Our Responsibilities
Regular Enforcement Activities
Achievements in 2004

Our Responsibilities

We aim to establish an effective legislative and efficient control framework in order to safeguard the health and welfare of the community from any adverse environmental effects. We will actively encourage businesses and other organisations to adopt pollution control measures. We have an emergency response system for handling environmental incidents and are prepared to respond quickly to minimise the damage to the environment.

Regular Enforcement Activities

The EPD handles environment-related licensing and permits for operators, responds to complaints, prosecutes offenders and develops partnerships with polluting industries. The latter is described in 5.4 Building Partnerships and Customer Service.

Complaints were up slightly from 2003 due to an increase in smoky vehicle complaints, which may reflect public concern about air pollution. The police work with the EPD to control smoky vehicles and can hand out $1,000 fixed penalty tickets. The police also investigated 3 228 pollution complaints in 2004, bringing the complaints total to 26 457. Pollution complaints have increased significantly since 1986 but are down from a peak in 2000, as seen in Figure 1.

Prosecutions are also down since 2000, but more companies are pleading not guilty. A Central Prosecution Unit (see Re-organisation below) deals with these cases, guided by the EPD's prosecution policy. Two defendants received suspended prison sentences in 2004.

For further information on prosecutions and complaints, see Resource Materials of Chapter 9 Environmental Compliance in Environment Hong Kong 2005.

Table 2 - Complaints Breakdown by Media Nature 2004 Air Vehicle Emissions 7 640   Other 5 671 Noise* 6 200 Waste 1 192 Water   2 407 Miscellaneous   119   Total 23 229 * Excluding complaints handled by Police (The police investigated 3 228 cases in 2004)

Table 3 - No. of Convictions in 2004 - Breakdown by Ordinance Ordinance Total APCO 191 DASO 1 NCO 112 WPCO 66 OLPO 1 WDO 114 EIAO 0 Total 485

Figure 1 - Number of Pollution Complaints

See Data

Achievements in 2004
Re-organisation
Working with Others
Performance Pledge
Other Enforcement Work
Response to Emergency Incidents

The Local Control Division changed its name to the Environmental Compliance Division in 2004 to reflect the importance of partnerships and customer service in controlling pollution. This helped to streamline operations ahead of the EPD's re-organisation in 2005. Other measures included:

The EPD prosecution team is actively involved in upholding compliance of environmental laws.

Working with Others

Other government departments: The EPD works with other government departments on a wide range of issues. In 2004 we set up a team with the Drainage Services Department, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Highways Department and Home Affairs Department to tackle sewage odour from storm water drains in Kennedy Town. We also worked with the Planning, Immigration and Customs and Excise departments to control the recycling of plastic bottles and electronic waste in the New Territories. Recycling activities increased here after the Mainland tightened control over waste shipments for recycling from early 2004.

A joint operation of the EPD and Customs and Excise Department stopped the illegal export of glass waste from cathode ray tubes.

EPD and Drainage Services Department staff jointly investigate a sewer odour problem in Kennedy Town.

Other governments: The EPD worked with other governments to control waste shipments in 2004. On electronic and plastic wastes, we worked with the Mainland and the source countries of Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and member states of the European Union. In December 2004 we attended the inaugural meeting of the Asian Network for the Prevention of Illegal Transboundary Movement of Wastes, which was initiated by Japan. We also continued to work closely with the European Union's Network for Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law.

Performance Pledge

The EPD complied with all but one of the targets in its Performance Pledge relating to the processing of applications for permit and license approval, and the response to complaints. Two asbestos abatement plans took slightly longer than 28 days to process (30 days in one instance, 33 days in the other), due to a surge in workload at the time. However, this did not affect the commencement of the asbestos abatement work. Targets and results can be seen at Table 4. Preparations were made in 2004 to enable applications, payment and permit issuing to be processed on-line, through the Environmental Protection Interactive Centre (EPIC). This service will be launched in March 2005, and the module to enable the public to obtain environmental data has already been introduced since October 2003.

The complaints handling system was fine-tuned in 2004 by improving referrals to other departments for complaints outside the EPD's jurisdiction. A survey of customers found an 85% satisfaction rate, comparable to previous surveys.

Table 4 - Our Performance in Processing Applications for Permit/Licence/Approval and in Response to Complaints in 2004
Our Service			Target for 2004	Achievement* in 2004
Air		Registration of Asbestos Works	70 calendar days	100%
		Asbestos Abatement Plan	28 calendar days	98%**
		Asbestos Management Plan	28 calendar days	100%
Waste		Registration of Chemical Waste Producer	95% in 30 calendar days	100%
		Marine Dumping Permit	90% in 18 calendar days	100%
		Clinical Waste Disposal Permit	95% in 9 calendar days	100%
		Part A Chemical Waste Notification	95% in 12 calendar days	100%
Water		Water Pollution Control Ordinance licence (Excluding licences requiring public notification)	95% in 14 working days after receipt of payment	100%
Response to Complaints		Incidents involving immediate threat to health	Immediate	100%
		Other pollution complaints	95% in 3 working days	100%
Note: * This refers to the percentage achieved against the targets, with 100% representing full compliance or exceeding the targets. ** Within 2004, two of the asbestos abatement plans were not processed within 28 days (1 was 30 days, and the other was 33 days)

Other Enforcement Work

Design and development work began on an Environmental Information Management System that will provide an integrated database for EPD officers. The system will start operating in early 2006.

In 2004, 38 external seminars were provided for 4 123 participants on environmental pollution laws and enforcement and compliance related issues.

The sewerage connection programme linked 206 village houses and 1 553 villagers in the New Territories to a proper sewerage system in 2004. Since 1995, 3 881 village houses and 28 440 villagers have been connected.

Response to Emergency Incidents

The EPD works closely with other government departments such as the Fire Services Department, Marine Department and Government Laboratory to provide a speedy response to environmental incidents. Comprehensive response plans are in place to deal with 36 different types of emergency situations on land and at sea, including oil and chemical spills. In 2004 the EPD was involved in 37 land-based incidents and 2 marine-based incidents, which were all resolved satisfactorily.