Ministry of Environment Conducts Safety Inspections at Over 1,400 Sites Including 200 Chemical Handling Facilities

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The Ministry of Environment will conduct a safety inspection on a total of 1,412 sites, including 200 hazardous chemical handling facilities.

As part of the '2020 National Safety Inspection,' the Ministry of Environment will carry out safety inspections for one month starting from the 10th on 1,412 sites in six major environmental sectors that have a direct impact on public safety.

The inspection targets include 200 hazardous chemical handling facilities, 912 water supply facilities, 127 public sewage treatment facilities, 87 dams and water resources, 50 national parks, and 36 waste landfills.

The Ministry of Environment plans to organize and operate the 'Environmental Safety Inspection Task Force,' led by the Vice Minister and headed by team leaders at the director level, to conduct safety inspections in the six major environmental sectors.

Hazardous chemical handling facilities, dams and water resources, national parks, and waste landfills will be inspected through a public-private joint inspection approach. Water supply and sewage facilities will be self-inspected by their managing entities, while the Ministry of Environment's 'Environmental Safety Inspection Task Force' will conduct public-private joint inspections on a sample of 84 national water supply infrastructure sites and 30 sewage facilities.

This inspection will focus on private facilities where safety management is relatively weak and facilities that lack safety standards or frequently experience similar types of accidents.

For hazardous chemical handling facilities, the inspection will focus on whether installation and management standards have been followed, especially for high-risk facilities such as key management sites and transportation facilities.

Regarding national parks, although 2,174 sites were fully inspected during the '2020 Early Spring Vulnerable Facility Safety Inspection' in April, 50 major local tourist trail sites will be re-inspected intensively in preparation for summer visitors.

Additionally, water supply facilities, public sewage treatment facilities, and waste landfills, which significantly affect public life, will be carefully inspected.

The Ministry of Environment will immediately address any issues that can be corrected on-site based on the inspection results, and urgent repairs or reinforcements will be completed within three months using available internal resources. For matters requiring further diagnosis, a separate detailed safety inspection will be conducted.

Hong Jeong-gi, Vice Minister of Environment, stated, "We will focus on inspecting safety blind spots such as private facilities where safety management is relatively weak to ensure that the safety inspections are effective."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.