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Soil is a strategic resource in relation to the survival of human beings and national development. With the rapid economic development in the international scope, the problems of soil pollution have become an increasingly prominent global environmental issue. Once the pollution exceeds the self-cleaning capacity of the soil, it will lead to the physical, chemical or biological change of nature of soil. Therefore, once the soil is polluted, not only the growth and quality of crops will be influenced, but also human health will be indirectly influenced through food chain and drinking water.
The problems of soil pollution should not be underestimated
Soil is supposed to be a natural place of accepting and cleaning various wastes. Soil taking in pollutants does not mean that it is polluted. We can say the soil is polluted only when too many pollutants accumulated in the soil and is beyond its self-cleaning capacity and some negative effects are generated.
In fact, there are many reasons contributing to the pollution of soil. Generally speaking, it can be divided into inorganic pollutant and organic pollutant. Inorganic pollutants mainly include acid, alkali, heavy mental, salt, the compounds of radioactive elements cesium and strontium, and compounds containing arsenic, selenium, fluorine. Organic pollutants mainly include organic agricultural chemicals, polyphenols, prussiate, petroleum, synthetic detergent, and harmful microbes brought by urban sewage, sewage sludge, and barnyard manure.
The ways for the pollutants to get in to soil are varied, so the types of pollution can also be very different. In general, the pollution is categorized as pollution through water, pollution through air, and pollution by solid waste.
Pollution through water is mainly in forms of industrial effluent and sanitary waste, and it’s mostly caused by irrigation with polluted water. The harmful substances pollute the soil through irrigation and abundant harmful substances are found in some crops, which may lead to food poisoning. Since the early 1900s, people of Toyama-ken, Japan found that the paddy rice in this area tend to be underdeveloped. In 1931, there disappeared a weird disease called "itai-itai disease". This disease causes pain all over the body and makes the patient hard to move. Even respiration would cause huge pain. In the after-stage of the disease, the bones of the patient would be softening and withering. The four limbs would bend, the spine would become deformed, the bones wound become porous and weak, and even a cough can cause a fracture. It was the earliest cadmium poisoning incident in the world. It turned out that the river called Jinz-gawa in this area not only provided drinking water for the local residents, but was also used for irrigation. Mitsui Mineral Company then opened a zinc smelter factory in the upstream and the waste water disposed by the factory contained rich cadmium, so the entire river was polluted by cadmium. Cadmium accumulated in the water as time passed by. The local residents used the water with abundant cadmium to irrigate the crops and the cadmium entered human bodies through the food chain. The accumulation of cadmium in human body then caused the "itai-itai disease". The disease made the local people suffer a lot. However, in fact, the disease was not diagnosed and recognized by people 20 years later, which fully showed the elusive, incubative, and accumulative features of the disease. At present, heavy mental pollution exists in the soil of all countries to varied extent. Pollution through air mainly refers to the pollutants getting into soil through rain and pollution subsidence. The main pollutants include lead, copper, arsenic and fluorine. The pollution is usually distributed in the shape of oval or belt with the pollution source as the center. The last type of pollution is caused by the solid waste like trash, feces, industrial waste, chemical fertilizer, and agricultural chemicals. Its feature is that the scope of pollution is relatively confined and fixed, but the scope may be expanded by wind or rain. Once the soil is polluted by some heavy mental or agricultural chemicals, these substances may be absorbed on to the soil. Some of them may turn into undecomposable salt and stay in the soil for a very long time. For instance, chlordane needs four years to dissolve, and DDT needs ten years or longer to dissolve 95% in soil.
Once the soil is polluted, it will be extremely difficult to completely erase the harm. However, although the consequences of soil pollution are well aware to the public, compared with water pollution etc., soil pollution is what we most likely ignore, because issues like atmospheric, aquatic and waste pollution are normally easy to be detected, hence drawing more attention. Soil pollution is another story. There is a time lag from the generation of pollution to the occurrence of actual problems. It can not be ascertained until analyzing tests on soil samples and residue tests of crops are conducted. Sometimes the impact on the health condition of people and livestock also need to be researched. Therefore, soil pollution very hardly draws people's attention.
In addition, once the soil is polluted, it is usually irreversible and hard to remedy. Pollution of heavy metal to soil is virtually irreversible, and pollution of many organic chemical substances also requires a relatively longer period to be dissolved, for instance, in some cases, soil polluted by heavy metal requires 100 to 200 years to recover. If the atmosphere and water bodies are polluted, dilution and self clean-up after cutting off the source of pollution may also make pollution irreversible. But the refractory pollutants accumulated in the polluted soil are hard to be recovered only through dilution and self clean-up. Once soil pollution occurs, only cutting off the pollution soil usually does not work. Sometimes changing soil may also be needed to solve the problem. Hence, the treatment for soil pollution usually demands higher cost and longer treatment period. Foreign legislation on pollution prevention and control
Soil pollution incurs rather serious consequences. It exacerbated the already straitened arable land resources and exerted very negative impact on agricultural development. Soil pollution is also a key factor causing other sorts of environmental pollution. Pollutants in soil pollution exhibit the nature of mobility and anelasticity, which may in turn cause new soil pollution. Soil pollution severely harms the interest of the future generation, and is unfavorable for the sustainable development of rural economy.
Developed countries have longer history in researching soil pollution as a worldwide environmental issue and so far have established a relatively complete legal system, accumulating ample successful experience for the other countries.
Japan
Japan is the earliest country in making legislation pertaining soil protection. To solve the aggravating issue of soil pollution in city streets (city area), the Japan Ministry of Environment promulgated Soil Contamination Countermeasures Act in 2002. Before the unveiling of soil pollution prevention and control act, Japan has promulgated a series of laws including Agricultural Land Soil Pollution Prevention Law, Soil Pollution Standards Survey and Countermeasures on Soil and Underground Water Pollution, and Special Measures against Dioxine and Analogous Substances, forming a package of measures to prevent and recover countermeasures.
In 2002, Japan promulgated Soil Contamination Countermeasures Act, defining the geological dimensions and the out-of-limit geography of the survey and detailing requirements on countermeasures, survey organs, support system, reports and censorship (miscellaneous rules), penalty clauses, and stipulations of the land condition of the subject of soil pollution investigation and the land standard for pollution decontamination, etc.
America
Early in 1930s, due to the concerns about the harm of soil pollution and erosion caused by the "black storm", US senate and congress passed The Soil Conservation Act. In 1960s, Hazardous Substance Act and Solid Waste Disposal act were also promulgated. Since mid-1970s, as the pollution of brown land exacerbated, US controlled and managed the polluted soil in the perspective of hazardous waste management and promulgated a series of stringent bills and acts. In December 1976, US congress passed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Since 1977, a strange disease spread among citizens at Love Canal, New York, US. After tests of related departments, the local soil was found to be polluted by Dioxin materials, which could produce extremely negative impact on human body. This is the notorious "Love Canal Pollution Scandal", which drew the attention of American people to soil pollution and of the US government, who begun to become aware of the harms of soil pollution. In its wake, US promulgated The Superfund Act and continuously explored and improved it, finally forming a relatively improved soil pollution prevention and control system in terms of legislation, administration and technical standards.
Moreover, US also formulated a series of laws concerning land pollution prevention and control from the perspective of water pollution prevention and control, water source protection, and control of toxic substances like pesticide and chemicals, etc.
Australia
Australia has enacted many environmental statute laws, which are mainly slip laws and less comprehensive laws. It is the "over-all environmental law" model. The environmental statute laws of Australia can be classified into 4 categories in terms of contents: first, regulations on environmental planning and pollution prevention, including planning of land use, evaluation of environmental impact, hazardous material control and pollution prevention; second, regulations on protection of natural and cultural relics, third, regulations on development, use and management of natural resources; fourth, other relevant laws, including the environmental protection provisions from laws on occupational safety, labor protection, consumer protection and criminal laws.
Since the enactment of Ocean and Submerged Land Law in 1973, Australia has legislated other environmental laws on land, for instance State Funding (Natural Conservation and Land Conservation) Law and Mineral (Submerged Land) Law. In addition, some local governments have enacted land laws (including those of the 6 States, 2 Districts and the capital). Take New South Wales as the example, it has Soil Conservation Law, Land Commission Law, Land and Environmental Court Law etc. Australia attaches significant importance to public participation in the process of regulating, and prevents soil from pollution at the level of whole ecological maintenance. It not only gives strong support in technology, also establishes protection zones to give special protection to the soil of certain areas. The United Kingdom
As the early industrial country, the United Kingdom has serious soil and groundwater pollution. From the mid-20th century, UK began to enact laws and regulations on pollution control and management. After 1970s, the guiding ideology of UK legislation gradually turned to prevent pollution through establishing standards. The legislation mainly follows three basic principles: sustainable development, polluter pays and pollution prevention, based on which evaluation system of environmental impact, the standards of comprehensive pollution control and environmental management were formed. Relying on and using laws, particularly adopting environmental standards is now the core of UK environmental control system. UK now has formed a environmental regulatory system.
Living Environment Comfortable Law enacted in 1967 stipulates that local governments have the responsibility to provide places to pile garbage in order to avoid the contamination of soil and water and the damage to the environment and human body. In 1972, UK enacted Toxic Waste Disposal Act, the first law in the world to control hazardous waste. The same year, it promulgated Toxic Sewage Treatment Methods, promoting the renovation and management of soil pollution. In 1974, UK formulated Pollution Control Act as the basic law of its environment protection. In 2000, it enacted the most important law on its soil pollution prevention Environmental Protection Act 1990: Part A, the main spirit of which is normalizing the identification and recovery steps and measures when the existing situation of land use and pollution generates unaccepted threats on human health and wildlife, including the notices, remediation procedures and records of specific contaminated sites and its management.
Learning from other countries
In recent years, due to rapid economic development, excessive population growth and inappropriate development model, the soil pollution in China is exacerbated and the responding environmental problems are also in the trends of being "compact" and "explosive". Wang Shijin, the associate professor of the Research Center for Environment and Resources Law of Jiang University of Technology pointed out in his article that, the main sources of serious soil pollution in China are sewage for irrigation, pesticides, fertilizers, atmospheric dusts and solid wastes in the soil. With the urban agglomeration, the formation of modern industry pool and the structural adjustment and relocation of industries and mines, regional soil pollution in China appeared. Soil pollution caused by long-term sewage irrigation, has seriously affected the quality and safety of agricultural products, and caused threats to the public’s health. At present, the laws and regulations in China related to soil protection include the Constitution, People’s Republic of China Environmental Protection Law, Land Administration Law, Regulations for the Implementation of Land Administration Law, Water and Soil Conservation Law, Land Reclamation Regulations, Basic Farmland Protection Law, Standards for Safe Use of Pesticides, Standards for Waste Control in Agricultural Sludge, Standards for Irrigation Water Quality, Solid Waste Pollution Prevention Law, Water Pollution Prevention Law and Air Pollution Prevention Law etc. In addition, in order to implement People’s Republic of China Environment Protection Law and prevent soil from pollution and protect ecological environment, China formulated Environmental Quality Standards for Soil in 1995.
Although there are a number of relevant laws and regulations, most of them focus on economic use, land administration and use, land planning and land tenure. Regulations on soil pollution prevention are disperse and not systematic, lack of workable rules and deterrent accountability provisions. The existing soil protection standards have such problems as the pollutant indexes from Environmental Quality Standards for Soil are less than normal. Besides, it is lack of organic index, and unable to meet the requirement of soil pollution control and agricultural products quality and safety. It lacks environmental quality risk evaluation criteria of housing, agricultural and mining land. Also, it did not take the soil type and complexity of the parent material into consideration, only takes a unified basis nationwide.
Soil pollution is an important environmental project and has become a worldwide environmental problem. With the soil pollution getting serious in China, other countries’ legislation on soil pollution prevention deserves our attention. China could learn from other countries’ soil pollution control experiences, accelerate the pace of soil pollution administration and walk into the comprehensive treatment stage.
The problems of soil pollution should not be underestimated
Soil is supposed to be a natural place of accepting and cleaning various wastes. Soil taking in pollutants does not mean that it is polluted. We can say the soil is polluted only when too many pollutants accumulated in the soil and is beyond its self-cleaning capacity and some negative effects are generated.
In fact, there are many reasons contributing to the pollution of soil. Generally speaking, it can be divided into inorganic pollutant and organic pollutant. Inorganic pollutants mainly include acid, alkali, heavy mental, salt, the compounds of radioactive elements cesium and strontium, and compounds containing arsenic, selenium, fluorine. Organic pollutants mainly include organic agricultural chemicals, polyphenols, prussiate, petroleum, synthetic detergent, and harmful microbes brought by urban sewage, sewage sludge, and barnyard manure.
The ways for the pollutants to get in to soil are varied, so the types of pollution can also be very different. In general, the pollution is categorized as pollution through water, pollution through air, and pollution by solid waste.
Pollution through water is mainly in forms of industrial effluent and sanitary waste, and it’s mostly caused by irrigation with polluted water. The harmful substances pollute the soil through irrigation and abundant harmful substances are found in some crops, which may lead to food poisoning. Since the early 1900s, people of Toyama-ken, Japan found that the paddy rice in this area tend to be underdeveloped. In 1931, there disappeared a weird disease called "itai-itai disease". This disease causes pain all over the body and makes the patient hard to move. Even respiration would cause huge pain. In the after-stage of the disease, the bones of the patient would be softening and withering. The four limbs would bend, the spine would become deformed, the bones wound become porous and weak, and even a cough can cause a fracture. It was the earliest cadmium poisoning incident in the world. It turned out that the river called Jinz-gawa in this area not only provided drinking water for the local residents, but was also used for irrigation. Mitsui Mineral Company then opened a zinc smelter factory in the upstream and the waste water disposed by the factory contained rich cadmium, so the entire river was polluted by cadmium. Cadmium accumulated in the water as time passed by. The local residents used the water with abundant cadmium to irrigate the crops and the cadmium entered human bodies through the food chain. The accumulation of cadmium in human body then caused the "itai-itai disease". The disease made the local people suffer a lot. However, in fact, the disease was not diagnosed and recognized by people 20 years later, which fully showed the elusive, incubative, and accumulative features of the disease. At present, heavy mental pollution exists in the soil of all countries to varied extent. Pollution through air mainly refers to the pollutants getting into soil through rain and pollution subsidence. The main pollutants include lead, copper, arsenic and fluorine. The pollution is usually distributed in the shape of oval or belt with the pollution source as the center. The last type of pollution is caused by the solid waste like trash, feces, industrial waste, chemical fertilizer, and agricultural chemicals. Its feature is that the scope of pollution is relatively confined and fixed, but the scope may be expanded by wind or rain. Once the soil is polluted by some heavy mental or agricultural chemicals, these substances may be absorbed on to the soil. Some of them may turn into undecomposable salt and stay in the soil for a very long time. For instance, chlordane needs four years to dissolve, and DDT needs ten years or longer to dissolve 95% in soil.
Once the soil is polluted, it will be extremely difficult to completely erase the harm. However, although the consequences of soil pollution are well aware to the public, compared with water pollution etc., soil pollution is what we most likely ignore, because issues like atmospheric, aquatic and waste pollution are normally easy to be detected, hence drawing more attention. Soil pollution is another story. There is a time lag from the generation of pollution to the occurrence of actual problems. It can not be ascertained until analyzing tests on soil samples and residue tests of crops are conducted. Sometimes the impact on the health condition of people and livestock also need to be researched. Therefore, soil pollution very hardly draws people's attention.
In addition, once the soil is polluted, it is usually irreversible and hard to remedy. Pollution of heavy metal to soil is virtually irreversible, and pollution of many organic chemical substances also requires a relatively longer period to be dissolved, for instance, in some cases, soil polluted by heavy metal requires 100 to 200 years to recover. If the atmosphere and water bodies are polluted, dilution and self clean-up after cutting off the source of pollution may also make pollution irreversible. But the refractory pollutants accumulated in the polluted soil are hard to be recovered only through dilution and self clean-up. Once soil pollution occurs, only cutting off the pollution soil usually does not work. Sometimes changing soil may also be needed to solve the problem. Hence, the treatment for soil pollution usually demands higher cost and longer treatment period. Foreign legislation on pollution prevention and control
Soil pollution incurs rather serious consequences. It exacerbated the already straitened arable land resources and exerted very negative impact on agricultural development. Soil pollution is also a key factor causing other sorts of environmental pollution. Pollutants in soil pollution exhibit the nature of mobility and anelasticity, which may in turn cause new soil pollution. Soil pollution severely harms the interest of the future generation, and is unfavorable for the sustainable development of rural economy.
Developed countries have longer history in researching soil pollution as a worldwide environmental issue and so far have established a relatively complete legal system, accumulating ample successful experience for the other countries.
Japan
Japan is the earliest country in making legislation pertaining soil protection. To solve the aggravating issue of soil pollution in city streets (city area), the Japan Ministry of Environment promulgated Soil Contamination Countermeasures Act in 2002. Before the unveiling of soil pollution prevention and control act, Japan has promulgated a series of laws including Agricultural Land Soil Pollution Prevention Law, Soil Pollution Standards Survey and Countermeasures on Soil and Underground Water Pollution, and Special Measures against Dioxine and Analogous Substances, forming a package of measures to prevent and recover countermeasures.
In 2002, Japan promulgated Soil Contamination Countermeasures Act, defining the geological dimensions and the out-of-limit geography of the survey and detailing requirements on countermeasures, survey organs, support system, reports and censorship (miscellaneous rules), penalty clauses, and stipulations of the land condition of the subject of soil pollution investigation and the land standard for pollution decontamination, etc.
America
Early in 1930s, due to the concerns about the harm of soil pollution and erosion caused by the "black storm", US senate and congress passed The Soil Conservation Act. In 1960s, Hazardous Substance Act and Solid Waste Disposal act were also promulgated. Since mid-1970s, as the pollution of brown land exacerbated, US controlled and managed the polluted soil in the perspective of hazardous waste management and promulgated a series of stringent bills and acts. In December 1976, US congress passed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Since 1977, a strange disease spread among citizens at Love Canal, New York, US. After tests of related departments, the local soil was found to be polluted by Dioxin materials, which could produce extremely negative impact on human body. This is the notorious "Love Canal Pollution Scandal", which drew the attention of American people to soil pollution and of the US government, who begun to become aware of the harms of soil pollution. In its wake, US promulgated The Superfund Act and continuously explored and improved it, finally forming a relatively improved soil pollution prevention and control system in terms of legislation, administration and technical standards.
Moreover, US also formulated a series of laws concerning land pollution prevention and control from the perspective of water pollution prevention and control, water source protection, and control of toxic substances like pesticide and chemicals, etc.
Australia
Australia has enacted many environmental statute laws, which are mainly slip laws and less comprehensive laws. It is the "over-all environmental law" model. The environmental statute laws of Australia can be classified into 4 categories in terms of contents: first, regulations on environmental planning and pollution prevention, including planning of land use, evaluation of environmental impact, hazardous material control and pollution prevention; second, regulations on protection of natural and cultural relics, third, regulations on development, use and management of natural resources; fourth, other relevant laws, including the environmental protection provisions from laws on occupational safety, labor protection, consumer protection and criminal laws.
Since the enactment of Ocean and Submerged Land Law in 1973, Australia has legislated other environmental laws on land, for instance State Funding (Natural Conservation and Land Conservation) Law and Mineral (Submerged Land) Law. In addition, some local governments have enacted land laws (including those of the 6 States, 2 Districts and the capital). Take New South Wales as the example, it has Soil Conservation Law, Land Commission Law, Land and Environmental Court Law etc. Australia attaches significant importance to public participation in the process of regulating, and prevents soil from pollution at the level of whole ecological maintenance. It not only gives strong support in technology, also establishes protection zones to give special protection to the soil of certain areas. The United Kingdom
As the early industrial country, the United Kingdom has serious soil and groundwater pollution. From the mid-20th century, UK began to enact laws and regulations on pollution control and management. After 1970s, the guiding ideology of UK legislation gradually turned to prevent pollution through establishing standards. The legislation mainly follows three basic principles: sustainable development, polluter pays and pollution prevention, based on which evaluation system of environmental impact, the standards of comprehensive pollution control and environmental management were formed. Relying on and using laws, particularly adopting environmental standards is now the core of UK environmental control system. UK now has formed a environmental regulatory system.
Living Environment Comfortable Law enacted in 1967 stipulates that local governments have the responsibility to provide places to pile garbage in order to avoid the contamination of soil and water and the damage to the environment and human body. In 1972, UK enacted Toxic Waste Disposal Act, the first law in the world to control hazardous waste. The same year, it promulgated Toxic Sewage Treatment Methods, promoting the renovation and management of soil pollution. In 1974, UK formulated Pollution Control Act as the basic law of its environment protection. In 2000, it enacted the most important law on its soil pollution prevention Environmental Protection Act 1990: Part A, the main spirit of which is normalizing the identification and recovery steps and measures when the existing situation of land use and pollution generates unaccepted threats on human health and wildlife, including the notices, remediation procedures and records of specific contaminated sites and its management.
Learning from other countries
In recent years, due to rapid economic development, excessive population growth and inappropriate development model, the soil pollution in China is exacerbated and the responding environmental problems are also in the trends of being "compact" and "explosive". Wang Shijin, the associate professor of the Research Center for Environment and Resources Law of Jiang University of Technology pointed out in his article that, the main sources of serious soil pollution in China are sewage for irrigation, pesticides, fertilizers, atmospheric dusts and solid wastes in the soil. With the urban agglomeration, the formation of modern industry pool and the structural adjustment and relocation of industries and mines, regional soil pollution in China appeared. Soil pollution caused by long-term sewage irrigation, has seriously affected the quality and safety of agricultural products, and caused threats to the public’s health. At present, the laws and regulations in China related to soil protection include the Constitution, People’s Republic of China Environmental Protection Law, Land Administration Law, Regulations for the Implementation of Land Administration Law, Water and Soil Conservation Law, Land Reclamation Regulations, Basic Farmland Protection Law, Standards for Safe Use of Pesticides, Standards for Waste Control in Agricultural Sludge, Standards for Irrigation Water Quality, Solid Waste Pollution Prevention Law, Water Pollution Prevention Law and Air Pollution Prevention Law etc. In addition, in order to implement People’s Republic of China Environment Protection Law and prevent soil from pollution and protect ecological environment, China formulated Environmental Quality Standards for Soil in 1995.
Although there are a number of relevant laws and regulations, most of them focus on economic use, land administration and use, land planning and land tenure. Regulations on soil pollution prevention are disperse and not systematic, lack of workable rules and deterrent accountability provisions. The existing soil protection standards have such problems as the pollutant indexes from Environmental Quality Standards for Soil are less than normal. Besides, it is lack of organic index, and unable to meet the requirement of soil pollution control and agricultural products quality and safety. It lacks environmental quality risk evaluation criteria of housing, agricultural and mining land. Also, it did not take the soil type and complexity of the parent material into consideration, only takes a unified basis nationwide.
Soil pollution is an important environmental project and has become a worldwide environmental problem. With the soil pollution getting serious in China, other countries’ legislation on soil pollution prevention deserves our attention. China could learn from other countries’ soil pollution control experiences, accelerate the pace of soil pollution administration and walk into the comprehensive treatment stage.