Measures of the Shenyang Municipality on Public
Participation in Environmental Protection

(Draft)

(Unofficial ABA Asia Law Initiative Translation)

Article 1. In order to protect the environmental rights and interests of the public, to improve the openness and democracy of the environmental protection work, to comply with the commitment made by China as a WTO member state of promoting public participation, the Measures are formulated in accordance the Environmental Protection Law of the People Republic of China and with consideration of the actual conditions of this Municipality.

Article 2. The public as referred to in the Measures includes natural persons with full capacity, legal persons and other organizations.

Article 3. The Measures applies to public participation in the environmental protection activities within the administrative area of this Municipality.

Article 4. Public participation in environmental protection shall adopt such principles as broadness, equality, democracy, openness, transparency and good faith.

Article 5. The public has the following rights in participation in environmental protection:

(1) Participating in environmental legislation in a legal way;

(2) Participating in environmental policy making and environmental planning in a legal way;

(3) Participating in environmental impact assessment of construction projects in a legal way;

(4) Obtaining and using public environmental information;

(5) Putting forward criticism and suggestions on environmental protection work;

(6) Reporting and bringing action against activities causing pollution and damage to the environment;

(7) Claiming damages caused by environmental pollution according to law;

(8) Reporting the illegal activities of government employees with environmental protection duty;

(9) Other rights stipulated by laws, regulations and rules.

Article 6. Environmental administrative authorities of the government at municipal, district and county (sub-city) levels are responsible for implementing the Measures. Relevant government agencies at various levels shall provide assistance in the work with respect to public participation in environmental protection.

Article 7. Governments at municipal, district and county (sub-city) levels shall set up special funds to award the units and individuals making prominent contribution to the cause of public participation in environmental protection.

Article 8. Environmental administrative authorities at municipal, district and county (sub-city) levels shall establish environmental advisory committees consisting of public representatives, shall carry out public education on environmental protection and organize the public to appraise environmental protection work, and shall invite environmental protection supervisor to oversee the environmental protection work.

Article 9. Environmental information is public information of the society. Governments at municipal, district and county (sub-city) levels and their environmental administrative authorities shall open to the public environmental information in a comprehensive and timely manner, except in cases where secrecy is required by State regulations.

Article 10. The following environmental information shall be open to the public or be publicized.

(1) National, provincial and municipal environmental protection laws, regulations, rules and other normative documents;

(2) National, provincial and municipal environmental protection policies, planning and projects;

(3) Various environmental standards and environmental functional zoning;

(4) Pollutant release and pollution disposal of polluting enterprises;

(5) Environmental quality of the municipal, district and county (sub-city) administrative areas;

(6) Environmental management of construction projects;

(7) Charging basis, standards and use of pollutant release fees;

(8) Basis, standards, procedures and implementation of administrative sanctions;

(9) Main duties, processes and service commitments of environmental administrative authorities;

(10) Major environmental management projects and foreign invested environmental projects;

(11) Archives of law enforcement documents;

(12) Other environmental information.

Article 11. The public may obtain the environmental information through the following ways:

(1) Directly Inquiring the environmental administrative authorities in writing or orally;

(2) Searching the websites of the environmental administrative authorities;

(3) Searching environmental information publications.

Article 12. Where the public makes direct requests for environmental information, the environmental administrative authorities shall respond within 15 working days upon receipt of the requests. In special circumstances, the period can be extended to 30 working days.

Article 13. Environmental administrative authorities at municipal, district and county (sub-city) levels shall issue annual reports regarding the environmental quality of their respective administrative areas.

Article 14. In case of emergency when an environmental pollution accident happens and imposes potential threat to the public health and the environment, the environmental administrative authorities shall promptly send to the public possibly being affected all kinds of information that will help them to take prevention measures and reduce damages.

Article 15. The key polluting enterprises shall periodically report to the public the following environmental information of themselves:

(1) Total amount of pollutants released and the amount released beyond the limits;

(2) Impact on the environment caused by the released pollutants;

(3) Pollution accident prevention and response;

(4) Pollution disposal plan and annual progresses in implementation;

(5) Management of the internal environment of the enterprise. The municipal environmental administrative authority shall determine the key polluting enterprises based on their pollutant release, pollution load and impact on the environment, and shall announce the determination periodically on the media.

Article 16. When making environmental policies, environmental protection planning and local environmental legislations, the governments and their environmental administrative authorities shall publicize the drafts on the media or hold deliberative meetings in advance to openly solicit public opinions and shall adopt reasonable opinions from the public, except in the cases where secrecy is required by State regulations.

Article 17. Except in the cases where secrecy is required by State regulations, when construction projects will have significant impact on the environment and are required to submit environment impact assessment reports, environmental administrative authorities shall, within 3 days upon receipt of construction project environmental assessment reports, publicize on local media and environmental websites the information of the projects as to project name, intended location, nature of the project, potential impact on the environment, prevention measures against pollution and ecological damage.

The public may make opinions to the environmental administrative authorities via phone, fax, mail and email within 5 days upon publicity of the information. The environmental administrative authorities shall adopt reasonable opinions from the public.

Article 18. For construction projects of the heavy industries like chemical industry, pharmacy, metallurgy, plating, papermaking, leather-working, fur-manufacturing, dyeing, fermenting and brewage, the environmental administrative authorities shall hold project introduction meetings with the participation of project constructing units, environment impact assessment units, units at the project site, community committees, public representatives and media. The constructing unit shall make explanation in the environment impact assessment report for the project as to whether public opinions have been adopted or not.

Constructing units, when initiating projects of catering and entertaining business in residential areas, shall solicit public opinion through community committees or neighborhood administrative offices and shall make explanation as to whether public opinions have been adopted or not.

Article 19. Environmental administrative authorities shall set up telephones, to accept public complaints about environmental pollution and ecological damage, as well as public suggestions on environmental protection work.

When the public file civil actions at court for environmental pollution damages, the environmental administrative authorities shall provide assistance with proving the damages.

Article 20. Where environmental administrative authorities, in violation of the Measures, fail to open environmental information to the public as stipulated or fulfill their legal duties, they shall be ordered by relevant agencies with authority to perform within a time limit. If they fail to perform within the time limit, the person in charge and the directly responsible person shall be subject to the administrative sanction by the disciplinary and supervisory authorities.

Article 21. Where environmental administrative authorities, in violation of the Measures, approve construction projects without publicizing the project information or holding project introduction meetings, the approvals are null and the directly responsible person shall be subject to administrative sanction.

Article 22. Where construction projects of catering and entertaining business fail to solicit public opinions, the environmental administrative authorities shall not approve the projects; if approve, the directly responsible person shall be subject to administrative sanction. If constructing units resort to deception when soliciting public opinions, the environmental administrative authorities shall revoke the approval and impose a fine less than 30,000 yuan.

Article 23. Where key polluting enterprises, in violation of the Measures, fail to publicize the environmental information regarding the enterprises, the environmental administrative authorities shall publicize the information and impose a fine less than 100,000 yuan on the responsible enterprises.

Article 24. The Measures shall take effect as of 2003