People’s Daily recently reported that the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued a news release to the media on pollution-source companies taking a number of different approaches in order to fake the monitoring of data. The Ministry expressed its determination to attack these illegal mechanisms to influence the automated monitoring systems. China has over 14,000 companies on the priority list of pollution monitoring. Due to the lack of resources, a large amount of the work has been done with automated monitoring equipment. Over the years, many companies that are under surveillance have developed a number of ways to “fool” the monitoring devices. Examples include diluting samples, faking parameters on the controlling computers, and even working with device manufacturers to fake data. Another issue with pollution monitoring is that the “cost” of violating the law is very minimal – if caught, the punishment is very light compared to the “benefits” brought about by avoiding environmental protection investments. At the same time, many local governments have been letting these companies slide in order to protect the local tax revenue stream.
Source: People’s Daily, July 23, 2016
http://opinion.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0723/c1003-28578795.html