Under the accurate guidance of the Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, the County Party Committee, and the County Government, the Sheyang County Environmental Protection Bureau actively implemented the "environmental protection priority" policy. Focusing on the work objectives of "maintaining first-class standards in the city and striving for excellence in the province," it highlighted key tasks, strengthened responsibilities, strictly enforced implementation, comprehensively promoted all initiatives, and achieved commendable results in all areas of work.
The construction of an ecological county has taken steady steps forward. The "Ecological County Construction Plan" was fully launched, with ten major categories of key ecological projects entering the implementation phase. The mechanisms for ecological county construction and coordination have gradually improved; the creation of environmentally beautiful towns and ecological villages has advanced to a deeper level. Towns such as Hede, Haitong, Yangma, and Huangjian have initiated the creation of national and provincial environmental beauty towns. Rural environmental comprehensive management has been vigorously promoted, with 25 natural villages listed as county-level ecological villages and two villages listed as city-level ecological villages. A leading group and coordinating office for rural environmental comprehensive management were established. The "Sheyang County Rural Environmental Comprehensive Management Plan" and the "Sheyang County Rural Environmental Comprehensive Management Implementation Plan for 2007" were issued, and inspections and guidance were conducted on the progress of various towns' (districts') comprehensive management work.
Drinking water source protection has been solidly advanced. A joint law enforcement mechanism was established across the county to conduct investigations into pollution sources within the watersheds of drinking water sources, particularly within primary and secondary protected zones. Strict environmental access thresholds were maintained at the source, with public hearings implemented for the approval of construction projects involving drinking water source protection or endangering drinking water source safety, decided by collective meetings. Increased on-site supervision frequency was applied to all discharging enterprises within the watersheds of centralized drinking water sources across the county, implementing leadership accountability and publicly announced supervision. Strengthened guidance, supervision, and inspection were conducted within the scope of urban and rural drinking water source protection areas to prevent non-point source pollution from endangering drinking water source safety, firmly cracking down on illegal discharges threatening the safety of urban and rural drinking water sources across the county. The water quality compliance rate of drinking water sources such as Sheyang River, Huangsha River, and Xinyang Port remained consistently above 98%.
Significant achievements have been made in pollution reduction. Key pollutant discharge totals across the county were incorporated into economic development indicators, fully implementing the annual pollution reduction plan and formulating the "2007 Annual Chemical Oxygen Demand and Sulfur Dioxide Reduction Work Plan." New projects in high-pollution industries were statistically accounted for, urging enterprises to formulate reduction plans; strict environmental access thresholds for construction projects were enforced, legally rejecting high-pollution projects that do not conform to national industrial and environmental policies; the full implementation of the discharge permit system was carried out, with total volume determinations for industrial enterprises requiring discharge permits for key pollution sources accounting for more than 70% of the county's total emissions, daily wastewater discharges exceeding 100 tons, or daily chemical oxygen demand discharges exceeding 30 kilograms. Enforcement inspections for pollution reduction were conducted, ensuring normal operation of the urban sewage treatment plant, accelerating sewage treatment pipeline construction. Urgent attention was given to ensure the normal operation of desulfurization facilities at Sheyang Harbor Power Generation Co., Ltd.; atmospheric environmental comprehensive management was promoted in the built-up area of the county seat, promoting unified energy cogeneration projects for centralized heating and accelerating the elimination of small coal-fired boilers; mobile vehicle exhaust control was heavily focused on, collaborating with traffic management departments to explore conducting mobile vehicle exhaust monitoring and control. In 2007, both SO2 and COD met the reduction targets set by higher authorities.
Legally administered governance has reached new heights. A "weekend classroom" was opened to organize administrative law enforcement personnel to "study laws, know laws, use laws." Departmental联动was implemented, formulating regulations regarding discretionary amounts for environmental administrative penalties and further strengthening environmental field inspections to crack down on illegal discharges. A complete review and supervision mechanism was established, with monthly specialized meetings held by the bureau meeting on administrative penalty work. Administrative law enforcement supervision was further intensified, conducting inspections and supervision on key pollution sources, general pollution sources, construction projects, environmental complaints, ecosystems, hazardous waste, electromagnetic radiation, etc., increasing inspection frequencies for heavily polluting industries like chemicals, papermaking, and dyeing, as well as projects and units endangering drinking water safety. More than 200 rectification notices were issued in 2007, ordering five companies to halt production for rectification, investigating 72 environmental violations, issuing 57 administrative penalty notices and 48 administrative penalty decisions.
Environmental complaints have steadily decreased. Early warning and screening mechanisms, leadership accountability mechanisms, joint mediation mechanisms, and responsibility assessment mechanisms were established, enhancing dynamic regulatory strength in areas prone to environmental complaint disputes. Monthly environmental complaint situation analysis meetings were held to analyze early and take action, fundamentally eliminating dispute risks. Efforts were concentrated on building three layers of "joint mechanisms": first, internal coordination among relevant departments and units such as the Environmental Supervision Brigade, Environmental Monitoring Station, Legal Publicity Department, Pollution Control Department, and Service Hall within the bureau system; second, cooperation with relevant county-level departments such as public security and safety supervision; third, collaboration with relevant towns (districts), communities, residents' committees, schools, hospitals, and other enterprises and institutions. The handling rate of environmental complaints reached 100%, revisit rate 100%, satisfaction and basic satisfaction rates over 98%.
Environmental education and "green creation" activities progressed side by side. Vigorous efforts were made to promote environmental protection "four entries" (entering enterprises, communities, hotels, and schools). A number of enterprises, communities, hotels, and schools, including Sheyang Harbor Power Generation Co., Ltd., Hongya Residential Area in Hede Town, Sheyang County Welcome Hotel, Mingda Bilingual Primary School, and Fuyu Primary School, completed the creation work for provincial and municipal environment-friendly enterprises, green communities, green hotels, green schools, and environmental education bases. Tongyang Primary School was jointly awarded the title of National "Green School" by the State Environmental Protection Administration and the Ministry of Education. Progress was made in modernizing publicity and education facilities, establishing a new Environmental Protection Publicity and Education Information Center to accelerate the modernization of environmental publicity and education equipment. Social promotion efforts were increased, organizing a series of distinctive social promotion activities in conjunction with the World Environment Day on June 5th; media promotion was intensified, creating special columns and editions in municipal and county-level media to amplify the environmental protection promotion effect, promoting government transparency; resources were integrated, and the intensity of environmental protection training was increased, holding multiple training sessions for environmental officers from towns (districts) and key discharging enterprises.
Team building has been continuously pursued. Continuous thematic educational activities and special rectification campaigns were conducted throughout the system to carefully build a clean and efficient environmental protection team capable of getting things done, managing effectively, understanding business, and having a sense of responsibility. Through effective learning and education, serving development and civilized law enforcement became prevalent throughout the system, with social satisfaction continuously rising, achieving the goals of "changing style, optimizing service, and establishing a good image" in terms of style and team building.