Laundry company fined a million yuan
Minhang District's environment authority has issued Shanghai's first 1-million yuan (US$154,000) fine to a laundry company after a revised nationwide regulation came into effect.
Shanghai Jinlong Bedding Renting and Laundry Co, on Longwu Road in Minhang's Wujing Town, received the penalty for illegally enlarging the scope of its business by working with laundry workshops that didn't have environmental certificates.
The company was found to be discharging some 500 tons of waste water a day, five time the environment authority's approved standard of 100 tons a day. Also, its plant area was calculated to be 4,000 square meters, much larger than the 250 square meters registered.
The company was found to be discharging some 500 tons of waste water on a daily basis, five times the environment authority's approved standard.
According to the environmental protection bureau's law enforcement team, the company was fined 65,000 yuan last April for illegal construction that enlarged the company's scale of operations. In October, the company was fined another 110,000 yuan for a similar problem. The enforcement team also found at the October inspection that the company's anti-pollution measures were not working properly.
In the latest inspection last month, the company was found to be "cooperating" with another four laundry workshops. The workshops didn't have waste discharge licenses issued by the environment authority and were operating in Jinlong's illegal constructions.
China's Environmental Protection Ministry issued a revised version of the environment management regulation over construction projects in October. According to the new regulation, a company that did not take environment protection measures or did not invest in anti-pollution facilities can be fined up to 200,000 yuan. Those refusing to obey the new rules can be fined up to one million yuan.
On December 28, the Minhang District environment authority issued the 1-million yuan fine in light of the revised regulation. Apart from the fine, the company was ordered to cease its illegal operations and dismantle facilities that had not undergone the authority's environment evaluation.
According to the revised regulation, if a company fails to take renovation measures by a certain date, the authority can issue a follow-up fine of up to 2 million yuan and individuals can also be fined.
Minhang District environment authority issued a 1-million yuan fine to Jinlong Bedding Renting and Laundry Co on December 28.
