Interpretation of Hebei Province's Standard for Rural Domestic Sewage Discharge

　　To implement the requirements of the "Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China", the "Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China", and the "Hebei Province Three-Year Action Plan for Rural Human Settlements Environment Improvement (2018-2020)", the Provincial Ecology and Environment Department and the Provincial Market Supervision Administration jointly revised the Hebei Provincial "Discharge Standard for Rural Domestic Sewage". This provides technical support for strengthening rural domestic sewage treatment, promoting rural human settlements environment improvement, and effectively reducing the discharge of water pollutants, providing new guarantees for continuously improving water environmental quality.

　　I. Background of Standard Revision

　　Our province formulated the "Discharge Standard for Rural Domestic Sewage" (DB13/2171-2015) in 2015. Since its implementation, the standard has played an important role in promoting rural domestic sewage treatment throughout the province. In recent years, the national and provincial governments have issued a series of documents putting forward new requirements for rural domestic sewage treatment. To promote rural domestic sewage treatment, accelerate the improvement of shortcomings in the rural human settlement environment, and improve water environmental quality, our province has revised the "Discharge Standard for Rural Domestic Sewage" (DB13/2171-2015).

　　II. Revision Principles

　　First, adhere to goal orientation and pragmatism. Taking the improvement of rural human settlement environment and water ecological environment quality as the core, basing on the actual situation of our province, adopting appropriate measures, and focusing on effectiveness; linking national and provincial policies, benchmarking against standards of surrounding provinces and cities, matching the actual supervision capabilities of county-level ecological environment authorities; raising the political position, clarifying the target positioning, and maintaining the water environmental quality of special areas; conducting extensive investigations, in-depth analysis and demonstration, and scientifically and reasonably revising this standard.

　　Second, adhere to precision treatment and classified control. Firmly establishing the concept of green development, prioritizing the selection of technologies, methods, or approaches for nitrogen and phosphorus resource utilization and tailwater utilization in rural sewage, realizing the organic integration of rural domestic sewage treatment with ecological agricultural development and rural ecological civilization construction; differentiated and classified control and a combination of leniency and strictness according to the different characteristics of the water environment, village drainage destinations, and sewage treatment facility scales in various places.

　　Third, adhere to multi-party participation and extensive gathering of opinions. During the standard revision process, various channels were used to solicit opinions and suggestions from all parties through holding symposiums, seminars, and sending letters to solicit opinions, and it was publicly released on the website of the Hebei Provincial Ecology and Environment Department, widely soliciting opinions from the public. The feedback was carefully studied and adopted.

　　Fourth, adhere to phased implementation and orderly progress. In order to effectively and orderly promote the implementation of the standard, different implementation times are stipulated for new (renovated and expanded) and existing rural domestic sewage treatment facilities, and a reasonable transformation period is reserved.

　　III. Main Revision Content

　　First, the scope of application of the standard has been modified; the standard applies to rural domestic sewage treatment facilities with a capacity of 5 m³/d (inclusive) to 500 m³/d (exclusive); second, the classification of rural economic levels has been deleted; third, the grading of standards for discharge into surface water bodies and the maximum allowable discharge concentration of some control items have been modified, divided into first-level, second-level, and third-level standards according to the scale of rural domestic sewage treatment facilities and the receiving water body function; fourth, the discharge limits for special areas have been proposed, and the implementation standards for comprehensive sewage utilization have been clarified.

　　IV. Main Content of the Standard

　　(A) Framework Structure. The content of this standard includes: preface, scope, normative references, terms and definitions, control requirements, monitoring, and implementation and supervision, a total of seven parts, of which the control requirements are the main body of the standard.

　　(B) Scope of Application. 1. The standard applies to rural domestic sewage treatment facilities with a capacity of 5 m³/d (inclusive) to 500 m³/d (exclusive). For sewage treatment facilities with a capacity of 500 m³/d (inclusive) or more, if there is a water pollutant discharge standard for the basin, the corresponding basin discharge standard shall be implemented; if there is no basin discharge standard, the "Discharge Standard for Pollutants from Urban Sewage Treatment Plants" (GB 18918) shall be implemented. 2. "Rural domestic sewage" refers to "sewage generated from the daily living activities of rural residents, mainly including toilet flushing, washing, bathing, kitchen drainage, drainage from public facilities and homestays in rural areas, and drainage from rural catering industries after grease removal". Rural domestic sewage does not include industrial wastewater, livestock and poultry farming wastewater, medical institution wastewater, and other non-domestic sewage. Therefore, rural sewage treatment facilities mixed with non-domestic sewage are not applicable to this standard.

　　(C) Control Items. Considering the actual needs of rural domestic sewage treatment and the current monitoring capabilities, the standard control items are 8 items, namely pH value, chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids (SS), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), total nitrogen (in terms of N), total phosphorus (in terms of P), animal and vegetable oils, and fecal coliform. Among them, animal and vegetable oils are selective control indicators, and only apply to rural domestic sewage treatment facilities containing catering service industry drainage.

　　(D) Control Requirements. The standard control requirements are divided into three parts: "Classification Requirements", "Special Requirements", and "Other Requirements".

　　"Classification Requirements": According to the direction of tailwater discharge, it is divided into three parts: discharge into urban sewers, discharge into surface water bodies, and comprehensive sewage utilization.

　　1. For rural areas distributed in the suburbs where domestic sewage can be incorporated into the urban sewage pipeline network, rural domestic sewage should be incorporated into urban sewage treatment plants for centralized treatment. The maximum allowable discharge concentration of control items shall be implemented in accordance with the "Water Quality Standard for Sewage Discharge into Urban Sewers" (GB/T 31962).

　　2. For discharge into surface water bodies, according to the scale of rural domestic sewage treatment facilities and the functional zoning of receiving water bodies, the discharge standards are divided into first-level standards, second-level standards, and third-level standards. Combining the construction status of rural domestic sewage treatment facilities in our province, the scale of sewage treatment facilities is divided into two levels: "greater than or equal to 100 m³/d" and "less than 100 m³/d"; according to the functional zoning and sensitivity of surface water bodies, it is divided into "lakes, reservoirs, and other enclosed and semi-enclosed water bodies", "GB 3838 Class III water bodies (excluding designated protection areas and swimming areas) or GB 3097 Class II sea areas", and "GB 3838 Class IV and V water bodies or GB 3097 Class III and IV sea areas, and ditches, ponds, etc., water bodies without clear functional zoning" for control. Specifically: 1. Discharge into lakes, reservoirs, and other enclosed and semi-enclosed water bodies shall implement the first-level standard. 2. Discharge into GB 3838 Class III water bodies (excluding designated protection areas and swimming areas) or GB 3097 Class II sea areas, when the facility scale is greater than or equal to 100 m³/d, the first-level standard shall be implemented, and when the facility scale is less than 100 m³/d, the second-level standard shall be implemented. 3. Discharge into GB 3838 Class IV and V water bodies or GB 3097 Class III and IV sea areas, and discharge into ditches, ponds, and other water bodies without clear functional zoning, when the facility scale is greater than or equal to 100 m³/d, the second-level standard shall be implemented, and when the facility scale is less than 100 m³/d, the third-level standard shall be implemented.

　　3. For comprehensive sewage utilization, priority should be given to technologies, methods, or approaches for nitrogen and phosphorus resource utilization and tailwater utilization. Tailwater utilization should meet national or local standards. The standard lists the implementation standards for rural domestic sewage treatment used for farmland irrigation, greening, and landscape environment, that is, those used for farmland irrigation shall comply with the provisions of the "Water Quality Standard for Farmland Irrigation" (GB 5084), those used for greening shall comply with the "Water Quality Standard for Urban Sewage Reuse: Urban Miscellaneous Water" (GB/T 18920), and those used for landscape environment shall comply with the "Water Quality Standard for Urban Sewage Reuse: Landscape Environment Water" (GB/T 18921).

　　“Special Requirements”: Water environment targets vary greatly across the province. Areas with special needs may propose stricter emission limits based on their water ecological environment protection targets. Considering the special needs of Baiyangdian Lake, the standard specifies emission limits for two categories: direct discharge into the lake and direct discharge into major rivers flowing into the lake. The major rivers flowing into the lake refer to Zulong River, Xiaoyi River, Tang River, Fu River, Cao River, Pu River, Ping River, and Baigou Diversion Canal.

　　“Other Requirements”: Corresponding provisions are made for sewage from rural health centers and sludge generated by sewage treatment facilities.

　　(5) Implementation Time. The new (modified, expanded) rural domestic sewage treatment facilities shall be implemented from the date of implementation of the standard. For existing rural domestic sewage treatment facilities, about one year is reserved for upgrading and transformation, and it shall be implemented from January 1, 2022.

　　V. Connection between New and Old Standards

　　This standard replaces the "Discharge Standard for Rural Domestic Sewage" (DB13/2171-2015). After the implementation of this standard, the new standard shall be implemented.