According to the requirement by the People’s Government of Hunan and “Hunan Environmental Quality Monitoring and Evaluation Methods”, the Environmental Protection Department of Hunan today released the environmental quality level of June and the first half of the year.

In June of 2016, the average proportionof good-air-quality days in all 14 cities of the province is 94.9%, while that of light-pollution days is 5.1%. The major pollutants are ozone, respirable particulate matter and fine particulate matter. Compared to last year, the proportion of good-air-quality days has declined by 3.1%. Among the six pollutants, the proportion of ozone and NO2 has respectively increased by 22.7% and 5.9%, whereas that of SO2, respirable particulate matter and fine particulate matter respectively decreased by 23.8%, 7.5% and 9.7%. In the first half of the year 2016, the average proportion of days with good air quality in 14 cities of the province is 81.6%, while that of light-pollution dyas is 3.4%. According to the assessment of cities’ air quality index, the ranking of the 14 cities by their air quality levels in the first half of the year is shown below: Chenzhou, Yongzhou, Jishou, Huaihua, Zhangjiajie, Hengyang, Yueyang, Loudi, Shaoyang, Yiyang, Changde, Changsha, Xiangtan and Zhuzhou.

In June of 2016, overall monitoring was conducted over the surface water network, with 419 sections monitored in total. The water quality of the 19 out of the 20 major river and lake sections are assessed to be over Class III. The only unqualified section is the outlet of Dongting Lake in Yueyang. In terms of the drinking water, the quality of 28 out of the 29 centralized drinking water sources has reached the standard, while the Longshan Port section in Yiyang is the only section with excessive antimony, and the Dakeshi Port Dam in Loudi is the only section with declined water quality in respect of its increasing mercury concentrations. In terms of the first half of the year 2016, the water quality of the 19 out of the 20 major river and lake sections are assessed to be over Class III.The only unqualified section is the outlet of Dongting Lake in Yueyang. The water quality of 19 sections has been stable or improved, while the Lianjiang Village in Shaoyang is the only section with degraded water quality. Among the 98 provincial sections, 94 have been stable or improved in comparison to last year. The four sections with declined water quality are Lianjiang Village and Tianjiangdu in Shaoyang, Gangzikou in Yongzhou as well as Tongxinxi Power Station across the provincial boundary.

To address the issues around declining air and water quality, Environmental Protection Department of Hunan has also proposed some suggestions to the local government.