Gwangju City Designated Area

Restrictions on activities in environmental maintenance zones within four public sewage treatment areas (Gyeongan, Gwangju, Geomcheon, Sucheong) located in the water source protection area of Gwangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, will be eased. Accordingly, the Gyeongan and Gwangju sewage treatment areas will allow conversion to restaurants in 34 locations instead of 17, the Geomcheon sewage treatment area will increase from 5 to 9 locations, and the Sucheong public sewage treatment area will increase from 3 to 6 locations.

Gyeonggi-do announced on the 25th that it had selected five public sewage treatment plants in Gwangju-si (Gyeongan, Gwangju, Gwangdong, Geomcheon, Sucheong) as target sites and conducted water quality tests over six months from February 9 to August 9. Since four sites (Gyeongan, Gwangju, Geomcheon, Sucheong) met the standards, it decided to ease activity restrictions.

Water source protection areas are generally regions where restaurant establishments are prohibited, but if designated as environmental maintenance zones, up to 5% of the total number of households within the public sewage treatment area can convert their use to restaurants, limited to residents living far away.

Among these, Gyeonggi-do measured the quality of discharged water from public sewage treatment plants once a week for six months (26 times) and designated environmental maintenance zones where discharge is below 50% of the water quality standard. In these zones, up to 10% of the total households can convert their use to restaurants. In 2018, Gyeonggi-do expanded the restaurant ratio to 10% through the designation of eased restriction areas within the Jinjung public sewage treatment area in Namyangju-si and monitored the discharged water quality from the Jinjung public sewage treatment plant for five years.

As a result, it was confirmed that the impact on the water quality of Paldang Lake was minimal, with discharge below 50% of the water quality standard. Subsequently, in January of this year, a preliminary survey was conducted on the discharged water quality of public sewage treatment plants within Gyeonggi-do’s environmental maintenance zones to expand the restaurant ratio.

Song Yong-wook, head of the Gyeonggi-do Water Resources Headquarters, stated, "This easing of activity restrictions is a measure to improve the living environment of residents living in water source protection areas. We will consult with related agencies within the scope that balances deregulation and water quality preservation."

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