Xiangxi Prefecture ranks 1st in Hunan in ambient air quality

As of December 31, 2022, Jishou City of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture had seen the days with good ambient air quality account for 98.1 percent of the total days. The average concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 reached 23 micrograms per cubic meter and 34 micrograms per cubic meter respectively, and the comprehensive index of ambient air quality amounted to 2.58.

This is the fourth time that Xiangxi Prefecture has ranked 1st in the province in ambient air quality. So far, Xiangxi Prefecture has seen its ambient air quality reach the national Grade II standard for five consecutive years.

Xiangxi Prefecture tries to promote high-level protection of the ecological environment. Since the beginning of 2022, the local authorities have organized and held the special meeting on pollution prevention and control to listen to reports on the Blue-Sky Defense Battle more than 4 times, and the relevant senior officials are in charge of the monthly special deployment of the Blue-Sky Defense Battle, the weekly dispatch of the special protection period and the implementation of the tough battle work.

They also convene relevant departments and organizing communities to carry out inspections of point sources and non-point source pollution of the urban atmospheric environment. Xiangxi Prefecture tightens the responsibility of ecological environmental protection at all levels and departments, and forms a general pattern of ecological civilization construction and environmental protection.

Xiangxi Prefecture has achieved good ambient air quality with different measures. From monthly notification rankings, to the issuance of warning letters to counties and cities where ambient air quality has dropped significantly and there are major problems. Xiangxi Prefecture has conducted activities from trace-ability analysis of ambient air quality in eight counties and cities across the prefecture to the development of targeted solutions and from focusing on key factors to scientific prevention and control. In September and October 2022, Jishou City had 5 days of ozone exceeding the standard, and all counties and cities had different degrees of ozone pollution, which directly affected the annual air quality rate index. It was not common in previous years.

Thus Xiangxi Prefecture immediately organized meteorological and monitoring central stations to carry out cause analysis, and formulated a related report. Meanwhile, normalized and prominent problem investigations were carried out for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The relevant departments jointly carried out special prevention and control of dust, inspection of volatile organic compounds in gas stations and oil depots, and road inspection of diesel trucks. A series of special actions such as inspections provided guarantees for further consolidating the coordinated management system of the Blue-Sky Defense Battle.

Xiangxi Prefecture keeps an eye on pollution changes in key periods. The special protection period for atmospheric environment is from October 16 to March 15 of the following year. As a critical period for air quality improvement, it is affected by factors such as meteorological conditions that are not easy to spread, transmission from other places, and superposition of local pollutants, which are prone to pollution or even heavily polluted weather. In order to eliminate polluted weather, Xiangxi Prefecture solidly carried out joint prevention and control of air pollution during the special protection period, and endeavored to carry out daily investigation and rectification of air-related pollution sources.

In the meantime, it strengthened meteorology-environmental air quality consultations, adopted video conference system, established WeChat groups and held offline meetings. The ecological and environmental departments paid close attention to changes in ambient air quality data, and the meteorological departments reported adverse meteorological factors data in real time. Through measures such as dust prevention and control during key periods and detours of diesel vehicles, 5 days of mildly polluted weather were successfully eliminated, further increasing the rate of excellent ambient air quality.

Xiangxi Prefectures promotes refined management and improvement with high technology. In 2022, the Xiangxi Particulate Matter Component Station and the Non-Methane Total Hydrocarbon Station with an investment of over 7 million yuan were completed and put into operation, which can scientifically study and judge the causes of air pollution and objectively evaluating the response effect of polluted weather.

A total of 39 small and micro air quality monitoring stations were built throughout the prefecture, and 3 mobile source fixed remote sensing monitoring systems were set up on the main roads in the downtown area of Jishou, further improving the ambient air quality monitoring network in Xiangxi Prefecture.

In addition, Xiangxi Prefecture has given full play to the roles of websites, Weibo, WeChat and other news media, increased reports on air pollutant emission reduction, low-carbon emission reduction and low-carbon life, and created a good public opinion atmosphere for air pollution prevention and control.