Adding more "eyes and ears" to protect the environment.

BAC GIANG - In compliance with environmental protection laws, the Department of Agriculture and Environment has focused on reviewing and requiring businesses with high emission levels to install automatic water and air pollution monitoring systems connected to the central monitoring control station located at the Department. As a result, water and air pollution parameters are measured and warnings are issued promptly.

Focus on installing automated monitoring systems.

According to environmental protection laws, especially Government Decree No. 05 dated January 6, 2025, amending and supplementing some articles of Government Decree No. 08 dated January 10, 2022, detailing some articles of the Law on Environmental Protection, facilities with large emission monitoring systems are required to install automatic emission monitoring systems. Specifically, the units required to install these systems operate in the following fields: Coke production, coal gas production of 100,000 m3/hour or more; recycling and treatment of solid household waste, ordinary industrial solid waste, hazardous waste, and the use of imported scrap as raw materials for production of 100,000 m3/hour or more; thermal power plants with a total generating capacity of 50 MW or more; cement production of 100,000 m3/hour or more…

Technical staff of Ha Bac Fertilizer and Chemical Joint Stock Company check the parameters in the exhaust gas.

Automatic monitoring systems have the advantage of connecting to mobile phones or television screens to automatically alert users to parameters in wastewater and exhaust gases that may exceed permissible limits. According to a review by relevant authorities, 36 production and business establishments in the province are required to install automatic monitoring systems.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment, to date, all 36 businesses in the province have installed automatic wastewater and exhaust gas monitoring systems, totaling 59 systems.

Recognizing environmental protection as a crucial task, all 36 businesses have strictly complied with the installation of automatic monitoring systems since 2015. Of these, 30 businesses have connected their automatic monitoring systems to the central monitoring control station located at the Department of Agriculture and Environment. The remaining units are completing the connection process, aiming for completion in the third quarter of this year.

It is understood that, in order to ensure businesses strictly comply with regulations, the Department of Agriculture and Environment has recently directed its specialized departments to focus on disseminating information and guiding units to install automatic wastewater and exhaust gas monitoring software. The Department requires companies to assign personnel to operate the monitoring system, ensuring its smooth operation. Currently, each business assigns 2-5 personnel to monitor this system, regularly inspecting and maintaining it to prevent malfunctions. During operation, many companies have also spent 1-2 billion VND to upgrade the software technology to meet monitoring requirements.

Timely warning of pollution risks.

Mr. Vu Van Tuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, said that after installing the automatic monitoring system, the Department required companies to connect and transmit data to the central automatic monitoring control station located at the Department to strictly control the emission sources. The unit assigns staff to monitor and update the parameters in the waste continuously 24/7. When the system warns that the indicators in the hazardous waste exceed the standards, the Department requires the businesses to adjust immediately. As a result, in recent years, the technical indicators in the water and emissions of units with automatic monitoring stations have all been within the permissible limits, and no unit has been penalized for polluting the environment.

A typical example is Ha Bac Fertilizer and Chemical Joint Stock Company. This is a company specializing in urea production with an output of hundreds of thousands of tons per year. The company discharges more than 14,000 cubic meters of wastewater per day and night; and releases thousands of cubic meters of gas from its boilers every hour.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hong, Deputy Director of the company, said that to strictly control water and air pollution parameters, in 2015, the company invested nearly 5 billion VND in installing an air pollution monitoring system to measure several indicators: air flow rate, dust content, nitric oxide content, sulfur oxide content, and a wastewater monitoring system to measure parameters such as: ammonia, alkalinity of dissolved substances in water, water temperature, the amount of oxygen required to oxidize pollutants in wastewater, suspended solids, and water flow rate. At the end of last year, the unit continued to invest 3.2 billion VND to upgrade the air pollution monitoring system and install a new automatic wastewater monitoring station. After installation, the company connected and transmitted data to the central automatic monitoring control station of the Department.

It is known that since the introduction of the automated monitoring system, the company no longer has to monitor wastewater manually as before, thereby promptly detecting and adjusting some parameters that are at risk of exceeding standards before discharging into the environment. For example, through monitoring, the unit discovered that at times, the sulfur dioxide parameter in the boiler's exhaust gas was high, so they added limestone to the coal to adjust it down.

Similarly, Hoa Phu Invest Co., Ltd., the infrastructure investor of Hoa Phu Industrial Park (Hiep Hoa), also invested billions of VND in installing an automatic wastewater monitoring system. According to a representative of the company's leadership, after installation, the company assigned two technical staff to operate the system to monitor wastewater treatment activities in the central area for secondary units in the industrial park, ensuring compliance with Category A standards before discharge. Thanks to this system, the company has detected several instances where suspended solids were about to exceed the limit, and has since used chemicals to adjust the levels accordingly.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment, to date, all businesses that have installed automatic monitoring systems have been able to control parameters within permissible limits before discharging waste. In the coming time, the Department will continue to review, inspect, and require businesses to strictly comply with regulations on waste source monitoring and improve environmental protection activities in the area.

Minh Linh

Source: https://baobacgiang.vn/them-tai-mat-bao-ve-moi-truong-postid415776.bbg