Circular of Chongqing Municipal Water Authority on Streamlining the Review and Approval Process and Improving the Public Service for Water and Soil Conservation Plan
All Districts and Counties (Autonomous Counties), Wansheng Economic and Technological Development Zone, Liangjiang New Area, water authorities of Chongqing Economic and Technological Development Zone, and relevant units,
In order to vigorously implement the important arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on deepening the reform of streamlining government, delegating power, and improving government services and further optimizing the business environment, improve the efficiency of review and approval of water and soil conservation plans and the service of social management of water and soil conservation, and promote the high-quality economic and social development in Chongqing Municipality, according to the requirements of Opinions on Further Deepening the Reform of Streamlining Government, Delegating Power, and Improving Government Services and Comprehensively Strengthening the Supervision of Soil and Water Conservation (MWR Document [2019]
No. 160) issued by the Ministry of Water Resources, the relevant matters are hereby notified as follows.
Ⅰ. Optimize review and approval methods.
If a production and construction project (hereinafter referred to as the project) in Chongqing Municipality is likely to cause water and soil loss, the production and construction project owner shall prepare the Report (Form) on Water and Soil Conservation Plan before the project starts and submit it to the water authorities of the people’s government at or above the county level for review and approval. Projects with an area of more than 5 hectares or a total amount of earth and stone excavation of more than 50,000 cubic meters, shall prepare the Report on Water and Soil Conservation Plan. Projects with an area of more than 0.5 hectares and less than 5 hectares or a total amount of earth and stone excavation of more than 1,000 cubic meters and less than 50,000 cubic meters, shall prepare the Report Form of Water and Soil Conservation Plan.
If the project has the actual need to set up a new waste disposal area outside the special storage area specified in the approved water and soil conservation plan, the production and construction project owner may use it by obtaining with the written consent of the water authority of the District or County where it is located, take protective measures at the same time to ensure that there is no water and soil loss, and timely apply for change of locality with the original approval department.
Ⅱ. Streamline approval items.
The following small-scale and low-risk projects shall be exempted from the review and approval procedures for water and soil conservation plan, and production and construction project owners and individuals shall implement the prevention and control of water and soil loss according to law.
1. Projects with an area of less than 0.5 hectares and a total amount of earth and stone excavation of less than 1,000 cubic meters.
2. Small-scale and low-risk construction projects with private investment -- newly built, rebuilt and expanded industrial projects or storage projects with a built-up area of no more than 10,000 square meters.
Ⅲ. Define review and approval authorities.
Water and soil conservation plans shall be reviewed and approved at different levels.
1. Municipal competent authorities are responsible for reviewing and approving the water and soil conservation plans for the following projects:
1.1 Projects assigned to Chongqing Municipality by the Ministry of Water Resources.
1.2 Projects with an area more than 20 hectares that are reviewed and approved (verified or recorded) by municipal authorities.
1.3 Projects that need to prepare the Report (Form) on Water and Soil Conservation Plan across Districts or Counties (Autonomous Counties).
2. District and County-level authorities
2.1 Projects that are reviewed and approved (verified or recorded) by District or County-level authorities.
2.2 Projects with an area less than 20 hectares that are reviewed and approved (verified or recorded) by municipal authorities.
2.3 Projects with an area less than 50 hectares and a total amount of earth and stone excavation less than 500,000 cubic meters in Wanzhou District shall be reviewed and approved by Wanzhou District.
3. Projects under the direct management of Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing Economic and Technological Development Zone and Chongqing High-Tech Zone shall be reviewed and approved the competent authorities within the jurisdictions.
Ⅳ. Carry out regional soil and water conservation evaluation.
Water authorities of Districts and Counties shall, according to the scope (50 national, municipal development zones, high-tech zones and industrial parks in the attachment) determined in the Rules for Implementation of Regional Overall Evaluation of Engineering Construction Projects in Chongqing (Trial) (CQLGOECP Document [2018] No. 6), supervise and assist management organizations of the various zones in promoting the regional water and soil conservation evaluation work in accordance with the requirements of relevant documents of the Ministry of Water Resources and Technical Essentials of the Preparation of Regional Water and Soil Conservation Plan in Chongqing (CQWA Document [2018] No. 314). For all kinds
of development zones without regional overall evaluations but with levelled ground and connections to water, electricity, road, communication and natural gas, the management organization of various zones shall prepare the regional water and soil conservation plan before the ground-levelling and connections to water, electricity, road, communication and natural gas.
After the approval of the regional water and soil conservation plan, the single construction project in the park does not need to go through the formalities for the approval of the water and soil conservation plan, but need to fill in the water and soil conservation plan registration form before the start of construction, and report to the District or County water authorities and park management organizations. Upon completion of the project, the water and soil conservation facilities shall be inspected before acceptance, and reported to the District or County water authorities and the park management organizations.
Ⅴ. Standardize the review and approval process of water and soil conservation plans.
The report of water and soil conservation plan shall be subject to technical review (in principle, the site shall be checked if the waste disposal site is involved), the results of which are technical and basic evidence for review and approval. The water authorities in all Districts and Counties shall strictly control the technical review, actively promote the practice of entrusting the technical review of water and soil conservation plans to relevant agencies through government procurement, incorporate the technical review fees into the financial
budget of the same level (which can be listed as an expenditure in the collected compensation fees for water and soil conservation), and it is prohibited to charge production and construction project owners or plan preparation units for review fees. The approval time of the report of water and soil conservation plan shall not exceed 10 working days (excluding the time of modifying the technical review and report). If the plan fails to pass the technical review, the decision of disapproval shall be issued directly. If the scheme passes the technical review, the modification time shall not exceed 10 working days.
The report form of water and soil conservation plan shall be subject to the commitment system management, instead of organizing technical review, and the review and approval shall be handled immediately on site.
Ⅵ. Streamline the recordation process of completion inspection.
For production and construction projects preparing the Report of Water and Soil Conservation Plan, the construction project owner shall submit the self-inspection materials to the competent authority for reviewing and approving the water and soil conservation plan, including the inspection appraisal of water and soil conservation facilities, the inspection report of water and soil conservation facilities and the summary report of water and soil conservation monitoring. Inspection materials of water and soil conservation, preliminary design and construction drawings of water and soil conservation facilities and their reive and approval (examination or verification) opinions, summary report and original data of water and soil
conservation supervision, summary report and original data of water and soil conservation monitoring shall be kept as retained data for future reference during the verification of inspection results. The construction project owner may invite experts of soil and water conservation to participate in the inspection meeting according to the scale, nature, complexity and other conditions of the production and construction projects.
For production and construction projects preparing the Form of Water and Soil Conservation Plan, and production and construction projects with regional soil and water conservation evaluation carried out, construction units only need to submit the self-inspection form for water and soil conservation facilities after self-inspection on construction completion.
The recordation of the inspection on water and soil conservation facilities shall be handled immediately and on-site, and made public on the portal website. The water authorities at all levels shall strengthen the supervision and management of the self-inspection on water and soil conservation facilities of production and construction projects, and organize the on-site verification. For those that do not meet the prescribed procedures or the inspection standards and conditions, they shall be asked to make rectification within a time limit. Those who do not make rectification within the time limit or fail to make fully rectification shall be subjected to administrative penalties according to law, and relevant units and personnel shall be held accountable.
Chongqing Municipal Water Authority
December 24, 2019
