中国公司因排污被处总计过亿罚款

BEIJING — A court in eastern China has ordered six companies to pay fines totaling about $26 million for discharging waste acid into two waterways, according to the court’s microblog account.

北京——中国东部一家法院的微博账号宣布，该法院下令对六家将废酸排进两条河流的公司处以总计逾1.6亿元的罚款。

The fine, 160 million renminbi, is the biggest of any Chinese environmental pollution case and seems to signal that officials are trying to crack down on companies that have steadily degraded much of China’s land, water and air.

这是迄今中国环境污染案件中开出的最高罚单，似乎也表明，官方正在努力打击导致中国大量土壤、水和大气逐步恶化的企业。

The court announced its verdict on Tuesday. The ruling rejected the companies’ appeal of a lower court’s verdict in a civil case brought by a public interest group, according to state news organizations.

法院于周二宣布了判决。官方新闻机构称，该法院的判决维持了下一级法院对相关企业做出的裁决。这起民事案件的诉讼是一家公益组织提起的。

Pollution has become a top concern of people in China, and some officials see those anxieties as a growing threat to the Communist Party.

污染已经成了中国人最关心的事情，部分官员认为，这些担忧对共产党构成了日益严峻的威胁。

The Higher People’s Court of Jiangsu Province said the companies had discharged 25,000 tons of acid into the two waterways, the Rutai Canal and Gumagan River, from January 2012 to February 2013. The companies are based in an industrial district of Taizhou, a city that is in a densely populated part of China. One company, Jiangsu Changlong, was ordered to pay $13.3 million. That company employs about 1,300 people and makes chemicals used in farming, including pesticides, herbicides and those that promote plant growth.

江苏省高级人民法院称，2012年1月至2013年2月期间，涉事公司向泰运河和古马干河排放了2.5万吨废酸。相关公司均位于泰州市的一个工业区内。泰州所在地区是中国的人口稠密地带。法院下令其中一家公司江苏常隆赔偿8500余万元。该公司拥有约1300名员工，生产农用化学制品，包括杀虫剂、除草剂以及其他促进植物生长的产品。

Four of the other companies fined — Jinhui, Fu’an, Shenlong and Zhenqing — also make chemicals. The sixth, Shimeikang, is a pharmaceutical company.

其他受罚企业中还有四家，即锦汇、富安、申龙、臻庆，也是化工企业。另一家施美康是制药企业。

The court said the companies must pay the fines to an environmental Protection fund within 30 days.

法院称，六家公司须在30日内将赔偿款项支付给一家环保基金。

Taizhou City Environmental Protection Association, the public interest group that brought the lawsuit, was established in February, according to an official document posted online. The chairman, Tian Jun, is also the head of Taizhou’s environmental protection bureau.

公布在网上的官方文件显示，提起诉讼的公益组织泰州市环保联合会成立于去年2月。会长田军同时也是该市环保局局长。

The document said the group had 60 members and “was formed voluntarily by local people who are enthusiastic about environmental protection, some government offices and other social organizations.”

文件称该组织有60名成员，是“各界热心于环保事业的人士、企事业单位和其他社会组织自愿结成的”。

Officials began investigating the companies after hearing complaints from local residents, according to a report by Henan Business Daily. In August, the Intermediate People’s Court, in a criminal case, sentenced 14 people whom it deemed responsible for the pollution to prison sentences ranging from two to five years. The court ordered the companies to pay fines of about $26,000 to $66,000.

《河南商报》的报道称，在接到当地居民的举报后，政府开始对这些企业进行调查。去年8月，中级人民法院在刑事诉讼中判处14名污染事件的责任人两年到五年不等的有期徒刑，并判处这些企业16万到41万元的罚款。

The Taizhou City Environmental Protection Association then filed civil lawsuits against the six companies with the same court. The court ruled against the companies and ordered them to pay $26 million. The companies appealed that verdict to the higher provincial court, which upheld the lower court’s ruling.

随后，泰州市环保联合会在同一家法院对这六家企业提起了民事诉讼。法院同样判决这些企业负有责任，判处它们1.6亿元的罚款。这些企业上诉至省高级人民法院，后者维持了原判。

Some Chinese officials who are concerned about environmental deterioration in China have been seeking ways to increase the fines that polluting companies must pay. In April, the Chinese legislature voted to revise an environmental protection law to allow for larger fines against companies and longer detentions of executives responsible for pollution. Earlier in 2014, Li Keqiang, the Chinese prime minister, had said the nation was ready to “declare war” on pollution.

一些对中国环境恶化心存忧虑的中国官员一直在寻找提高污染企业罚款额度的方法。4月，中国的立法机构投票决定修改一部环保法律，从而能够对污染企业处以更大数额的罚款，对负有污染责任的管理人员处以更长的刑期。2014年早些时候，中国总理李克强表示，中国已经准备好向污染“宣战”。

“China’s amended environmental protection law strengthened the authority for environmental public interest lawsuits,” said Alex L. Wang, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies Chinese environmental policies and regulations. “The question has always been whether anyone would be able to bring these suits and whether courts would be willing to uphold judgments against companies that are often substantial contributors to local tax bases. This decision seems to be a good result, but it’s hard to tell whether it is a sign of things to come or a one-off anomaly.”

“修订后的中国环境保护法强化了环保公益诉讼的权威，”研究中国环境政策和法规的加州大学洛杉矶分校(University of California, Los Angeles)法学教授亚历克斯·L·王(Alex L. Wang)说，“一直以来的疑问是，是否有人能够提起此类诉讼，以及法院是否愿意支持不利于作为地方税收主要来源的企业的判决。这个决定似乎是个不错的结果，但很难判断，它是代表着未来的趋势，还是仅仅是昙花一现。”

Scientific studies in China have drawn direct connections between river pollution and high rates of cancer among people living near those water sources.

中国的科学研究已经表明，河流污染与水源附近居民的癌症发病率较高存在直接关系。

In late 2013, a senior Land Ministry official said that eight million acres of China’s farmland — about the size of Maryland — had become so polluted that planting crops “should not be allowed.” In April, the Land Ministry released a report that said nearly 60 percent of areas being monitored had “very poor” or “relatively poor” underground water quality in 2013.

2013年末，国土资源部的一名高级官员说，中国约有330万公顷的耕地因过度污染而“不宜耕种”。这和马里兰州的总面积相差无几。去年4月，国土资源部发布的一份报告称，全国近六成受到监测的地下水水质为“极差”和“较差”级。