Several ministries have worked together to protect soil standards by implementing new conservation fees and increasing the monitoring of China’s geological environment, including groundwater:-

Water and Soil Conservation Fee Standard

15 May, 2014 – The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Finance and the People’s Bank of China issued the ‘Water and Soil Conservation Fee Standards’. The fee is intended to help prevent and control soil erosion and water loss.

The fee to be levied on Chinese businesses (both state-owned and private) will vary depending on location. In general, companies will pay up to the below amounts per square meter on land where they hold a property lease:

• Eastern regions: up to RMB 2.00
• Central regions: up to RMB 2.20
• Western regions: up to RMB 2.50

Water conservancy & hydropower projects and soil & water conservation reservoirs are exempt.

Soil extraction, sand mining (not including river beds), rock material mining and ceramics, brick, tile and kilning facilities will be charged between RMB 0.5 – 2 per cubic meter of material extracted.

For the full standard click here (Chinese only)

Geological Environment Monitoring Management Measures

20 May, 2014 – The Ministry of Land Resources issued the Geological Environment Monitoring Management Measures, which will increase geological environment monitoring activities and supervision for the following areas:

• Geological disasters;
• Underground geological environment;
• Mine geological environment; and
• Geological heritage.

The measures will be in effect from 1 July, 2014.

The measures also cover:

• Liability issues with regards to noncompliance of monitoring entity/personnel;
• Fines for projects that do not comply with monitoring requirements (no details on fine amounts); and
• Punishment for illegal disclosure, provision & use of geological environment information, which is government only data.

See the new measures here (Chinese only)