ENG-2017 — Page 311

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The Environment

Beach water quality ranking

Good

Geometric mean of

E coli count per 100ml of beach water during bathing season

Up to 24

Cases of minor health risk per 1,000 swimmers

Undetectable

Number of beaches

in 2017

23

Fair

25 to 180

10 or less

18

Poor

181 to 610

11 to 15

0

Very Poor

More than 610

More than 15

0

Gradings of the water quality at open beaches are available on 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.

A set of environmental quality objectives are also in place to protect public health and preserve a natural ecosystem. The cost of imposing emission caps is no higher than that needed to achieve conservation goals, which include maximising the environment's natural capacity to absorb and recycle waste.

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. It runs a Compliance Assistance Centre, where businesses may obtain updated information and advice 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 754 convictions and $5.97 million in fines in 2017.

Environmental Monitoring and Auditing

Development projects undergo an environmental monitoring and auditing process 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 results and data obtained from the process on dedicated websites or the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance site. In 2017, the EPD handled 109 monitoring and auditing programmes for major projects.

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