Prevention of soil pollution is better than control.

A few days ago, a piece of news about the whereabouts of cadmium-containing wheat in a county in the north attracted wide attention. The local environmental protection department responded that some farmland was indeed polluted by cadmium, but the wheat produced had been acquired by the government and did not enter the market. The results of the investigation into the school environmental incident in a certain place in the south were also released to the public a few days ago. Obviously, whether it is agricultural land or urban construction land, people's attention to the "environment under foot" is increasing.

The historical debt of soil environment in China is much more than that of atmosphere and water body, and soil pollution is a kind of hidden but lasting pollution. Choking haze and discolored river water mean the existence of air and water pollution, and it is difficult for ordinary people to tell the polluted land from their appearance. The pollution of agricultural land indirectly harms the human body through crops, while the problem of "poisonous land" of construction land harms the living environment. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain a zero tolerance attitude towards soil pollution incidents.

The attitude should be firm and the means should be scientific. The author believes that the prevention of soil pollution is better than control, and the most urgent thing at present is to prevent and control new pollution. We should take precautions against uncontaminated soil and mobilize the whole people to participate in prevention through policies. At the same time, we should find out the situation of soil pollution in various places and take different measures to control it by category, use and stage, so as to gradually reduce stock pollution and finally ensure "safety on the tip of the tongue" and "safety under the foot".

The fact that prevention is better than governance does not mean that governance is not important. Large-scale soil remediation is a worldwide problem, and its complexity and investment are far greater than that of air and water. The more difficult it is to govern, the more important it is to prevent and control. If the source of pollution is not cut off, the control of pollution will get twice the result with half the effort. It is difficult to prevent and control soil pollution because of its weak ability of migration and dilution. Fortunately, soil is different from air and water, and people do not consume directly. Healthy soil itself is an ecosystem that can reduce and disperse the risk of pollution. Therefore, simple soil remediation is the last and last way of control.

The promulgation of the "soil Ten articles" in May this year indicates a change in the concept of soil pollution prevention and control in China, from across-the-board index control to comprehensive risk control. The prevention and control of soil pollution should classify and make rational use of land on the basis of soil protection, not to realize the remediation of soil pollution regardless of cost and science. The environmental risk of soil depends on its use and corresponds to different precise treatment methods. Comprehensive soil remediation regardless of use cannot be achieved even in developed countries.

Take the heavy metal pollution of cultivated land as an example, there are many difficulties in comprehensive restoration, some of which cost high, such as using guest soil method to repair one mu, and some take a long time, such as plants take hundreds of years to absorb heavy metals. In fact, for those with mild pollution, the planting structure can be adjusted to plant trees that do not absorb heavy metals; for those with particularly serious pollution, risk control can be implemented, such as fallow and conversion of farmland or ecological migration, and so on.

To implement the concept of "giving priority to prevention", we must first find out the soil and family background. Prior to this, China has carried out several kinds of special investigations on soil pollution and the overall survey of soil pollution in the country, and preliminarily mastered the basic situation. However, the accuracy of the investigation is limited, and the specific distribution, environmental risk and action mechanism of soil pollution are not completely clear. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the prevention mechanism of soil environmental quality and improve the soil environmental supervision system.

After figuring out the bottom figure, where does the money for governance come from? The Pavilion site in the suburbs of Beijing is a successful case. The land used to be a major chemical city. After the relocation of the chemical plant, the repair work started. A number of enterprises invested nearly 1 billion yuan in three years, repairing an area of more than 1500 mu, and then built a forest of high-rise buildings. Its success lies in the great commercial development value of the land. Although this is a case, it enlightens us that the general principle of pollution prevention and control is still applicable to soil pollution.

To prevent and control soil pollution for a long time, we need to have an overall concept, can not do without the participation of the government, enterprises and the public, and give full play to the role of both the government and the market. In terms of the subject of responsibility, the subject of "prevention" should be implemented in the public and the main body of land, and "governance" should be implemented in the repair of enterprises and the subject of responsibility. Regardless of "prevention" or "governance", the government should play a leading role and cover the historical debts that are unable to clarify the subject of responsibility.