PRC: Emergency Assistance for Wenchuan Earthquake Reconstruction Project

Environmental Monitoring Report

Semestral Report April 2012

Prepared by Yang Jianjun for Shaanxi Provincial Project Management Office and the Asian Development Bank.

This environmental monitoring report is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of ADB's Board of Directors, Management, or staff, and may be preliminary in nature.

In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area.

Jialingjiang Bridge, Lueyang County Environmental Monitoring and Evaluation Report

Shaanxi Province Post-Wenchuan Earthquake Restoration and Reconstruction Project

3 Apr 30, 2012

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. INSPECTED PROJECTS 1

3. OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 2

Good practice in environmental management ...... 2 Observations and Recommendations ...... 3 a) Chencang District ...... 3 b) Mianxian County ...... 4 c) Lueyang County ...... 5 d) Ningqiang County ...... 6

ABBREVIATIONS ADB – Asian Development Bank EA – executing agency EIA – environmental impact assessment EIAR – environmental impact assessment report EIART - environmental impact assessment report table EIRT – environmental impact registration table EMP – environmental management plan IA – implementing agency PMO – project monitoring office PRC – People’s Republic of China

Environmental Monitoring and Evaluation

Second Supervision Mission Apr 25-28, 2012

1. INTRODUCTION

The second environmental management supervision mission for the Shaanxi post-Wenchuan earthquake restoration and reconstruction project was carried out from Apr 25 - 28, 2012. The mission participants included Mr. Duan Kai, Lou Jing (officials from Shaanxi Provincial Project Management Office) and Yang Jianjun (Freelance Environment Specialist).

The purpose of the mission was to review the progress status of implementing the environmental management plan (EMP), which includes: (1) the capability of implementing EMP at county PMOs and project site PMOs; (2) identity the environmental impact of the construction and operation activities to make sure the requirements of environmental impact assessment (EIA) are properly implemented; (3) supervision and evaluation the effectiveness of the mitigation measures; and (4) review the issues raised during the first supervision mission.

During the field patrolling, the mission held meetings and discussed with staff of county level PMOs, on-site engineering supervisors, and main contractors, conducted field visits. The findings are summarized as following.

2. INSPECTED PROJECTS

The mission has visited all four project countries in two municipalities of Shaanxi province. The visited project sites included both reconstruction of damaged roads and school buildings. For each subproject, the patrol team inspected the construction sites and collected information through onsite

interviews and working meetings with staff from project management offices (PMO) at county level and onsite offices. The focuses of the inspection are: onsite environmental management plan (EMP), implementation of mitigation measures, as well as environmental issues encountered and corresponding solutions. The information of inspected sites is summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. Information of inspected subproject County Type of Key Subproject Inspected or project contacted received segment District person inspection Chencang School Mr. Luo Guozhen Junior Whole project District Buildings Yongsheng High School Changqu Junior High School Chencang Primary School Road Mr. Zeng Qianhe Bridge Whole project reconstruction Xiaoping Mianxian School Mr. Jia Kang Mianxian No.1 Whole project County Buildings High School Mianxian No.4 High School Road Mr. Zeng Hanjiang River Whole project reconstruction Lijun Bridge Lueyang School Mr. You Lueyang No.3 Whole project County Buildings Fuzhen High School

Road Mr. Chen Guozhen – Jialingjiang Bridge reconstruction Shucheng Qingbaishi Road Ningqiang Road Mr. Xu Yang – Yan Road Yang – Yan section County reconstruction Yaoxiang (Ⅲ)

3. OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

A. Good practice in environmental management

Environmental management of the project has been given a great attention throughout the project management. Each subproject has gone through EIA process and approved by the local government. During construction phase, the project implementation agencies (IAs) inspect the civil works regularly and take account site environmental management as an important aspect. For

most cases, onsite environmental management was taken care by the engineering supervision agencies. But for the environmentally sensitive project, such as Hanjiang Bridge project, a dedicated environmental supervision consultant is hired to monitor onsite environmental management throughout the project. The environmental supervision consultant works together with the IAs to help the construction contractor with implementation of environmental requirement developed in the EIA stage and reports results to the local and provincial environmental authorities on a quarterly basis.

During the site inspection, the environmental specialist noticed that some of the mitigation measures were taken by the Contractors, i.e. (1) conduct environment and safety training; (2) setup of safety board and sign, equipment of personal helmets; (3) spray water on the access roads to control dust; and (4) timely recovery the construction sites and landscaping, particularly in most of the school building projects. B. Observations and Recommendations a) Chencang District

Guozhen Junior High School has finished all the civil work. The complex building, student dormitory and cafeteria have been put into operation. All the construction debris has been removed and the school yard has been landscaped with grass and trees. The sewage and waste water from the student dormitory and cafeteria are collected and pretreated via a septic tank and oil removing device. It is suggested that an oil collecting device should be installed at the outlet of the exhaust fan of the kitchen to collect waste oil and the oil collector and oil removing device must be cleaned regularly and maintained properly.

Changqu Junior High School has finished its major civil work. At the moment, there are about 150 workers are doing the internal and external painting and

decoration. Most of the workers are from the local villages. No people stay for overnight. Therefore, domestic waste from the construction workers is not an issue. However, the environmental specialist recommends the contractor should strengthen onsite housekeeping, especially for the construction materials.

Chencang Primary school is a new development with no interference with the school activities. It is still at its foundation stage. The construction site is far from residential area but near by the city streets. It is recommended the contractor pay a great attention to the construction traffic; make sure the vehicles driven out from construction site are safe and clean.

Qianhe Bridge project is one of the environmentally sensitive projects due to its potential impact to the aquatic environment. Most of civil work (all the columns in the river course) has been finished during the dry season. It is recommended that the contractor should strengthen the onsite management and clean up the debris and construction garbage before the rain season avoiding surface water pollution.

b) Mianxian County

Mianxian No.1 Middle School project includes one teaching building (6,000 m2), one student dormitory (6,200 m2) and one library (5,200 m2). So far, the main project has finished and now is working on the cable installation. It is recommended that the front yard of the Teaching Building should be landscaped as soon as possible.

Mianxian No. 4 Middle School project has been completed and put into operation. The construction of play ground is under construction but it is

isolated with the teaching and living area. It is suggested the school regularly check the water quality, which is supplied by a deep well in the school, and clean up the septic tank and oil colleting facility to avoiding surface/groundwater pollution.

Hanjiang Bridge project is in its closing stage. The potential impact to water course is minimized because of the application of the cantilever casting technology. The project environment management plan is well implemented under the supervision of onsite environmental supervision consultant (Shaanxi Bohou Environmental Supervision) and the local government.

c) Lueyang County

Lueyang No.3 Middle School Project includes two buildings. The main structure of student dormitory including café (4,000 m2) has been finished and the teaching building project (2,000 m2) is doing ground cleanup. During construction phase, all the students were transferred to Lueyang No. 2 Middle School, therefore, construction activities has no impact on teaching program and students’ life. However, the No. 3 Middle School is located in downtown area of Lueyang County. It is recommended (1) set up warning signs around the construction site; (2) strengthen management of construction vehicles in terms of driving safety, speed limit and dust control; and (3) noise control – in principle, construction activities are not allowed during night.

Jialingjiang Bridge is a key element of the Guozhen - Qingbaishi Road Project. The bridge has been close and it is predicted the project will be completed before the wet season. It is recommended the IA and contractors should well restore the bridge construction site by (1) solidifying the slopes of the two sides to avoid further soil erosion; (2) removing the temporary setups

such as workers campus and prefabrication facilities; and (3) cleaning up the water course by removing the temporary bridges and access roads to maintain a free water flow.

d) Ningqiang County

Yang – Qing Road Project includes two parts, i.e., Yang – Yan Section and Yan – Qing Section. Roadbed of the two sections has been completed and paving has started. There are three asphalt mixing stations along the 75.1 km long road alignment. It is recommended that the implementing agency and the contractors together finish retaining walls building where it is necessary; remove the construction debris to the designed dumping site and landscape along the roadside.