| Heavy metal pollution has not only caused large number of casualties and huge loss ofproperty, but also disturbed the normal social development order, tremendously impacted thepublic mentality, even led to mass incidents and affected the country’s politics and socialstability. So, it is imminent to curb the high momentum of heavy metal pollution, resolve theoutstanding problems that harm public health, effectively safeguard the general public’senvironmental rights.The polluted places, the polluted sources and the polluted sources’ type of45heavymetal pollution incidents occurred in the country from2002to2010and caused damage tohuman health indicate that:(1) heavy metal pollution is closely related to the productionactivities of the county industry, and the frequency of heavy metal pollution corresponds withthe number of the developing county industry, the type characteristics, the productioncharacteristics and the distribution characteristics;(2) heavy metal pollution has a morecomplex ecological process, and the process leads heavy metal pollution to have a range ofbasic features, such as suddenness, cumulativeness, concealment, relevance, reproducibilityand controllability etc;(3) the generation of heavy metal pollution should go through threestages: the existence of heavy metal pollutants, the formation of heavy metal pollution andthe occurrence of harmful results, and all stages are inextricably linked with environmentalregulation. Visibly, heavy metal pollution has its own particularity, and it is the phenomenonthat the county industry engaged in production activities discharge heavy metal pollutants intothe surrounding and lead to the degradation of environmental quality and the adverseconsequences to human health or other valuable materials because of heavy metal pollutants’number or intensity beyond the self-purification capacity of environment.According to the article7of "Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic ofChina", governments above the county level and its environmental administration departmentexercise unified supervision and management to environmental protection affairs in this area.In China, the grassroots environmental regulation agency is the county government and itsenvironmental protection department. So, the grassroots environmental regulation is theregulation of the county government and its environmental protection department. The geography, the surrounding, the ecological processes, the basic characteristics and the stagesof the heavy metal pollution require that the grassroots environmental regulation agencyshould include heavy metal pollution prevention into the areas of environmental regulation,adopt conducive policies and measures to prevent heavy metal pollution, and safeguard hefundamental interests of the county population and county social harmony and stability.The grassroots environmental regulation system means environmental supervision andmanagement system. The grassroots environmental regulation system is a general term of theestablishment of the grassroots environmental regulation agency, as well as the environmentalregulation division of authority between these institutions and the performing mode of itsduties. It is necessary for the environmental protection department at the county level not onlyto accept the guidance or leadership of the higher authorities, but also to accept the unifiedleadership of the level of government. So, it is uncoordinated and unclear to the division ofauthority and responsibilities between county environmental protection department and otherdepartments which are responsible for internal environmental affairs of this system accordingto the law. The grassroots environmental regulation system featured "transvestism" and"longitudinalism" is the main reason for environmental supervision’s plight of the grassrootsenvironmental protection department, the local government, enterprises law-abiding andpublic participation. It becomes very difficult for grassroots environmental regulation toprevent metal pollution because of all these obstacles and constraints.How to change the grassroots environmental regulation system featured "transvestism"and "longitudinalism", to break the grassroots environmental regulation body structuremonopolized on power by the government and the single, stationary and inefficient regulatoryapproach, to overcome the constraints of the grassroots environmental regulation, to form theinstitutional environment in favor of heavy metal pollution prevention in the context that theexisting conditions of vertical supervision of environmental protection department has notbeen ripen and the standardization of policy implementation mechanisms has not beenestablished? The new public management theory in the application of the grassrootsenvironmental regulation brings a turning point for the heavy metal pollution prevention andcontrol. Based on new public management theory, the improvement of the grassrootsenvironmental regulation system contained the improvement of the grassroots environmentalregulation body structure and the grassroots environmental regulation approaches as the maincontent is undoubtedly the fundamental treatment and the inevitable choice to prevent andcontrol the heavy metal pollution.The body structure of the grassroots environmental regulation according to theinteractions between the different subjects in the treatment process of heavy metal pollution includes to strengthen the body of government regulation guiding role, to upgrade the body ofenterprise regulation dynamic role and enhance the body of others social organizationsregulation promoting role. Environmental regulation carried out by the body of thegovernment is a specification and constraint to heavy metal pollution enterprises, whichconducted by county government and its environmental department to achieve the countyenvironmental policy objectives. Environmental regulation carried out by the body ofenterprises is a limitation and constraint to their own environmental behaviors, whichconducted by enterprises to coordinate the relations of the production development and theenvironment protection. Environmental regulation carried out by the body of others socialorganizations is an environmental supervision and management to heavy metal pollutionenterprises, which conducted by the non-governmental organizations to have an aim topromote the public progress with professionally and voluntarily.The approach of the grassroots environmental regulation according to the geography andthe surrounding of heavy metal pollution include regional regulation, special regulation, flowregulation and agreement regulation. Regional regulation emphasizes on the separationbetween the policy formulation of heavy metal pollution prevention and the policy executionof heavy metal pollution prevention, adjusts internal hierarchical relationships of countygovernment organization by authorizing or decentralizing and establishes special leadershipand coordination group of heavy metal pollution prevention with the environmentaladministrative department as the subject, so that vertical management system is unobstructedand horizontal administrative privileges are distinct. Special regulation emphasizes on arelaxation in the strict administrative rules and highlights the contingency thinking in the useof heavy metal pollution prevention, clear control of the performance target and thecollaboration of the upper and lower on environmental protection administration departments.Flow regulation emphasizes overcoming local protectionism in the process of heavy metalpollution prevention for the purpose of public interest, concerning about the contradictions ofthe fairness and efficiency and the collaboration of the same level of environmental protectionadministration departments. Agreement regulation emphasizes an agreement that reachedbetween the county environmental protection administrative department and the enterprisesfor the heavy metal pollution prevention.In practice, the improvement of the grassroots environmental regulation system requires aseries of supporting measures. Therefore, we must optimize the affiliation of the regulationbodies, clear the division of functions of the regulation bodies, establish effectivecoordination mechanisms, build capacity-building investment of the regulation bodies, buildgrassroots environmental monitoring network system, improve emergency management capabilities of regulation agencies, implement integrated environment and developmentdecision-making, formulate regional development and protection policies, implement theresponsibility system for environmental protection, use market mechanisms to guide enterprisesbehaviors, encourage enterprises to actively carry out clean production, support enterprises toestablish environmental management system, clarify the basic conditions for publicparticipation, improve the environmental regulation mechanism for public participation andsound the protective measures of public participation. |
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