The Yangtze River Basin is a major concentration of China's chemical industry. Across 29 central cities along the Yangtze River, there are 490 industrial parks of varying scales and sectors, including 103 parks dominated by the chemical industry. Over 400,000 chemical enterprises are distributed on both banks of the river. Among these, the number of enterprises within 1 kilometer of the riverbank increased from 149 in 2000 to 715 in 2017; of these 715 enterprises, 489 are large-scale industrial enterprises, accounting for 68.4%.

With the development of chemical industrial parks along the river, issues related to pollution and emissions have also attracted widespread social attention. According to The Paper (a leading Chinese news outlet), during this year's sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) (collectively known as "Two Sessions"), Lyu Wenyan, an NPC deputy from Hubei Province, submitted the Proposal on Accelerating the Formulation of a Standard System for Chemical Industrial Parks Along the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Lyu Wenyan argued that this initiative would help promote high-quality economic development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and achieve a harmonious win-win balance between the development and protection of the Yangtze River.

Due to the short development history of chemical industrial parks along the river, coupled with a lack of construction experience and guidance from standards and specifications, the level of standardized construction in these parks urgently needs to be improved. Lyu Wenyan identified four prominent problems in the standardized construction of chemical industrial parks along the river and put forward targeted suggestions for each issue:

1. Lack of a Green Development and Construction Standard System for Riverfront Chemical Industrial Parks

There is a lack of standardized guidance for key aspects of chemical industrial parks, such as spatial layout, environmental access criteria, negative lists for industrial development, cleaner production standards, process equipment requirements, and waste treatment and disposal measures. Additionally, there are no unified regulations on indicators for the standardized construction and green development of chemical industrial parks. As a result, extensive and unregulated construction is common across many parks, and green development standards vary widely.

To address the lack of construction standards, Lyu Wenyan suggested:

Establish a green development and construction standard system for chemical industrial parks to promote the overall high-quality development of parks. Accelerate research on the standardization system for green chemical industrial parks, and develop a set of operable construction and management standards that guide overall planning, industrial linkage, infrastructure support, safety, and environmental protection for parks in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Shift from end-of-pipe treatment to source reduction and whole-process control, promote industrial coupling in chemical parks, achieve near-zero waste discharge, and strengthen risk management and control in chemical industrial parks.

2. Lack of Construction Standards and Discharge Standards for Centralized Sewage Treatment Facilities in Chemical Industrial Parks

A large number of centralized sewage treatment facilities supporting chemical industrial parks are built in accordance with the construction standards for urban sewage treatment plants, with no clear requirements for sewage connection. The treatment processes are mismatched with the types of wastewater generated in the parks, leading to low treatment efficiency. Persistent pollutants (such as volatile organic compounds/VOCs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons/PAHs, and pesticides) as well as heavy metals and antibiotics generally fail to be effectively treated. Furthermore, due to the absence of unified discharge standards, localities along the river implement inconsistent and unevenly enforced sewage discharge standards for chemical industrial parks. Among the currently implemented discharge standards, provisions on characteristic pollutants and their corresponding limits are unclear, and there is a lack of monitoring and control for characteristic pollutants—failing to meet the requirements for ensuring the water quality and safety of the Yangtze River. This not only increases supervision difficulty but also poses significant long-term cumulative environmental risks from characteristic pollutants.

To address the lack of discharge standards, Lyu Wenyan suggested:

Clarify the construction standards and discharge standards for sewage treatment facilities in chemical industrial parks, and promote the compliance of park wastewater discharge with standards. First, in light of the water quality characteristics and discharge patterns of mixed sewage in chemical parks, formulate construction standards for centralized sewage treatment facilities, and conduct unified planning, construction, and management of such facilities and their supporting infrastructure to ensure comprehensive, effective, and thorough treatment of wastewater in chemical parks. Second, develop standards and specifications for the pretreatment, transportation, metering, discharge, and connection of sewage from chemical enterprises within the parks. Third, establish discharge standards for centralized sewage treatment facilities in chemical parks to ensure unified standards for parks along the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the river, avoiding inconsistent treatment levels.

3. Lack of Construction Standards for Supporting Facilities for Environmental Risk Prevention and Control in Chemical Industrial Parks

Most chemical industrial parks have not yet established a sound three-level risk prevention and control system. There are no standardized requirements for the content or standards of environmental risk prevention and control facilities in enterprise production areas, within park boundaries, or in surrounding areas. The quality of risk prevention and control facilities varies greatly across parks along the river, failing to meet the requirements for unified environmental risk supervision. This makes it impossible to ensure the effective interception, full collection, and proper disposal of wastewater from environmental accidents—let alone guarantee the environmental safety of the Yangtze River.

To address the lack of standards for supporting risk prevention and control facilities, Lyu Wenyan suggested:

Introduce construction standards for the environmental risk prevention and control system of riverfront chemical industrial parks as soon as possible to enhance parks' capacity for environmental risk prevention and control. Chemical industrial parks along the river should establish a unified and sound three-level environmental risk prevention and control system. On one hand, enterprises within the parks should standardize the construction of the first-level prevention and control network, and design and build effective environmental risk prevention and control facilities (such as cofferdams, fire dikes, emergency accident pools, and rainwater-sewage switching valves) in accordance with relevant national standards and specifications. On the other hand, parks should standardize the construction of risk prevention and emergency facilities under the guidance of unified standards to ensure the effective collection of accident-related wastewater. At the same time, parks should install closable emergency gates between their main rainwater outlets and surrounding water systems to ensure effective isolation between accident-related wastewater entering the rainwater pipe network and the external environment in case of accidents.