中國公司因排污被處總計過億罰款

BEIJING — A court in eastern China has ordered six companies to pay fines totaling about $26 million for discharging waste acid into two waterways, according to the court’s microblog account.

北京——中國東部一家法院的微博賬號宣佈，該法院下令對六家將廢酸排進兩條河流的公司處以總計逾1.6億元的罰款。

The fine, 160 million renminbi, is the biggest of any Chinese environmental pollution case and seems to signal that officials are trying to crack down on companies that have steadily degraded much of China’s land, water and air.

這是迄今中國環境污染案件中開出的最高罰單，似乎也表明，官方正在努力打擊導致中國大量土壤、水和大氣逐步惡化的企業。

The court announced its verdict on Tuesday. The ruling rejected the companies’ appeal of a lower court’s verdict in a civil case brought by a public interest group, according to state news organizations.

法院於週二宣佈了判決。官方新聞機構稱，該法院的判決維持了下一級法院對相關企業做出的裁決。這起民事案件的訴訟是一家公益組織提起的。

Pollution has become a top concern of people in China, and some officials see those anxieties as a growing threat to the Communist Party.

污染已經成了中國人最關心的事情，部分官員認爲，這些擔憂對共產黨構成了日益嚴峻的威脅。

The Higher People’s Court of Jiangsu Province said the companies had discharged 25,000 tons of acid into the two waterways, the Rutai Canal and Gumagan River, from January 2012 to February 2013. The companies are based in an industrial district of Taizhou, a city that is in a densely populated part of China. One company, Jiangsu Changlong, was ordered to pay $13.3 million. That company employs about 1,300 people and makes chemicals used in farming, including pesticides, herbicides and those that promote plant growth.

江蘇省高級人民法院稱，2012年1月至2013年2月期間，涉事公司向泰運河和古馬乾河排放了2.5萬噸廢酸。相關公司均位於泰州市的一個工業區內。泰州所在地區是中國的人口稠密地帶。法院下令其中一家公司江蘇常隆賠償8500餘萬元。該公司擁有約1300名員工，生產農用化學制品，包括殺蟲劑、除草劑以及其他促進植物生長的產品。

Four of the other companies fined — Jinhui, Fu’an, Shenlong and Zhenqing — also make chemicals. The sixth, Shimeikang, is a pharmaceutical company.

其他受罰企業中還有四家，即錦匯、富安、申龍、臻慶，也是化工企業。另一家施美康是製藥企業。

The court said the companies must pay the fines to an environmental protection fund within 30 days.

法院稱，六家公司須在30日內將賠償款項支付給一家環保基金。

Taizhou City Environmental Protection Association, the public interest group that brought the lawsuit, was established in February, according to an official document posted online. The chairman, Tian Jun, is also the head of Taizhou’s environmental protection bureau.

公佈在網上的官方文件顯示，提起訴訟的公益組織泰州市環保聯合會成立於去年2月。會長田軍同時也是該市環保局局長。

The document said the group had 60 members and “was formed voluntarily by local people who are enthusiastic about environmental protection, some government offices and other social organizations.”

文件稱該組織有60名成員，是“各界熱心於環保事業的人士、企事業單位和其他社會組織自願結成的”。

Officials began investigating the companies after hearing complaints from local residents, according to a report by Henan Business Daily. In August, the Intermediate People’s Court, in a criminal case, sentenced 14 people whom it deemed responsible for the pollution to prison sentences ranging from two to five years. The court ordered the companies to pay fines of about $26,000 to $66,000.

《河南商報》的報道稱，在接到當地居民的舉報後，政府開始對這些企業進行調查。去年8月，中級人民法院在刑事訴訟中判處14名污染事件的責任人兩年到五年不等的有期徒刑，並判處這些企業16萬到41萬元的罰款。

The Taizhou City Environmental Protection Association then filed civil lawsuits against the six companies with the same court. The court ruled against the companies and ordered them to pay $26 million. The companies appealed that verdict to the higher provincial court, which upheld the lower court’s ruling.

隨後，泰州市環保聯合會在同一家法院對這六家企業提起了民事訴訟。法院同樣判決這些企業負有責任，判處它們1.6億元的罰款。這些企業上訴至省高級人民法院，後者維持了原判。

Some Chinese officials who are concerned about environmental deterioration in China have been seeking ways to increase the fines that polluting companies must pay. In April, the Chinese legislature voted to revise an environmental protection law to allow for larger fines against companies and longer detentions of executives responsible for pollution. Earlier in 2014, Li Keqiang, the Chinese prime minister, had said the nation was ready to “declare war” on pollution.

一些對中國環境惡化心存憂慮的中國官員一直在尋找提高污染企業罰款額度的方法。4月，中國的立法機構投票決定修改一部環保法律，從而能夠對污染企業處以更大數額的罰款，對負有污染責任的管理人員處以更長的刑期。2014年早些時候，中國總理李克強表示，中國已經準備好向污染“宣戰”。

“China’s amended environmental protection law strengthened the authority for environmental public interest lawsuits,” said Alex L. Wang, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies Chinese environmental policies and regulations. “The question has always been whether anyone would be able to bring these suits and whether courts would be willing to uphold judgments against companies that are often substantial contributors to local tax bases. This decision seems to be a good result, but it’s hard to tell whether it is a sign of things to come or a one-off anomaly.”

“修訂後的中國環境保護法強化了環保公益訴訟的權威，”研究中國環境政策和法規的加州大學洛杉磯分校(University of California, Los Angeles)法學教授亞歷克斯·L·王(Alex L. Wang)說，“一直以來的疑問是，是否有人能夠提起此類訴訟，以及法院是否願意支持不利於作爲地方稅收主要來源的企業的判決。這個決定似乎是個不錯的結果，但很難判斷，它是代表着未來的趨勢，還是僅僅是曇花一現。”

Scientific studies in China have drawn direct connections between river pollution and high rates of cancer among people living near those water sources.

中國的科學研究已經表明，河流污染與水源附近居民的癌症發病率較高存在直接關係。

In late 2013, a senior Land Ministry official said that eight million acres of China’s farmland — about the size of Maryland — had become so polluted that planting crops “should not be allowed.” In April, the Land Ministry released a report that said nearly 60 percent of areas being monitored had “very poor” or “relatively poor” underground water quality in 2013.

2013年末，國土資源部的一名高級官員說，中國約有330萬公頃的耕地因過度污染而“不宜耕種”。這和馬里蘭州的總面積相差無幾。去年4月，國土資源部發布的一份報告稱，全國近六成受到監測的地下水水質爲“極差”和“較差”級。