The scope of this project includes the auditing of soil and groundwater remediation fee, performing site inspections, and promoting the soil and groundwater remediation fee. The auditing process includes the quarterly soil and groundwater remediation fee, exemption ratio, refunds due to closure or export, refunds for investing in pollution prevention projects and insurances, and refunds of bank wiring fees.
Standardized auditing process was utilized to reduce errors. To reduce workload, a rated auditing system was utilized this year. Small payments were only audited for completeness, while as large payments were also audited for correctness. A review process was applied to eliminate errors.
This year a total of 17,385 applications were audited. 280 thousand dollars was refunded to factories that closed down. 220 thousand dollars was refunded for exported materials. 46 applications for refunds for investing in pollution prevention projects were received, and 117.19 million dollars was refunded. 500 site inspections were conducted and 4.82 million dollars was retrieved, including 7 cases of joint inspections which retrieved 680 thousand dollars. 7 seminars were held with a total of 1,727 participants which provided positive feedbacks.
The soil and groundwater remediation fee took reference of the Unites State Superfund Program. A total of 8.8 billion dollars has been collected since November of 2001. The fee was originally collected on the organic chemicals produced by petrochemical companies. However, most of the soil and groundwater pollution was caused by the illegal disposal of industrial wastes, coal ash, and steel slag, instead of organic chemical. To reflect on the cause of pollution, production of industrial wastes, steel, heavy metal and importation of coal were charged for the remediation fee since 2011. Since the revision of the fee collection scheme, the number of fee-payers has increased to 4,500, and 945million dollars was collected yearly.
The cancelation of the refund for manufactured goods has raised the net income of the remediation significantly, whereas the refund for pollution prevention projects has reached a new high this year, and expected to grow even more, which is beneficial to the environment. The collection of soil and groundwater remediation fee from industrial wastes has encountered numerous practical difficulties; further revisions would be necessary to ensure a simpler, equitable, and reasonable fee collection system.
