Environmental quality monitoring through automatic wastewater and emission monitoring system

Enterprises are more aware of environmental protection and building wastewater treatment systems according to prescribed standards.

Ensuring continuous operation

According to information from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, from the beginning of 2023, the Department issued a plan to operate the monitoring system of centralized wastewater and emission treatment stations at industrial parks, industrial clusters and large emission sources in the province to check the operational efficiency of the automatic monitoring system of centralized wastewater treatment stations including large emission sources. Thereby, continuously monitor the output wastewater after the centralized wastewater treatment system of industrial parks, industrial clusters, large emission sources as well as emission sources that are subject to the installation of automatic and continuous emission monitoring stations.

To operate the automatic monitoring station monitoring system, the Department arranges a central station located at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, including software, transmission lines, servers, display screens and related equipment, along with a camera monitoring system installed at major waste sources in the province. Automatic and continuous monitoring stations of water and exhaust gas treatment systems are installed and data is connected to the Department. For units generating water and exhaust gas that are subject to regulations, automatic and continuous monitoring stations must be installed. During the system operation, the Department checks and monitors the operational efficiency of automatic and continuous water and exhaust gas monitoring stations, including checking and monitoring the accuracy of data transmitted to the Central station.

If data is found to have unusual or strange signs, it is mandatory to check and handle in cases such as data displayed abnormally high or low; data with almost no fluctuation over different long periods of time; data ≤ 0 or data continuously equal to 0 for a relatively long period of time; data outside the measuring range and detection threshold of the device; data that does not reflect the nature of the environment; doubts about the correlation between parameters. In particular, when detecting a base station with suspicious data or data exceeding the allowable standards, the Center for Land Fund Development and Natural Resources and Environment Services informs the specialized department to propose the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to conduct a surprise sampling inspection and handle violations according to regulations.

For automatic and continuous wastewater monitoring stations, perform sampling and analysis of parameters such as pH, color, residual chlorine, total nitrogen, suspended solids (SS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia (N-NH4+) and other characteristic parameters according to regulations. For automatic and continuous gas monitoring stations, perform sampling and analysis of parameters such as total dust, flow, O2, NOx, CO, SO2 and other characteristic parameters according to regulations.

Timely detection and handling of environmental incidents

The installation and operation of automatic environmental monitoring stations contributes to environmental protection.

According to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, in order to ensure the effective operation of the automatic and continuous wastewater and emission monitoring station system, the Center for Land Fund Development and Natural Resources and Environment Services will report the operating results regularly. In case the stations are temporarily disconnected due to Internet problems, power outages, etc., the Center will notify the grassroots units via phone calls or text messages to take corrective action. In case of unexpected incidents, the Center will directly report to the Department of Environmental Management, Department of Natural Resources and Environment for timely solutions and handling.

In particular, in cases where the station is found to be not operating, not operating properly, or not following the required procedures; detecting interference or changing the results of automatic and continuous monitoring before transmitting data or detecting monitoring parameters exceeding environmental technical standards through automatic and continuous monitoring activities, the Department of Environmental Management will advise the Department's leadership to send a notice to the project owner, facility, concentrated production, business and service area, and industrial park to inform them about the station's operating status, about the results of automatic and continuous monitoring of wastewater and emissions exceeding environmental technical standards and requesting corrections according to regulations. If the facility owner does not correct the situation and the monitoring results continue to exceed environmental technical standards, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment will work with the project owner, facility and prepare a record to handle violations according to the provisions of law.

In particular, the Environmental Management Department advises the Department to organize measurements and take samples directly at the scene or collect samples from automatic sampling devices for wastewater to analyze wastewater and exhaust pollution parameters. The results of wastewater and exhaust sample analysis are used as a basis for reviewing and handling violations according to the provisions of law. Thereby, ensuring strict implementation of environmental protection laws in production and business activities.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment - Nguyen Tan Thuan, the installation of automatic environmental monitoring stations plays an important role and significance, bringing positive effects in environmental protection work, towards the goal of green growth, rapid and sustainable development, helping functional sectors to conveniently monitor, inspect, control, and closely supervise waste sources of units and enterprises operating in the area as well as promptly propose measures to manage, handle, and overcome incidents related to waste discharge exceeding standards into the environment, thereby contributing to improving the effectiveness of state management and environmental protection./.

Continuously monitor operational results from 37 wastewater monitoring stations and 11 automatic emission monitoring stations

According to information from the Center for Land Fund Development and Natural Resources and Environment Services, up to now, the whole province has completed connecting 37 wastewater monitoring stations at 21 industrial parks, 3 industrial clusters, 13 enterprises with large waste sources and 11 emission monitoring stations. Through monitoring the operation and maintenance of the monitoring system of centralized wastewater treatment stations of industrial parks, industrial clusters and large waste sources in the province, the number of data transmitted by the stations has mostly reached 100%, ensuring that data from automatic and continuous monitoring stations for wastewater and emissions of large waste sources in the province is continuous and consistent.

Every 2 weeks, the Center for Land Fund Development and Natural Resources and Environment Services will summarize the operating results of the stations to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment as a basis for evaluating the operation process at the automatic monitoring stations, recording the results, time exceeding standards, and discharge flow of infrastructure units to have appropriate treatment recommendations.

Accordingly, through monitoring the operation of the monitoring system for large emission sources in the province from October 28 to November 3, 2023, the number of data transmitted by the stations mostly reached 100%, except for 2 stations at Ngoc Phong Joint Stock Company, Xuyen A Industrial Park reaching 89.53% and Hai Son - Duc Hoa Dong Industrial Park reaching 58.04%. Thereby, the Center for Land Fund Development and Natural Resources and Environment Services recommended to conduct inspections of datalogger data transmission and reception equipment, Internet infrastructure and have a plan to overcome the situation of data disconnection, especially at the Formosa Long An Company's emission station which lost connection from May 22, 2023.

For wastewater stations of Thinh Phat Electric Cable Joint Stock Company, Thinh Phat Industrial Park; Formosa Taffeta Vietnam Co., Ltd., Quoc Quang Long An Joint Stock Company, Quoc Quang Industrial Park; ChanCo Industrial Co., Ltd., Thien Loc Thanh Production and Trade Co., Ltd., Thien Loc Thanh Industrial Park; Vinh Loc Industrial Park Investment & Construction Joint Stock Company (Ben Luc district), Thuan Phuong Garment and Embroidery Company, the input and output flow indexes have quite a large difference; some stations have faulty equipment that needs to be fixed to ensure data from automatic and continuous monitoring stations.

Perseverance

Source