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The Environment
Geometric mean
Beach water quality ranking
of E coli count per 100ml of beach water during bathing season
Good
Up to 24
Cases of minor health risk per 1,000
swimmers
Undetectable
Number of beaches
in 2019
21
Fair
25 to 180
10 or less
20
Poor
181 to 610
11 to 15
0
Very Poor
More than 610
More than 15
0
Gradings of the water quality at all open public beaches are available through the EPD's website, hotline and weekly press releases.
Legislation and Environmental Protection
Ten ordinances address environmental protection: the Waste Disposal Ordinance, Water Pollution Control Ordinance, Air Pollution Control Ordinance, Noise Control Ordinance, Ozone Layer Protection Ordinance, Dumping at Sea Ordinance, Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance, Hazardous Chemicals Control Ordinance, Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance and Motor Vehicle Idling (Fixed Penalty) Ordinance.
The EPD works with the construction, catering, vehicle repair and property management sectors and other trades to promote good practices and compliance with environmental regulations. Its Compliance Assistance Centre responds to enquiries from businesses on environmental compliance, pollution prevention and environmental management. Departmental inspectors conduct site visits to enforce controls on air, noise, waste and water pollution and to deal with complaints about pollution, resulting in 781 convictions and $4.82 million in fines in 2019.
Environmental Monitoring and Auditing
Major development projects undergo environmental monitoring and auditing to validate assumptions made during the planning stage and to monitor the effectiveness of mitigation measures, so as to ensure every project meets the environmental performance promised in its environmental impact assessment. These projects are required under their environmental permits to publish the monitoring data and auditing results on dedicated websites or the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance website. In 2019, the department handled 99 monitoring and auditing programmes.
Meteorological and Geophysical Services
The Hong Kong Observatory provides meteorological, climatological, radiation monitoring, oceanographic, geophysical, time and astronomical services.
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