Make the information public first for the remediation of contaminated soil.

The insufficient disclosure of soil pollution information in ■ makes it impossible for the public to judge whether they are harmed by soil pollution in time, and is not conducive to public participation and supervision in soil remediation and remediation of contaminated plots.

In fact, there are not many "state secrets" in ■ soil pollution information that must be kept in accordance with the law, and more are government information and public information that should be disclosed in accordance with the law.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection recently issued the measures for the Management of soil Environment in contaminated plots (draft for soliciting opinions) and the drafting Notes to solicit opinions from all sectors of the community, and the deadline for soliciting opinions is December 6, 2016. The "Management measures" is divided into seven chapters: general principles, environmental investigation and risk assessment, risk control, treatment and restoration, supervision and management, penalties and supplementary provisions, which mainly stipulates many systems, such as soil environmental investigation and risk assessment system, risk control system of contaminated land, and treatment and restoration system of contaminated land.

In recent years, with the exposure of several "poisonous land" incidents, the prevention and control of soil pollution has attracted more and more public attention. Under this macro background, the release of the measures for soil Environmental Management of contaminated plots (draft for soliciting opinions) can be regarded as a positive signal that the top-level design of soil pollution control is accelerating the layout. The draft clarifies the key issues such as soil environmental investigation and risk assessment, risk management and control of contaminated land, and clarifies the responsibilities and norms for the disposal of contaminated land, which is worth affirming and looking forward to.

Whether it is to control the risk of contaminated land, or to repair contaminated soil, first of all, it is inseparable from the full understanding of contaminated land information. The draft for soliciting opinions makes it clear that local environmental protection departments at all levels shall be responsible for environmental investigation, risk assessment, risk control or treatment and restoration activities of contaminated land, and requires the responsible persons of the land to disclose environmental investigation, risk assessment and other relevant information through portals or relevant media, or to print special materials for public inspection. This request responds to the public's right to know about the soil treatment of the contaminated land, but in applying for access to the relevant files of the contaminated land, it is stipulated that only the "stakeholders of the contaminated land" can be inquired in accordance with the law, so what exactly is the "stakeholder"? does the environmental protection public welfare organization count, and is the public media included? These issues need to be further clarified, otherwise the substantive effect of this information disclosure provision may be greatly weakened.

According to the Blue Book of Land improvement issued by the Ministry of Land and Resources in 2014, about 50 million mu of cultivated land in China has been moderately and severely polluted, the land is facing serious pollution and degradation, and the overall over-standard rate of soil is 16.1%. The state of soil environmental protection is not optimistic. These data are mainly related to the overall macro information, and there is still a big gap compared with the public awareness and understanding of soil pollution information and the efforts that can be made for the prevention and control of soil pollution. Insufficient disclosure of soil pollution information, on the one hand, makes it impossible for the public to judge whether they are hurt by soil pollution in time, on the other hand, it is not conducive to public participation and supervision of soil remediation and remediation of contaminated land. In the soil management and remediation of contaminated land, it should be more targeted, more positive and effective response to the public's right to know, will expand the scope of soil pollution information disclosure, increase publicity efforts, as a supporting basic work to do a good job.

In the past, the investigation methods and data information about soil pollution were all regarded as "state secrets" and kept secret to the public. The draft issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection now requires the responsible persons to disclose to the public relevant information such as environmental investigation and risk assessment of contaminated plots, showing that there have been major changes in the disclosure of soil pollution information-- there are actually not many "state secrets" that must be kept in accordance with the law, and more are government information and public information that should be disclosed in accordance with the law. It is true that a very small number of soil pollution information belonging to "state secrets" cannot be made public, otherwise it may harm national security and interests. If most of the soil pollution information is kept strictly confidential, the problem of soil pollution control will not be given due warning and attention, the public know little or nothing about the soil pollution situation, and lack the vigilance and initiative of self-help and risk aversion, it is likely to make the soil pollution worse and worse, leading to the situation getting out of hand, and eventually harming national security and interests. Whether there is a greater risk of disclosure or non-disclosure of soil pollution information, the answer is obvious.

The prevention and remediation of contaminated land soil is closely related to the vital interests of the people. only by improving the supervision ability of the society can we achieve efficient supervision and treatment. The disclosure of information is not terrible, on the contrary, it is more likely to cause public safety anxiety, which has been proved in the prevention and control of air pollution, and there should be no exception in the prevention and control of soil pollution.