Marine environmental protection law needs to be improved

Marine environmental protection law needs to be improved
Song Wei, deputy of the National People's Congress and Secretary of the Party group of the Standing Committee of Ningbo Municipal People's Congress of Zhejiang Province
People's daily (March 19, 2014, version 17)
With the increasing intensity of marine resources development and coastal engineering construction in China, the environmental quality of coastal waters is not optimistic. Marine environmental protection law in the prevention and control of marine oil pollution and land-based pollution, gradually exposed many aspects to be improved, need to speed up the revision.
First, the fine standard needs to be improved. The illegal cost of causing marine pollution in China is relatively low, and the provisions of marine environmental protection law still stay at the level of 20000 to 100000 yuan fine. The cost of excessive discharge to the marine environment is far lower than that of excessive discharge to rivers and lakes.
Second, the legal responsibility of urban sewage treatment enterprises in coastal areas needs to be clarified. It is a common phenomenon for enterprises in coastal cities to discharge the excessive sewage into the sea after being treated by urban sewage treatment plants. Marine environmental protection law is lack of specific prohibition and punishment rules, and the lack of law needs to be made up.
Third, the system of civil compensation liability needs to be established. China's marine environmental protection law only establishes the relevant civil liability system for marine oil pollution damage caused by ships, but does not consider the compensation for marine environmental pollution damage caused by marine engineering and coastal engineering.
In view of this, the following suggestions are proposed:
1、 Increase the illegal cost of marine environmental pollution. It is suggested to increase the amount of fine and the upper limit of fine for illegal acts. If the violator refuses to stop the illegal act or fails to make corrections within the time limit, he shall be punished on a daily basis. Add detention measures for persons directly responsible for malicious illegal acts. The implementation of the "double punishment system" not only imposes high fines on the enterprise itself, but also punishes the legal representative of the enterprise.
2、 To make up for the defects in the recognition of the legal liability of the indirect enterprises. It is suggested to refer to the relevant provisions of the law on prevention and control of water pollution revised in 2008, clarify the prohibition principle that "the discharge of water pollutants to the centralized treatment facilities of urban sewage discharged to the sea shall conform to the discharge standards of water pollutants stipulated by the state or local authorities", and "in violation of the provisions of this law, the discharge of water pollutants exceeds the discharge standards of water pollutants stipulated by the state or local authorities, or exceeds the key water pollution" If the total amount of pollutant discharge is controlled, the competent environmental protection department of the people's government at or above the county level shall, within the limits of its authority, order it to rectify within a time limit and impose a fine of not less than two times but not more than five times the amount of pollutant discharge fee that should be paid. During the period of time limit for treatment, the competent department of environmental protection shall order it to limit production, discharge or stop production for rectification. The maximum time limit for treatment within a time limit shall not exceed one year.
3、 Give administrative departments certain administrative compulsory power. On the one hand, first, the administrative departments such as environmental protection department put forward the requirements of "ordering the violators to take control measures within a time limit to eliminate pollution" according to law. If the violator fails to take treatment measures as required or does not have the treatment ability, the competent department shall designate a unit with the ability to deal with the pollution on behalf of the violator, and all the expenses required for the treatment on behalf of the violator shall be borne by the violator. On the other hand, for the illegal facilities, the local people's government at or above the county level, rather than the marine administrative department, shall take measures. If the violator fails to dismantle the illegal facilities within the time limit, the local people's Government shall organize the forces of the public security, environmental protection and other departments to forcibly dismantle them, and all the expenses required shall be borne by the violator.
4、 We will further refine and clarify the civil liability for marine environmental pollution damage. It is suggested to further clarify and refine the division of labor for the state organs that have the right to file claims, so as to prevent each organ or each other from prevaricating, or multiple organs competing to file a lawsuit, which will lead to litigation confusion and damage the public interests of the state or society.