Recently, the second ecological environment protection inspection team of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Party Committee inspected Wuzhong City and found that some dairy cattle breeding enterprises dumped manure and sewage at will, causing environmental pollution.

The inspection team reported that by the end of 2023, Wuzhong City had a total of 339,000 dairy cows, accounting for about 38% of the total in the region. The pressure on manure treatment and disposal is increasing, and it is urgent to coordinate high-quality development and high-level protection. Wuzhong City has introduced a large dairy cattle manure resource utilization project, but some dairy cattle breeding enterprises still dump manure and sewage at will, causing environmental pollution.

The inspection team found that the main problems of dairy cattle breeding enterprises in Wuzhong City are:

Some breeding enterprises dump manure and sewage at will. The inspectors found that Ningxia Wuli Niuyuan Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. built dams in sections to cut off three naturally formed alluvial ditches, poured a large amount of concentrated dairy cow manure into them, and formed several manure pools. Excavators and bulldozers took soil from both sides of the gullies to cover and bury them; a large amount of manure was dumped on a grassland of about 130 mu in Sunjiatan, Litong District, Wuzhong City, forming a black and smelly water body. Many machines were used to mine sand and take soil on site without any approval procedures; the second phase of the Ningxia Aobaniu Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. project did not build a temporary storage place for manure, and a large amount of manure was directly dumped into the natural alluvial ditch outside the factory area; a large amount of manure was dumped and piled on a land of more than 200 mu in Tongfu Village, Shaogang Town, Qingtongxia City, forming a black and smelly puddle without any anti-seepage measures; in another soil pit of about 9 mu, thousands of cubic meters of manure were covered with soil.

Unauthorized cutting off of alluvial ditches creates potential hazards. The inspection found that Ningxia Wuli Niuyuan Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. completely filled in some sections of the natural alluvial ditch without verification and approval. In case of heavy rain, the flood will wash the landfill soil and manure into the Kushui River, posing the risk of river pollution and soil erosion; in addition, the filling of natural alluvial ditches will cause flood diversion and other geological disasters.

The construction of supporting environmental protection infrastructure is lagging behind. The inspection found that the sewage treatment station of Ningxia Wuli Niuyuan Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. has not been in operation for a long time, there is no dry and wet separation facility for manure, and the scale of the manure yard is more than 2,000 square meters less than the environmental impact assessment construction requirements. Ningxia Aobaniu Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. did not build wastewater treatment facilities in the second phase, and the manure was not cleared daily as required, nor was it used as a resource, and the large amount of manure produced had no place to go.

Medical waste and dead cattle were disposed of at will. The inspection found that Ningxia Wuli Niuyuan Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. and Ningxia Aobaniu Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd. randomly dumped livestock and poultry medical waste in natural alluvial ditches, and randomly discarded dead cattle in manure and manure piles, causing environmental pollution risks. The investigation found that the relevant enterprises did not build temporary storage places for dead cattle, the construction of temporary storage rooms for hazardous waste was not standardized, and there was no registration ledger for medical waste in and out of the warehouse.

At present, Wuzhong City has held a special meeting in a timely manner to arrange relevant local and departmental personnel to investigate and deal with the situation on the spot and organize rectification. The inspection team will further investigate and verify the relevant situation and carry out follow-up inspection work as required.