The air pollution fee collection system has been in place for dozens of years. Most relevant operating regulations, billing systems, and inspection mechanisms have been established. Most business units have complied with the rules and paid the air pollution control fees by the law. However, in recent years, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has actively promoted in-depth audits, where they used existing pollution source management system for cross-referencing and comparing while also applying technology tools to assist in collecting evidence. After that, it has been found that some unscrupulous vendors have made false declarations and falsified data in the air pollution fee reporting process to reduce the amount of air pollution control fees they are required to pay. This project applied the control data of existing pollution source control systems (air, water, waste, and toxic chemicals) to conduct cross-references, comparisons, and validation analyses among pollution control systems. This year, we checked the air pollution emission volumes in the primary industries for Volatile Organic Compounds emissions in five counties and cities, including Taoyuan City, New Taipei City, Taichung City, Kaohsiung City, and Tainan City, against the volumes reported by 1,104 business units. After compiling the statistics for the cross-referenced and compared items, a total of 30 business units were suspected to have under-reported or failed to report the air pollution emission volume. Since the number of abnormal items (number of entries) is significant, we included them in the high-risk follow-up list. Subsequently, we will provide the information to the environmental law enforcement officers of the three districts as a reference for the in-depth audit list. In addition, we conducted on-site audits with the assistance of the Environmental Management Center of the three districts. We obtained information, such as on-site purchase, sales, inventory records, and purchase invoices of the business units during the audits. We have completed the inventory of the reasonableness between the finance, tax, and sales accounts of 13 business units, the on-site purchase, sales, inventory records, and the air pollution fee reporting data. We have identified the abnormal list of 9 business units suspected to have under-reported or failed to report air pollution emission volumes. To make the inspection procedures consistent with the logic of cross-referencing and comparing, we have established a standard operating procedure for checking the accuracy of air pollution emission volumes and a practical handbook for auditing, cross-referencing, and comparing air pollution in the metal surface coating industry to provide a reference for inspectors in their audit operations. We hope that this manual will improve the efficiency and accuracy of inspections. To improve the professional ability of inspectors in law enforcement and enhance the performance of combating environmental crimes, we assisted the Bureau of Environmental Inspection in building a “education and training venue for law enforcement using technology,” which simulates the actual scene of inspection and incorporates past inspection cases to produce 3D modules of air, water, and waste, thereby reinforcing the sense of presence in training venues and enhance the effectiveness of education and training. In addition, we completed two training sessions for environmental law enforcement officers and two two-day meetings related to environmental law enforcement strategies to enable the environmental law enforcement officers to quickly grasp the key points of inspection while establish the basic concept of scientific tool usage as well as enhance the efficiency of environmental pollution law enforcement cases. To effectively and honestly record the complete inspection and evidence collection process, we cooperated with the three district branches, Bureau of Environmental Inspection, to complete three panorama filming sessions of the vital pollution persons and produce three 3-minute promotional videos with sound effects and Chinese subtitles. To strengthen the functionality of the Environmental Law Enforcement Control Center, we complied with the operational needs of the Bureau of Environmental Inspection to compile various pollution emission control data, complete the expansion and import the visualization images of 11 control data. In addition, we imported the monitoring systems for the air quality monitoring station and the road condition of route 61. We presented them on the Environmental Law Enforcement Control Center's display screen to help the inspectors grasp the management information, samples, and current situation in real time.

Air pollution control fee, pollution source cross-reference and comparison, law enforcement using technology