To curb soil and groundwater pollution, encourage enterprises to treat waste materials voluntarily, and strengthen reimbursement incentives, the EPA revised and promulgated the Regulations Governing Collection of Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Fees (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations).

The EPA stated that to encourage enterprises to properly treat or recycle industrial wastes voluntarily instead of being subject to relevant government controls, Article 9-1 was added to the Regulations specifying that when a payer of soil and groundwater pollution remediation fee (hereinafter referred to as the remediation fee) produces waste that a remediation fee applies to, if the waste is transported to other facilities (plants) belonging to the same legal entity to be treated or recycled, the payer may submit an application subject to the approval of the EPA to be reimbursed with 50% of the remediation fee as an incentive measure to reinforce the sense of responsibility of the waste production sources and to reduce the risk of waste dumping.

In addition, to strengthen the incentive measures for fee reimbursement, the EPA has also kept pace with the times to encourage payers to establish soil and groundwater pollution prevention and control equipment or projects with specifications superior to those set by current environmental protection regulations and amended the provisions of Table 3 of Article 10 of the Regulations eliminating reimbursements for pollution prevention and control equipment or projects that must be established in accordance with existing environmental regulations to be in line with current practices.

The EPA reminded that payers regulated under the Regulations might apply to the EPA starting from the amendment's promulgation date, under the application method specified by the EPA, and with the certificate of eligibility attached. And in consideration of the right of the payers who had applied for project reimbursement, the amendment to Table 3 of Article 10 will come into effect on 1 January 2023 to provide payers with sufficient time to respond.

Excerpt from Major Environmental Policies, December 2021