. It should be noted that the monitoring of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO) have not yet be covered in Hunan province till 2012. Since 2013, however, the monitoring of fine particulate matter, ozone and carbon monoxide will gradually be performed in Changsha, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan and other cities of Hunan province under the national requirement.

1. Urban environmental air quality

Annual average pollutants of ambient air in 14 cities are shown in Figure 3.

　　Figure 3 Annual average pollutants of ambient air in 14 cities.

　

Inhalable particulate (PM10): The annual average concentration of 14 cities was in the range of 0.057 ~ 0.088 mg/m3, and the average value over the whole province was 0.077 mg/m3 that was slightly lower than the value in the previous year. The annual average pollutant concentrations of the cities all met the national secondary standard.

As for the daily average concentration of particulates, 5.4% of them exceeded the secondary standard (i.e. 0.15 mg/m3), and the maximum was 1.6 times higher than the standard value (in Zhuzhou city).

Sulfur dioxide (SO2): The annual average concentration of 14 cities was in the range of 0.024 ~ 0.050 mg/m3, and the average value over the whole province was 0.039 mg/m3 that decreased by 13.3% as compared the value in the previous year. The annual concentration of the cities all met national secondary standard.

As for the daily average concentration of sulfur dioxide, 0.4% of them exceeded the secondary standard (i.e. 0.15 mg/m3), and the maximum was 0.9 times higher than the standard (in Yueyang city).

　　

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2): The annual average concentration of 14 cities was in the range of 0.005 ~ 0.044 mg/m3, and the average value over the whole province was 0.029 mg/m3 that was slightly lower than the value in the previous year. The annual average concentrations of the cities all met national secondary standard.

As for the daily average concentration of nitrogen dioxide, 0.1% of them exceeded the secondary standard (i.e. 0.12 mg/m3), and the maximum was 0.6 times higher than the standard (in Huaihua city).

The urban air pollutants concentrations significantly varied with the alternation of the seasons. The ambient air in the summer (may, June and July) was of the best quality, followed by the fall (August, September and October); while the ambient air quality in winter (January, November and December) and spring (February, March and April) were relatively poor. From variations of the monthly average concentrations of pollutants, it is seen that the pollutions from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and inhalable particles were much heavier in January, November and December.

2. Acid rain

　　For 14 cities in the province, the frequency of acid rain was 68.5%, which showed an increase of 13.7% over the previous year. The acid rain was observed in 14 cities, and the average pH of the rainwater was 4.65, which reduced by 0.13 as compared to that in last year, as shown in the Figure 4.

Figure 4  Variation of acid rain frequency of 14 cities in Hunan during 2011-2012.

The emissions of main pollutants in waste gas

In 2012, the whole emission of sulfur dioxide reached 645000 tons in Hunan Province, which decreased by 5.91% against that in the previous year. The sulfur dioxide in waste gas mainly came from industrial sources and its emission was 593300 tons, accounting for 92% of the total emissions. The people’s life was the secondly largest source and its emission was 51700 tons, accounting for 8% of the total emissions. The total emission of nitrogen oxide in this province was 607200 tons, which decreased by 8.87% over the previous year. The nitrogen oxide in waste gas mainly came from industrial sources and its emission was 593300 tons, accounting for 92% of the total emissions. The vehicle emission was the secondly largest source and its emission was 51700 tons, accounting for 8% of the total emissions. Following them, the emission from people’s life was 7900 tons, accounting for 1.3% of the total emissions.

Acoustic environment

Situation

　　The regional acoustic environmental quality was in a good level all over the province’s cities. In addition to Zhangjiajie City, both the regional environmental noise and road traffic noise in the other 13 cities met the secondary standard of acoustic environmental quality. Compared to the previous year, the urban road traffic and regional acoustic environmental quality kept stable levels, which, however, slightly became worse in several cities.

1.Regional environmental noise

　　For 14 cities in the province, the annual average equivalent sound level range of the regional environmental noise in the day was in the range of 50.9 ~ 55.2 decibels, and the average value of the entire province was 53.2 db that decreased by 0.3 decibels as compared to the value in the previous year, as shown in the figure 5.

　Figure 5  The schematic figure of the regional environmental noise monitoring results of cities in Hunan province in 2012

2.Road traffic noise

　　For 14 cities in the province, the average equivalent sound level range of the road traffic noise is 63.5 ~ 71.4 decibels, the average value of the entire province is 67.2 db, 0.1 decibels lower than the previous year, as shown in the figure 6.

　　Figure 6  The schematic figure of the road traffic noise monitoring results of cities in Hunan province in 2012

3.Functional areas noise

　　For 14 cities in the province, the functional areas noise’s rate of reaching standard is 88.1% in the day, and 71.3% in the night. The average equivalent sound level range of the functional areas noise in the day is 43.3~71.2 decibels, the measuring points’ rate of reaching standard in the day is in the range of 63.3%~100%,and 88.1% in average, a 2% rise over the previous year; while the average equivalent sound level range of the functional areas noise in the night is 34.0~65.1 decibels, the rate of reaching standard in the night is in the range of 21.4%~100%,and 71.3% in average, essentially flat with the previous year.

Solid waste

Situation

　　In 2012, the whole province's industrial solid waste production amount is 81.159 million tons, and the comprehensive utilization amount is 51.883 million tons (including the utilization of 1.715 million tons’ storage capacity in previous years), the comprehensive utilization rate is 62.6%.

Natural ecology

Situation

　　By the end of 2012, the province has established 108 nature reserves, including 18 national nature reserves, 33 provincial nature reserves and 57 county and municipal level nature reserves, the total area is 1.1966 million hectares, accounting for 5.65% of the provincial land area. The province’s forest coverage rate is 57.34%, an increase of 0.21% over the previous year. The province’s wetland area is 5.61 million hectares, accounting for 26.47% of the provincial land area. The provincial biodiversity survey results show that there is a total of 6254 animal and plant species, including 2989 endemic species of China within the territory of Hunan.

Environmental protection measures and action

1 To further strengthen the leadership of the environmental protection work

　　In February, the provincial environmental protection work conference was held in Changsha by the provincial government. The leaders from the provincial party committee, provincial peoples congress, provincial government and provincial CPPCC attended this conference, and the heads of provincial units and various cities also participated. The keynote of the seventh national conference on environmental protection was passed in this conference. Then, the 11th five-year plan on environmental protection work in our province was summarized, and finally our province's environmental protection work for 2012 and the twelfth five-year plan were deployed.

　　To strengthen the environmental protection work, accelerate the construction of two-type society and Green Hunan, promote the key water basins, regional governance and pollution emission reduction, and effectively coordinate important decisions, major deployment and major problems of the provincial environmental protection work, with the approval of the provincial party committee and the provincial government , our province established a high standard working mechanism of the joint conference on environmental protection work in 2012. The provincial governor held the post of the joint conference convener, and heads of Provincial Peoples Congress, Provincial CPPCC and relevant department are the members. On May 23, Xu Shousheng, the previous governor, the current provincial party secretary and director of the provincial Standing Committee personally chaired a joint conference for the first time, and led a monographic study on the ten environmental protection projects and related pollution emission reduction work.

2、Continue to promote the main pollutant total emission reduction work

Provincial government approved the《“twelfth five-year”planning  of total amount control of main pollutant in Hunan province》, 《planning》 put forward the "twelfth five-year" total amount control target, formulate the safeguards to achieve control objectives, to implement the assignment to each city, state and relevant departments. The province gradually formed the atmosphere that was government-led, actively participate in various departments, enterprises as the main body, the whole society on pollution reduction of mutual interest.

Intensify structural emission reduction , continue to wash out a batch of thermal power, steel, cement, paper and other backward technology and the backward production capacity. Deepening project of emission reduction,  increased new sewage treatment capacity of 180000 tons/day, form a complete set of 2259 km pipe network construction, increased a new sludge centralized disposal project, completed six coal-fired units of denitration facilities, completed 21 new dry process cement production line low nitrogen combustion transformation and construction of SNCR denitration device. Integration of capital of 170 million yuan, support nearly 300 of livestock and poultry breeding pollution comprehensive treatment project. Continue to implement the management to reduce emissions, to cancel the 3 sets of the desulfurization of flue bypass, the cancellation of 52800 vehicles.

According to the result of  ministry of environmental protection for approval, four main pollutants are exceeded the annual national emission reduction task.

3、Comprehensive start 10 big environmental protection engineering

To focus on the prominent environmental problems affecting the entire province economic and social development, strengthen the main pollutant emissions, provincial people's government decided to carry it out ten big environmental protection engineering in the entire province during "twelfth five-year" period

On August 9, the provincial party committee and government, held the mobilization meeting of ten big environmental protection engineering in Hunan province.The environment minister zhou shengxian in-person meeting made an important speech.

10 big environmental protection engineering budgetary estimate of the total investment of about 55.7 billion yuan, including the heavy metal pollution control engineering in xiangjiang river basin, nox emission reduction projects, key lake reservoir water environmental protection engineering, Joint control and prevention engineering in changzhutan zone, the sewage disposal engineering of Changsha comprehensive hub reservoir in the xiangjiang river basin, urban sewage waste treatment facilities engineering, the rural environment comprehensive improvement project, “billions engineering” project of environmental protection industry development, new chemical industry circular economy industrial park construction engineering in the changzhutan zone, building projects of environmental monitoring capacity.

Local governments at all levels attach great importance to and actively response, made solid progress according to the annual task decomposition, remarkable progress was made in the “10 environmental protection engineering”.

We has completed 123 projects, investment of 3.53 billion yuan by the end of 2012.And we has achieved initial results according to the implementation. The first  is to promote the pollution reduction. in 2012 the province nox emissions 8.87% lower than in 2011, reversing a not rise . Through thermal power, cement denitration project implementation,

The second is to promote the area of the environment quality improvement. Five kinds of heavy metal pollutants such as lead, arsenic were cut off about 15.71 tons in the xiangjiang river basin .The main heavy metal pollutant concentration is on the decline, 244 administrative villages get improvement in rural environment.

The 3th is to optimize the economic development. In accordance with the law to closure 173 heavy metal enterprises. The state of traditional Non-ferrous metal and chemical industry which is small ,scattered and far away, production technology which is backward has been effectively changed. The provincial environmental protection industry output value reached 83.1 billion yuan, increased 26%than 2011,and we have supported and cultivated a new economic growth point.　

The 4th is environmental regulation ability was strengthened. 24 monitoring points of PM2.5, CO, O3 project monitoring equipment have been installed in Changzhutan zone , and we have set up a regional air quality data real-time transmission and real-time release and early warning forecast.Existing There are 43 environmental monitoring agency, 81 environmental supervision agency fulfill the requirements of standardization construction.However，10 big environmental protection engineering construction overall were propulsion imbalance, most of the project does not meet target, followings were faced with difficult task..

4、Environmental regulation and law enforcement constantly strengthened

We have strengthened the environmental management of construction project, promoted comprehensive improvement and total emissions around the regional watershed, optimized the industrial layout, integrated the excess capacity, promoted transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure.

Strengthening The " Three simultaneity"system supervision, refine the requirements of each link of the construction project, to ensure that the environmental impact assessment approval full implementation, improve the implementation of "three simultaneity" percent of pass. Standardize nuclear and radiation of administrative examination and approval, formulated and issued some standard documents ,such as《The radiation of the examination and approval process for construction project environmental impact assessment of Hunan province》、《The examination and approval process for radiation safety license of Hunan province》. Strengthen the regulation including import of waste, electric waste and electronic products, toxic chemical, to prevent the secondary pollution

Organized environmental protection special action involving heavy metal, hazardous waste, lead-acid batteries, the pharmaceutical industry, aquatic food library type drinking water, lake water source, stalk burning and nuclear technology using radiation safety  around the center for environmental protection, In 2012,there are 120600 staff people (time) from the province all levels of environmental law enforcement in the action, check the enterprise 2.79 (times), punishment  1883 illegal environmental enterprises, 62 of them are the listed supervisory enterprises. Continue to push forward environmental monitoring, inspection and collection of sewage charges after the environmental administrative law enforcement supervision. Organized to screening hidden perils in a key risk source work, properly handle the sudden environmental incidents. Promote the mobile law enforcement system construction, standard to create and post training foundation work, improve supervision and emergency team building.

5、The environmental legal system and propaganda was strengthened

To promote the environmental legislation, establish the《regulation of protection the Xiangjiang river of Hunan province》, formally implemented on April 1, 2013. The regulations widely absorbed the innovation result from environmental protection mechanism in recent years, there are written laws and regulations on the regional credit limited approval、the liability insurance、the enterprise environment behavior evaluation、green credit. Realize the legalization of the environmental management system. Promote the revision process of 《Regulations on protection of Dongjiang lake Hunan water environmental 》.Actively carry out the Activity of normal window of work in accordance with the law. To strengthen environmental law enforcement and supervision, to further standardize the environmental administrative law enforcement.

To strengthen the environmental protection propaganda work. The then secretary of provincial party committee, zhou qiang, and vice secretary of provincial party committee , governor Xu Shoucheng has issued a series of important speech of strengthen environmental protection work. It plays an important role which further unified party leaders at all levels and the social from all walks of life to understanding of the environmental protection work .《The xinhua press 》praise environmental protection work in our province by writing three articles, one of the articles which is about Xiangjiang river basin of heavy metal pollution control get the agreement. by prime minister li keqiang. The work of environment protection is listed as a key content in the special exhibition named "scientific development, brilliant achievements," by Provincial party committee propaganda department of the organization. The program named "protect the xiangjiang river, make the Oriental Rhine" by Hunan economic TV won the the only media prize in the selection of "green person of the year" by central propaganda department,and the ministry. They Organized daily reports of the 10 big environmental protection engineering, green construction of Hunan.