Marine Environment Protection Law of the People's Republic of China

Updated : 2016-04-15

(Adopted at the 24th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National People's Congress on August 23, 1982; revised at the 13th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress on December 25, 1999 and promulgated by Order No.26 of the President of the People’s Republic of China on December 25, 1999)

Contents

Chapter I General Provisions

Chapter II Supervision and Control over the Marine Environment

Chapter III Marine Ecological Protection

Chapter IV Prevention and Control of Pollution Damage to the Marine Environment Caused by Land-based Pollutants

Chapter V Prevention and Control of Pollution Damage to the Marine Environment Caused by Coastal Construction Projects

Chapter VI Prevention and Control of Pollution Damage to the Marine Environment Caused by Marine Construction Projects

Chapter VII Prevention and Control of Pollution Damage to the Marine Environment Caused by Dumping of Wastes

Chapter VIII Prevention and Control of Pollution Damage to the Marine Environment Caused by Vessels and Their Related Operations

Chapter IX Legal Liabilities

Chapter X Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 This Law is enacted to protect and improve the marine environment, conserve marine resources, prevent pollution damages, maintain ecological balance, safeguard human health and promote sustainable economic and social development.

Article 2 This Law shall apply to the internal waters, territorial seas, contiguous zones, exclusive economic zones and continental shelves of the People's Republic of China and all other sea areas under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China.

All units and individuals engaged in navigation, exploration, exploitation, production, tourism, scientific research or other operations in the sea areas under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China, or engaged in operations in the coastal land areas which have impact on the marine environment shall comply with this Law.

This Law shall also apply to pollution to the sea areas under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China originating from areas beyond the sea areas under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China.

Article 3 The State shall establish and put into practice a system of controlling the total sea-disposal pollution discharge for the key sea areas, determine the standards for controlling the total sea-disposed main pollutants discharge and shall assign controlled pollution discharges to key pollution sources. The specific measures therefor shall be formulated by the State Council.

Article 4 All units and individuals shall have the obligation to protect the marine environment and have the right to supervise and expose the act of any unit or individual that causes pollution damage to the marine environment, as well as the act of any functionary engaged in marine environment supervision and control that constitutes a neglect of duty in violation of the law.

Article 5 The administrative department in charge of environment protection under the State Council, as the department to exercise unified supervision and control over the nation-wide environment protection work, shall guide, co-ordinate and supervise the nation-wide marine environment protection work and be responsible for preventing and controlling marine pollution damages caused by land-based pollutants and coastal construction projects.

The State oceanic administrative department shall be responsible for the supervision and control over the marine environment, organize survey, surveillance, supervision, assessment and scientific research of the marine environment and be responsible for the nation-wide environment protection work in preventing and controlling marine pollution damages caused by marine construction projects and dumping of wastes in the sea.

The State administrative department in charge of maritime affairs shall be responsible for the supervision and control over marine environment pollution caused by non-military vessels inside the port waters under its jurisdiction and non-fishery vessels and non-military vessels outside the said port waters, and be responsible for the investigation and treatment of the pollution accidents. In the event of a pollution accident caused by a foreign vessel navigating, berthing or operating in the sea under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China, inspection and treatment shall be conducted on board the vessel in question. Where the pollution accident caused by a vessel results in fishery damages, the competent fishery administrative department shall be invited to take part in the investigation and treatment.

The State fishery administrative department shall be responsible for the supervision and control over the marine environment pollution caused by non-military vessels inside the fishing port waters and that caused by fishing vessels outside the fishing port waters, be responsible for the protection of ecological environment in the fishing zones, and shall investigate and handle the fishery pollution accidents other than those specified in the preceding paragraph.

The environmental protection department of the armed forces shall be responsible for the supervision and control over the marine pollution caused by military vessels and for the investigation and handling of the pollution accidents caused by military vessels.

The functions and responsibilities of the departments empowered to conduct marine environment supervision and control under the coastal local people's governments at or above the county level shall be determined by the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the Central Government in accordance with this Law and the relevant regulations of the State Council.

Chapter II Supervision and Control over the Marine Environment

Article 6 The State oceanic administrative department shall, in conjunction with the relevant departments of the State Council and the people's governments of the coastal provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, work out a national marine functional zonation scheme and submit it to the State Council for approval.

The coastal local people's governments shall, in accordance with the national and local marine functional zonation schemes, make use of the sea areas in a scientific and rational way.

Article 7 The State shall draw up, in accordance with the marine functional zonation scheme, national marine environment protection plan and regional marine environment protection plans in key sea areas.

The relevant people's government of the coastal provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government adjacent to key sea areas and the departments empowered to conduct marine environment supervision and control may set up regional co-operation organizations for marine environment protection which shall be responsible for the implementation of regional marine environment protection plans in key sea areas as well as for the prevention and control of marine environment pollution and the marine ecological conservation work.

Article 8 Trans-regional marine environment protection problems shall be solved through consultations by the relevant coastal local people's governments or be solved through coordination by the people's government at the higher level.

Major trans-department marine environment protection work shall be coordinated by the administrative department in charge of environment protection under the State Council. The problems that fail to be settled through coordination shall be submitted to the State Council for decision.

Article 9 The State shall work out the national marine environment quality standards in accordance with the marine environment quality conditions and the economic and technological level of the country.

The people's governments of the coastal provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government may work out the local marine environment quality standards for those items not specified in the national marine environment quality standards.

The coastal local people's governments at various levels shall, in accordance with the stipulations laid down in the national and local marine environment quality standards and the coastal sea area environment quality conditions in their respective administrative areas, work out their marine environment protection targets and tasks, incorporate them into their respective government work plans and exercise control thereover in accordance with the corresponding marine environment quality standards.

Article 10 In working out the national and local water pollutant discharge standards, the national and local marine environment quality standards shall be taken as one important basis. For the key sea areas where the State has established and put into practice the system of controlling the total sea-disposed pollution discharge, the standards for controlling the total sea-disposed main pollutants discharge shall also be taken as an important basis in determining the water pollutant discharge standards.

Article 11 All units and individuals discharging directly pollutants into the sea must pay pollutant discharge fees in accordance with the State regulations.

Whoever dumps wastes in the sea must pay dumping fees in accordance with the State regulations.

Pollutant discharge fees and dumping fees levied in accordance with the provisions of this Law must be used for the prevention and control of marine environment pollution and may not be appropriated for any other purposes. Specific measures shall be formulated by the State Council.

Article 12 In case of any pollutant discharge in excess of the standards, or failure to accomplish the pollutant discharge reduction task within a limited period of time, or any fault resulting in serious marine environment pollution damage, a deadline for remedy shall be prescribed.

The deadline for remedy shall be determined in accordance with the limits of power prescribed by the State Council.

Article 13 The State shall strengthen the research and development of science and technology in the field of prevention and control of marine environment pollution damages and shall put into practice an elimination system with regard to any out-of-date production techniques and equipment that cause serious marine environment pollution damages.

Enterprises shall give priority to the introduction of clean energies and clean production technology with higher resources utilization ratio and less pollutant discharges, so as to prevent pollution to the marine environment.

Article 14 The State administrative department in charge of maritime affairs shall manage in accordance with the State environmental monitoring and supervisory norms and standards the investigation, monitoring and supervision of the nation-wide marine environment and work out specific measures of implementation, and shall organize, in conjunction with the relevant departments, nation-wide marine environment monitoring and supervision network, conduct regular assessment of marine environment quality and release regular sea cruise supervision dispatches.

Departments empowered by this Law to conduct marine environment supervision and control shall be responsible for the monitoring and supervision of the water areas under their respective jurisdiction.

Other relevant departments shall, in accordance with the division of work under the nation-wide marine environment monitoring network, be respectively responsible for the mouths of rivers that empty into the sea and the main pollutant discharge outlets.

Article 15 Relevant departments of the State Council shall provide the administrative department in charge of environment protection under the State Council with the marine environment monitoring data necessary for the compilation of national environment quality bulletins.

The administrative department in charge of environment protection shall provide relevant departments with data relating to marine environment supervision and administration.

Article 16 The State administrative department in charge of maritime affairs shall, in accordance with the environment monitoring and supervision information management system formulated by the State, be responsible for the management of the comprehensive marine information system and render services to the supervision and control over the marine environment protection.

Article 17 Any unit or individual that has caused or may possibly cause marine environment pollution because of an accident or any other contingency must immediately adopt effective measures, promptly inform all parties that are potentially endangered, report to the department empowered by this Law to conduct marine environment supervision and control and accept investigation and treatment.

Coastal local people's government at or above the county level must, whenever the offshore environment within their administration is seriously polluted, adopt effective measures to relieve or mitigate the pollution damage.

Article 18 The State shall, in accordance with the necessity to prevent marine environment pollution, draw up State contingency schemes to cope with major marine pollution accidents.

The State oceanic administrative department shall be responsible for drawing up a State contingency scheme to cope with any major oil spill accidents on the sea caused by offshore oil exploration and exploitation and report to the administrative department in charge of environment protection under the State Council for the record.

The State administrative department in charge of maritime affairs shall be responsible for drawing up a contingency scheme to cope with any nation-wide major vessel oil spill accidents on the sea and report to the administrative department in charge of environment protection under the State Council for the record.

All units in the coastal areas where marine environment pollution accidents may happen shall draw up in accordance with the State regulations contingency schemes to cope with pollution accidents and report to the local administrative departments respectively in charge of environment protection and maritime affairs for the record.

The coastal people's governments at or above county level and the relevant departments thereunder shall relieve or mitigate damages in accordance with the contingence schemes in case of any major marine pollution accidents.

Article 19 Departments empowered by this Law to conduct marine environment supervision and control may conduct joint law enforcement operations on the sea. In their monitoring cruise, whenever any marine pollution accident or act of violation of the provisions of this Law is discovered, they shall check it, conduct on-the-spot investigation, collect evidence, and if necessary, have the power to adopt effective measures to prevent the spread of pollution, and in the meantime report the case to the relevant competent department for the treatment.

Departments empowered by this Law to conduct marine environment supervision and control have the right to conduct on-the-spot inspections of the units and individuals discharging pollutants within the sphere of their jurisdiction. Those under inspection shall report the situation faithfully and provide necessary data.

Inspection departments shall keep the technical and business knowhow of the inspected secret.

Chapter III Marine Ecological Protection

Article 20 The State Council and the coastal local people's governments shall adopt effective measures to protect typical and representative marine ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reefs, coastal wetlands, islands, bays, estuaries and important fishery waters, protect sea areas where rare and dying out marine organisms are naturally and densely scattered, protect habitats of marine organisms having important economic value, and protect marine natural historic relics and natural landscapes having great scientific and cultural significance.

Efforts shall be made to renovate and restore damaged marine ecosystems having important economic and social values.

Article 21 The relevant departments of the State Council and the coastal people's governments at provincial level shall, in accordance with the need for marine ecosystem conservation, delimit and establish marine nature reserves.

The establishment of marine nature reserves at state level shall be subject to approval by the State Council.

Article 22 A marine nature reserve shall be established where one of the following situations exists:

(1)being a typical marine physiographic area as well as a representative natural ecosystem area, or an area where the natural ecosystem has been damaged to some extent, but may be recovered through efforts of conservation;

(2)being an area with higher marine biodiversity, or an area where rare and dying out marine species are naturally and densely scattered;

(3)being a sea area, seashore, island, coastal wetland, estuary, bay or the like with special conservation;

(4)being an area where marine natural remains of great scientific and cultural values are located; or

(5)any other area calling for special conservation.

Article 23 For any area having special geographic conditions, ecosystem, living or non-living resources and where the marine development and exploitation have special needs, a marine special reserve may be established, so that a special management may be ensured by adopting effective conservation measures and scientific development modes.

Article 24 The development and exploitation of the marine resources shall be rationally distributed in accordance with the marine functional zonation scheme and shall not bring about damages to marine ecological environment.

Article 25 Any introduction of marine animal or plant species shall be subjected to scientific assessment so as to avoid damages to marine ecosystems.

Article 26 In exploiting resources of an island and its surrounding sea area, strict ecological protection measures shall be adopted, and no damage shall be brought to the island topography, beach, vegetation and the ecological environment of the surrounding sea area.

Article 27 Coastal local people's governments at all levels shall, in accordance with the characteristics of the respective local natural environment, construct shore protection installations, coastal shelter belts, as well as gardens and greenlands in the coastal cities and towns, and undertake comprehensive treatment in the areas affiliated with shore erosion and saline water intrusion.

Destruction of shore protection installations, coastal shelter belts and gardens or greenlands in the coastal cities and towns in forbidden.

Article 28 The State shall encourage the development of ecological fishery, popularize multiform ecological fishery production methods and improve marine ecological conditions.

Environmental impact assessment shall be conducted while establishing a new marine culture, renovating or extending an existing marine culture.

In marine culture, breeding density shall be scientifically determined, bait and manure be rationally spread, medicines be accurately applied, and pollution to the marine environment be prevented.

Chapter IV Prevention and Control of Pollution Damage to the Marine Environment by Land-Based Pollutants

Article 29 The discharge of land-based pollutants into the sea shall strictly comply with the State or local standards and relevant stipulations.

Article 30 Any sea-disposed pollutant discharging outlet shall be sited in accordance with marine functional zonation scheme, marine dynamic conditions and relevant regulations, and shall, after scientific assessment, be submitted for examination and approval to an administrative department in charge of environment protection under a people's government at or above the level of a city divided into districts.

The administrative department in charge of environment protection must, before approving the site of a sea-disposed discharging outlet, seek the opinions of the interested oceanic department, the interested administrative departments respectively in charge of maritime affairs and fishery, as well as the interested environment protection department of the armed forces.

It is not allowed to site any new pollutant discharging outlets within marine nature reserves, important fishery waters, coastal historic sites and scenic spots, and areas which call for special protection.

In areas with conditions, pollution discharging outlets shall be built in the deep sea and offshore discharging shall be practised. The installation of land-based pollutant discharging outlets in deep offshore waters shall be determined in accordance with marine functional zonation scheme, marine dynamic conditions and seabed conditions for engineering facilities. Specific measures shall be formulated by the State Council.

Article 31 The administrative departments in charge of environment protection and the administrative departments in charge of water under the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall, in accordance with relevant laws on the prevention and control of water pollution, strengthen their control over the rivers that empty into the sea, prevent and control their pollution so as to ensure that the water quality at the river mouths be in good state.

Article 32 Units discharging land-based pollutants shall report to the interested administrative department in charge of environment protection their land-based pollutant discharging facilities and treatment facilities, the kinds, quantities and density of the discharged land-based pollutants under normal operation conditions, and shall provide relevant techniques and data related to the prevention and control of marine environment pollution.

Any major changes in the kinds, quantities and density of the discharged land-based pollutants must be reported in a timely manner.

Where land-based pollutant treatment facilities are to be dismantled or laid idle, prior consent of the interested administrative department in charge of environment protection must be obtained.

Article 33 It is prohibited to discharge into the sea such wastes as oils, acid liquids, alkaline liquids, hypertoxic waste liquids and waste water with high or medium radioactivity.

The discharge of waste water with low radioactivity into the sea shall be strictly controlled; where the discharge is necessary, the State regulations concerning radiation prevention must be strictly complied with.

The discharge of waste water containing persistent organic matters and waste water containing heavy metals shall be strictly controlled.

Article 34 Medical sewage, domestic sewage and industrial waste water carrying pathogens can only be discharged into sea areas after they have undergone necessary treatment and reached the relevant discharge standards of the State.

Article 35 The discharge of industrial waste water and domestic sewage containing organic and nutrient matters into bays, semi-closed seas and other sea areas with low self-purification capacity shall be strictly controlled.

Article 36 In discharging thermal waste water into sea areas, effective measures shall be taken to ensure the conformity of the water temperature in the adjacent fishing areas with the marine environment quality standards of the State and the avoidance of any damage to aquatic resources by thermal pollution.

Article 37 The use of chemical pesticides in coastal farmlands and forest farms must comply with the State provisions and standards governing the safe use of pesticides.

Coastal farmlands and forest farms shall use chemical fertilizers and plant growth regulators in a rational way.

Article 38 The discharging, piling up and disposal of mining tailings, waste ores, cinders, garbage and other solid wastes on shores or beaches shall be conducted in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environment Pollution Caused by Solid Wastes.

Article 39 It is prohibited to shift dangerous wastes through internal waters or territorial seas of the People's Republic of China.

Prior written consent must be obtained from the administrative department in charge of environment protection under the State Council for shifting any dangerous wastes through the other sea areas under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China.

Article 40 The people's governments of the coastal cities shall build and perfect the urban drain pipes net and construct urban sewage treatment plants or other sewage concentrated treatment facilities in a planned way and strengthen comprehensive control and management of urban sewage.

The construction of any sewage sea-disposed project must comply with the relevant regulations of the State.

Article 41 The State shall adopt necessary measures to prevent, reduce and control marine environment pollution damage arising from or through the atmosphere.

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