In order to standardize and strengthen the management of soil and water conservation programs for production and construction projects, prevent and control soil erosion that may be caused by production and construction projects, the Ministry of Water Resources recently revised and issued the "Management Measures for soil and water conservation Programs for production and Construction Projects" (Ministry of Water Resources Order No. 53, hereinafter referred to as the "Measures"), which will be implemented from March 1, 2023. The relevant responsible comrades of the Department of Soil and Water Conservation of the Ministry of Water Resources read the Measures.

1. What is the background of the revision of the Measures?

The soil and water conservation scheme of production and construction projects is an important system for effective prevention and control of man-made soil and water loss stipulated by the soil and water conservation law. In order to strengthen the management of compilation, declaration and examination and approval of soil and water conservation programs, the Ministry of Water Resources issued the Provisions on the Administration of Compilation, Examination and Approval of Soil and Water Conservation Programs for Development and Construction Projects in 1995 (Decree No. 5 of the Ministry of Water Resources, hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), stipulating the procedures and requirements for compilation, examination and approval of soil and water conservation programs. It plays an important role in standardizing and strengthening the management of soil and water conservation program of production and construction projects and preventing and controlling man-made soil and water loss.

Since the implementation of the "Regulations" more than 20 years, the situation and conditions of soil and water conservation management of production and construction projects have changed greatly, and it is necessary to make a comprehensive revision. It mainly includes: first, the need to implement the newly issued laws and regulations. The Law on Soil and Water Conservation, the Law on Administrative Licenses, and the Law on Administrative Penalties were revised and implemented in 2011, 2019, and 2021 respectively, making new adjustments to the scope of licensing, licensing conditions, licensing procedures, in-process and post-event supervision, and administrative penalties. Therefore, it is necessary to revise the Provisions in accordance with the new provisions of the Soil and Water Conservation Law and the Administrative Permit Law. The second is the need for system integration of existing effective management measures. In recent years, in order to implement the spirit of The State Council's reform of "discharge management service", in accordance with the principle of urgent use first and according to management needs, the Ministry of Water Resources has formulated a series of regulatory documents for soil and water conservation of production and construction projects on the basis of summarizing local practical experience, which has achieved good results in practice and is necessary to be upgraded to legal norms. Third, the need to solve new problems in soil and water conservation supervision. For many years, the implementation of the soil and water conservation program system has encountered new problems, such as unclear soil and water loss prevention requirements during the project operation period, and the lack of validity provisions of the administrative permit for the approval of soil and water conservation program.

Second, what are the main ideas for revising the Measures?

The main idea of the revision is to implement the requirements of the soil and Water Conservation Law, focus on the compilation, reporting and approval of soil and water conservation programs, and cover all aspects of the supervision, inspection and facility acceptance of soil and water conservation programs, systematically integrate the current effective systems and requirements, fully absorb the experience of relevant departments and local governments, and systematically standardize the whole process of the management of soil and water conservation programs for production and construction projects. Promote the establishment of a whole-chain and whole-process supervision system. The Measures are divided into 7 chapters, including general provisions, compilation and approval, program implementation, facility acceptance, supervision and inspection, penalties, and supplementary provisions, with a total of 34 articles.

The first chapter defines the purpose and basis of formulating the Measures, the scope of application, the responsibilities of management and the responsibilities of production and construction units.

The second chapter defines the scope, classification, content, time period, hierarchical examination and approval, requirements for application materials, acceptance time limit, examination and approval method and time limit, technical review, examination and approval conditions, program changes and program validity period of the soil and water conservation program.

Chapter III implementation of the plan, it is clear that the production and construction units shall carry out soil and water conservation design and construction simultaneously according to the approved water and water conservation plan, and carry out soil and water conservation monitoring and supervision during the construction of the project.

The fourth chapter is facility acceptance, which defines the acceptance period, acceptance subject, acceptance standard, acceptance report and soil and water conservation management requirements during production and operation.

The fifth chapter of supervision and inspection defines the approval and supervision of soil and water conservation program, the supervision during and after the implementation of the program, credit supervision and correction responsibility.

The sixth chapter of the penalty provisions, clear the water administrative departments in the performance of duties abuse of power, dereliction of duty, favoritism and other acts of punishment provisions and production and construction units in violation of the Measures of administrative punishment provisions.

The seventh chapter of the supplementary provisions, clarify the requirements of other departments to perform the responsibility of soil and water conservation program approval, the development of soil and water conservation management measures, the development of implementation rules of provincial water administrative departments, implementation dates, etc.

3. What are the main contents of the Measures revised?

Compared with the "Provisions", the "Measures" mainly revised the following aspects.

The first is the content of the revision according to the relevant provisions of the upper law. In accordance with the relevant requirements of the Soil and Water Conservation Law, the scope of compilation and reporting of soil and water conservation plans for production and construction projects has been adjusted (Article 5), the responsibilities of production and construction units have been clarified (Article 4), the provisions for changes in soil and water conservation plans have been detailed (Article 16 and 17), and the requirements for carrying out soil and water conservation monitoring (Article 20) and supervision and inspection (Article 26) have been strengthened. The legal liability for "construction before approval", "investment before inspection", "abandonment before approval" and "failure to control soil erosion" has been invoked (Article 30).

The second is the content of system integration according to the current policy. Provisions on classification of soil and water conservation schemes (Article 7), examination and approval methods and time limits (Article 13), technical review (Article 14), examination and approval conditions (Article 15), acceptance criteria for soil and water conservation facilities (Article 23), as well as simultaneous design, construction and operation (Article 19 and 22), credit supervision (Article 27), etc. Follow the provisions of documents such as the Opinions of the Ministry of Water Resources on Further Deepening the Reform of "Discharge Management Service" and Comprehensively Strengthening the Supervision of Soil and Water Conservation (Water Conservation [2019] No. 160).

The third is to revise the content according to the actual work needs. In view of the new problems in the current management of soil and water conservation program, the corresponding policy provisions are put forward, mainly including the scope of application of soil and water conservation program (Article 5), the authority of approval (Article 10), the validity period of administrative license decision (Article 18), and the operation period management of production projects (Article 24).

What are the specific provisions on the compilation and reporting of soil and water conservation programs?

First, from the perspective of the scope of compilation and reporting, in accordance with the provisions of Article 25 of the Water and Soil Conservation Law, the Measures clearly stipulate that production and construction projects that may cause water and soil erosion shall be launched in mountainous areas, hilly areas, sandstorms and other areas that are prone to water and soil erosion as determined in the water and soil conservation plans approved by the people's governments at or above the county level or the departments authorized by them. Production and construction units shall compile and report plans for water and soil conservation. Second, from the perspective of the compilation object, the "Measures" further clarified the meaning of "production and construction projects that may cause soil erosion", that is, projects that carry out surface disturbance, earth and rock excavation and filling in the process of production and construction, and need to handle approval, approval and filing procedures according to law. Third, from the perspective of compilation and reporting, the "Measures" stipulate that production and construction units shall complete the compilation and reporting of soil and water conservation plans and obtain approval procedures before the construction of production and construction projects. At the same time, it is clear that after the approval of the soil and water conservation plan, there is one of the five types of changes or the identified slag dump changes, the soil and water conservation plan shall be supplemented or modified. One point that needs to be reminded is that for the newly established slag abandonment site or the increase in the amount of slag abandonment resulting in the improvement of the grade of slag abandonment site, the production and construction unit should carry out the demonstration of slag reduction and resource utilization, and prepare a supplementary report on soil and water conservation plan before slag abandonment, and submit it to the original examination and approval department for approval. In addition, the "Measures" added a 3-year validity period for the administrative license on soil and water conservation program, making it clear that the soil and water conservation program has been approved for 3 years from the date of approval, and the production and construction project party starts construction, its soil and water conservation program should be submitted to the original approval department for re-examination.

5. What are the specific criteria for classifying soil and water conservation programs?

The Measures make it clear that the preparation of soil and water conservation plans for production and construction projects is divided into two categories: reports and report forms, that is, production and construction projects with a land area of more than 5 hectares or a total amount of 50,000 cubic meters of excavated and filled earth and rock shall prepare reports on soil and water conservation plans; For production and construction projects whose land area is more than 0.5 hectares and less than 5 hectares, or whose total amount of excavated and filled earth and rock is more than 1,000 cubic meters and less than 50,000 cubic meters, a report form of water and soil conservation plan shall be prepared; Production and construction projects whose land area is less than 0.5 hectares and the total amount of excavated and filled earth and rock is less than 1,000 cubic meters do not need to draw up soil and water conservation plans, but the prevention and control of soil erosion shall be done well in accordance with the relevant technical standards for soil and water conservation.

6. How is the authority for approval of soil and water conservation programs stipulated?

In line with the principle of easy implementation and convenient counterpart, it is clear that the approval and implementation of soil and water conservation plans (including reports and report forms) shall be approved by the water administrative departments at the same level of the production and construction project departments. For cross-administrative production and construction projects, the water and soil conservation plans shall be examined and approved by the department of water administration of the people's government at the next higher level. It is worth noting that according to the approval regulations at the same level, the approval authority of soil and water conservation programs of some projects will change, and the water administrative departments at all levels should do a good job in accepting and checking, and carry out relevant work in strict accordance with the approval authority.

What are the regulations on supervision and inspection of soil and water conservation?

In accordance with the provisions of Article 29 of the Soil and Water Conservation Law, the Measures specify that water conservancy departments at all levels should make full use of satellite remote sensing, drones, big data, "Internet + supervision" and other means to supervise and inspect the implementation of soil and water conservation programs, soil and water conservation monitoring, soil and water conservation supervision, and soil and water conservation facilities acceptance, and deal with problems found according to law and regulations. At the same time, the Measures are particularly clear that water conservancy departments at all levels found in the supervision and inspection of production and construction projects of soil and water conservation facilities independent acceptance of fraud or do not meet the acceptance standards and conditions and pass the acceptance, deemed as soil and water conservation facilities unqualified acceptance.

8. What are the considerations in promoting the implementation of the Measures?

First, timely deployment. To guide local governments to earnestly implement the Measures in accordance with the Opinions on Strengthening Soil and Water Conservation in the New Era issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and The General Office of the State Council, as well as the requirements of the Yellow River Protection Law and the Black Land Protection Law. We will revise the implementation standards for the examination and approval of water and soil conservation programs for production and construction projects, and the guidelines for the examination and approval of water and soil conservation programs, fully implement the provisions of the Measures on the examination and approval conditions and methods of water and soil conservation programs, and promote the standardization, standardization and facilitation of administrative permits.

Second, strengthen publicity and interpretation. Through the Ministry of Water Resources website, soil and Water conservation ecological construction network and other media, a comprehensive introduction to the revision background, revision ideas and main content of the "Measures", and in-depth interpretation, strengthen the public concept of soil and water conservation. The revised Measures will be interpreted in detail at relevant meetings and training courses for local soil and water conservation supervision personnel, so as to deepen the understanding of the policy by grass-roots water administration departments, and do a good job in the approval and supervision of soil and water conservation programs for production and construction projects. At the same time, through the government service platform, public consultation and other means, in a timely manner to solve the production and construction units and grassroots in the implementation of the "Measures" encountered practical problems.

Third, we will do a good job in supervision and assessment. Strengthen the management of local provisions for the record, and guide the provincial water administrative departments to formulate specific provisions in strict accordance with the spirit of the Measures. In combination with the regular supervision of soil and water conservation, the implementation of the Measures is inspected and guided, and included in the annual assessment of the implementation of the national soil and water conservation plan by the provincial people's governments.

Related links: Measures for the Management of Soil and Water Conservation Programs for Production and Construction Projects