Regulatory Framework and Challenges for Controlling Industrial Effluents in Shiga, Japan

Transcription

1 Sengupta, M. and Dalwani, R. (Editors). 28 Proceedings of Taal27: The 12 th World Lake Conference: Regulatory Framework and Challenges for Controlling Industrial Effluents in Shiga, Japan Toyohisa Nakamura Department of Lake Biwa Environment, Shiga Prefectural Government, Kyomachi, Otsu, Shiga , Japan ABSTRACT In this paper, the author reports the legal system and its execution status of controlling industrial effluents in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, and also describes current challenges and efforts to regulate them. In Japan, the Water Pollution Control Law was enacted in 197. The Shiga Prefectural Government then set another stricter standards topping up the national standards for industrial wastewaters and revised the Pollution Control Ordinance for the conservation of water quality of Lake Biwa. Furthermore, the Eutrophication Control Ordinance was set forth in 1979 to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus in factory effluents. With the enforcement of these laws and ordinances, the water quality of L. Biwa has been improved to some extent. On the other hand, groundwater pollution due to infiltration of hazardous substances such as heavy metals and organic solvents from industries has become an emerging issue these years in Shiga. In order to further enforce the regulations and prevent groundwater contamination, the Pollution Control Ordinance has been amended this year. In addition, administrative guidance has been provided for factories so that they could manage chemical substances in more appropriate and independent manner. Keywords: Industrial effluents, water pollution control, Lake Biwa, groundwater pollution, Shiga REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR WATER POLLUTION CONTROL IN SHIGA Background From the late 195s through 196s, Japan suffered from serious environmental pollutions, including severe water pollution, due to remarkable economic growth. In consequence, the Water Pollution Control Law was enacted by the national government in 197. As the law went into effect in 1971 and for further enforcing the regulations, the Shiga Prefectural Government then set forth the Ordinance for more stringent prefectural effluent standards based upon Water Pollution Control Law in 1972 and also revised the Pollution Control Ordinance completely for safeguarding the water quality of Lake Biwa. The revised ordinance adopted a license system for installation and change of specific facilities using hazardous materials and specified a wider range of facilities as objects of the regulation. In addition, with a view to taking actions to improve water quality of lakes, the Special Law for Lake Water Quality Conservation was established in In the wake of outbreak of freshwater red tide at L. Biwa in 1977 and prior to this special law s enactment, the Eutrophication Control Ordinance was formulated in Shiga in The ordinance set the very first nitrogen and phosphorus standards for industrial effluents in Japan. Furthermore, in order to regulate effluents from smaller-scale factories and establishments, the Pollution Control Ordinance was amended in 1996 and additional establishments in smaller drainage volume were brought in as new regulatory objects. Institutional framework In this section, a legal system for improving the water quality of L. Biwa will be summarized. a) Water Pollution Control Law This national law aims at preventing water pollution caused by industrial effluents discharged to public waters. It ordains that factories have to report to respective local governments in case of installation and change of specific facilities. Such specific facilities include not only ones of manufacturing industries, but also ones of livestock and service industries (dry-cleaning shops, hotels, car washers, photo-finishing stores, and so forth), and septic tanks. Approximately 1 different types of facilities are stipulated as specified facilities in this law. The law also authorizes local governments to give orders to factories to change installation plans if necessary, or improve the structure of facilities or wastewater treatment methods if there is a possibility that effluents from the factories may no meet the standards. Factories would get a fine in violation of the standards. The effluent standards are prescribed in certain

2 compounds and their concentrations to protect both human health and living conditions, and composed of uniform ones set by the national government and stricter ones by local governments. Local governments are authorized by this law to formulate stricter standards than the national standards, and the law would be implemented in accordance with those stricter standards. In the law, local governments are also authorized to add by ordinances new type of facilities or compounds that are not prescribed in the national law as objects of the regulation. In Shiga, the prefectural government set stricter standards by the Ordinance for more stringent prefectural effluent standards based upon Water Pollution Control Law in 1972, which is partly revised in 1985 and 1986, and additional compounds and facilities as regulatory objects by the Pollution Control Ordinance and Eutrophication Control Ordinance. b) Ordinance for more stringent prefectural effluent standards based upon Water Pollution Control Law This ordinance lays down stricter standards than the national standards pursuant to the Article 3, Item 3 of the Water Pollution Control Law. In addition, the stricter standards of this ordinance can be applicable to those establishments with daily discharge less than 5 m 3 and greater or equal to 1 m 3 while the national standards applicable to those ones with daily discharge greater or equal to 5 m 3. c) Special Law for Lake Water Quality Conservation This special law was established to take appropriate actions to improve water quality of important lakes and reservoirs in Japan. The law designates lakes and reservoirs, for which it is imminent and crucial to satisfy the environmental standards on water quality, and mandates that special measures should be devised and implemented to improve the water quality of such designated lakes and reservoirs. The law has two major objectives: one is to make possible local governments to adopt new control measures against polluters which could not be regulated by conventional measures while postulating effluent control by the Water Pollution Control Law for public waters; and the other is to draw up plans for projects and measures to reduce pollutant loadings to and improve the water quality of designated lakes and reservoirs, and put forward counter measures in line with such plans. d) Pollution Control Ordinance This ordinance specifies as objects of the regulation additional compounds, e.g., antimony, and facilities which are not regulated in the Water Pollution Control Law. e) Eutrophication Control Ordinance The ordinance is the very first act for eutrophication control in Japan. It sets nitrogen and phosphorus standards for industrial effluents as well as prohibits the use of phosphate-containing synthetic detergents in Shiga. Due to the revision of the Water Pollution Control Law in 1985, which then included nitrogen and phosphorous as regulatory objects, the ordinance is today applied to only additional industrial and commercial establishments specified in this ordinance. However, nitrogen and phosphorus standards for industrial effluents in the ordinance are still used as the stricter standards in the Ordinance for more stringent prefectural effluent standards based upon Water Pollution Control Law. f) Effluent standards in Shiga Control subjects in the effluent standards both for human health and living conditions in Shiga are shown in Table 1. The standards for human health in Shiga are laid down according to the national standards which are defined on the basis of health risk. On the other hand, the ones for living conditions are stricter than the national standards (e.g. 1.3±8 times in case of BOD, 2±2 times in case of phosphorus) and defined for each industrial sector as the mean measurement value + 2± (standard deviation) of effluents from establishments in the sector. This is designed for industries to share fair burden to achieve the standards. The standards for food manufacturing industry are thus more modest than the other industries. However, the concentrations of COD and BOD in industrial effluents are accordingly by far lower than the given standards since factories have to remove nitrogen and phosphorus from their effluents. Table 1. Control subjects in the effluent standards of Shiga For Human health For living conditions Cd, total cyanide, Pb, Cr 6+, As, Hg, alkyl mercury, PCB, dichloromethane, carbon tetrachloride, 1,2-dichloroethane, 1, 1-dichloroethylene, cis-1, 2-dichloroethylene, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, 1, 1,2-trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, 1,3-dichloropropene, thiuram (thiram), simazine, thiobencarb, benzene, Se, nitrate and nitrite, F, B ph, BOD, COD Mn, SS, n-hexane extracts, phenol, Cu, Zn, soluble Fe, soluble Mn, Cr, total coliform, N, P CURRENT STATUS OF INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS IN NOTIFICATION BASIS The number of specific establishments in Shiga, which are industrial and commercial ones that possess 1133

3 specific facilities, and its secular change are shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, respectively. As of the end of 25, the number of specific establishments subject to the Water Pollution Law is 3,615 and subject to the Pollution Control Ordinance 1,77. A rapid increase in the number from 1995 to 2 in Fig. 2 is due to the fact that the Pollution Control Ordinance was revised in 1996 and establishments in smaller drainage volume became objects of the regulation. Although the number had been increasing until 2, it turned to decrease in late years. This is because a lot of establishments came to connect to sewer and dismantle septic tanks during the period. As shown in Fig. 2, the total displacement has been also declining due to scrap-and-build of establishments these years. With respect to the number of reported cases, as shown in Fig. 3, the one of service industry is greater than manufacturing industry. Hotels and restaurants account for high percentages in service industry, 11.1% and 8.8% of the total number, whereas food manufacturing and textile industries do so in manufacturing industry, 8.7% and 3.1% respectively. Specified Facilities Water Pollution Control Law 11 specified facilities 8 specified facilities Pollution Control Ordinance Displacement Volume 5 m 3 /day 731 establishments Ordinance for more stringent prefectural effluent standards based upon Water Pollution Control Law 1 m 3 /day < 1 m 3 /day 2,455 1,11 Figure 1: Number of specific facilities and establishments in Shiga Example of Specified Facilities Law: washing facility of food manufacturing industry, dyeing facility of textile industry, electroplating facility, hotels, restaurants, etc. Ordinance: degreasing facility, etc '75 '8 '85 '9 '95 ' ' , m 3 /day Water Pollution Control Law Displacement Volume Pollution Control Ordinance Figure 2. Trend of the number of specific establishments and their total displacement in Shiga 1134

4 Others 22.5% Septic tank 3.5% Textile 3.1% Livestock 3.3% Dry-cleaning 3.7% Hotel 1.8% Car washer 8.6% Food manufacturing 8.7% Restaurant 8.8% Figure 3. Percentages of the number of specific establishments in respective industrial sectors in Shiga 15 COD Mn 5 Total-N 1 Total-P '75 '85 '9 '95 ' '5 '75 '85 '9 '95 ' '5 '75 '85 '9 '95 ' '5 Figure 4. Pollutant loadings to Lake Biwa Notes: The loadings do not include pollutants discharged to sewer or ones from restaurants. The estimation method of 1975 is different from the other years. The number of establishments subject to the effluent standards for living conditions is 1,82 and explains 33.8% of the total number of specific establishments in Shiga, but their total displacement is 1,24, m 3 per day and comprises 99.1% of the total volume. In addition, the sum of discharges from fourteen establishments above 1, m 3 per day accounts for 59.7% of the total discharge. Such establishments in high-displacement include wastewater treatment plants and factories using a large amount of cooling water. STATUS OF COMPLIANCE AND POLLUTANT LOADINGS The Shiga Prefectural Government has been monitoring effluents from the specific establishments. In addition, it has conducted, if necessary, on-site inspections and given instructions to establishments. The number of violations with respect to the standards for human health has been fairly small and, if any, the degree of violations has been minor. As shown in Table 2, the percentage of violations with respect to the standards for living conditions has been also declining in total. Main reason why those 1135

5 violating establishment failed in complying with the standards could attribute to no installation of wastewater treatment facilities in the past whereas poor and inappropriate maintenance of treatment facilities today. Making a comparison among industrial sectors, the number of violating establishments in manufacturing industry is smaller than ones in non-manufacturing industry, of which violating cases of septic tanks is particularly plenty. Meanwhile, the number of violations in 25 was 115, 6% of the total establishments under control, and such establishments were given by the prefectural government an instruction to improve. Table 2. Number of establishments not meeting the effluent standards for living conditions Years Total number of establishments subject to control Number violating establishments (%) (12.5) (11.7) (18.1) 199 1, (13.6) , (12.6) 2 2, (11.2) 25 1, (6.4) Today almost all the establishments discharging effluents directly to public waters in Shiga have installed wastewater treatment equipment. This high percentage of installation is due to not only the enforcement of regulations by laws and ordinances but also 1) an agreement on environmental pollution control which is typically ratified between a factory and local municipality or communities since public awareness to water pollution is quite high in Shiga, 2) technical guidance provided for establishments by the prefectural government, and 3) low-interest loan available for industries to set up treatment facilities. As a result, pollutant loadings to L. Biwa have been considerably reduced as shown in Fig. 4. The loadings particularly decreased right after both the enforcement of the Eutrophication Control Ordinance in 198 and amendment of the Pollution Control Ordinance in These large reductions could attribute to 1) major polluters at the time installed treatment equipment due to the enforcement of regulations in the early stage, and 2) the number of establishments connecting to sewer has increased as sewage system has been developed late years in Shiga. The water quality of public waters, particularly BOD concentrations of rivers, has been thereby improved substantially. of pollution and oil spill have become emerging issues recently in Shiga. Groundwater pollution In Shiga, trichloroethylene was first detected in tap water, which was produced from groundwater, in Being shocked by this incident, the prefectural government then started water survey on well water in every primary school district to grasp a picture of groundwater pollution in the prefecture. Shortly after this, the Water Pollution Control Law was revised in 1989 and local governments were then obligated to conduct regular monitoring of groundwater. Groundwater pollution has been so far identified by the survey at fifty two sites in Shiga; most of the sites are polluted by organic solvents such as trichloroethylene. Since it takes a long time to restore groundwater, once polluted, the Pollution Control Ordinance was amended this year in order to assure proactive measures to prevent from groundwater pollution. The revised ordinance demands that factories using hazardous materials should obtain permission for operation upon a review of reported pipelaying and bore a well for monitoring as groundwater pollution is most likely to be caused by leakage of pollutants from pipes and storage tanks according to the past cases. Oil spill In these years, spills of oil and other hazardous compounds to public waters, due to piping or operational errors, have also occurred frequently in Shiga. An association composed of such factories that took these accidents seriously has had a series of meeting independently to study the spill cases. Furthermore in order to identify areas of the impact and explore countermeasures in case of spill, respective persons in charge of the environment in those factories walked along from a trench of the factory to a major river and charted a drainage map. In Shiga, every industrial effluent runs through ditches and rivers in the catchment area and finally flows into L. Biwa. These efforts of factories have also yielded byproducts such that they found out unexpected circumstances of the downstream and realized again what would happen if a spill accident happened. The prefectural government is concerned that the sense of crisis is lacking today in the work front of factories, as a lot of them now discharge effluents to sewer and have acquired ISO14 certification, and thus alerted factories to spills in the occasion of on-site inspections. CURRENT CHALLENGES AND EFFORTS With the development of legal system mentioned above, water quality of industrial effluents has been considerably improved; however, groundwater 1136