What should we do if the noise pollution infringement is difficult to be disturbed by sound？

　　Core reading

　　Not long ago, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced the handling of the national "12369" environmental protection report in May this year, and noise pollution reports accounted for 41.4%. The impact of noise pollution on residents’ lives should not be underestimated. At the same time, noise pollution infringement cases have the characteristics of being difficult to identify causality and quantify related losses. Don’t let the noise disturb the people, but also need many efforts.

　　A few days ago, the Intermediate People’s Court of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province announced the second-instance judgment result of a case in which a villager turned over his new house to set off firecrackers, causing the loss of rabbit breeding next door. The discharger compensated the farmers for more than 440,000 yuan.

　　A deafening burst of firecrackers made those who set off firecrackers pay large compensation, which many people did not expect. In fact, noise pollution has troubled many people’s lives — — In the streets and alleys of cities and villages, noise pollution such as car horns, construction site sounds and square dance horns is widespread.

　　In case of noise pollution prosecution, the court ordered noise reduction and rectification.

　　The rabbit farm of Zhang, a villager in Houzhu Village, Hegou Town, xinyi city, Xuzhou, is adjacent to Cai’s house. On December 1, 2017, Cai set off firecrackers to celebrate the completion of the new house, which lasted for three or four minutes. After the deafening firecrackers, Zhang found that the rabbits raised in the farm appeared one after another, such as the abortion and death of the mother rabbit and the death of the little rabbit in the cage.

　　Zhang believes that the abnormal situation of rabbits is caused by setting off firecrackers, and Cai believes that there is no evidence. After several times of communication, the two sides failed to reach an agreement, and Zhang filed a lawsuit with the xinyi city People’s Court. The certificate submitted by Zhang shows: "December 1, 2017 — On the 13 th, 1,573 female rabbits, 10,070 rabbits and 15,000 aborted rabbits died due to firecrackers. "

　　According to the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Noise Pollution, xinyi city People’s Court ruled that Cai compensated Zhang for a total loss of 440,307 yuan. After the verdict, Cai refused to accept it and appealed to the Xuzhou Intermediate People’s Court. In March this year, Xuzhou Intermediate People’s Court made a second-instance judgment, dismissed the appeal and upheld the original judgment.

　　One of the cases that have been selected into the top ten typical environmental protection cases of Jiangsu Provincial High Court is also about noise pollution.

　　"The noise on the highway is unbearable, especially at night … …” In July 2013, China Environmental Protection Federation received a report from the people in Dongbeitang Street, Xishan District, Wuxi City, reflecting that after the completion of a nearby expressway expansion project, five natural villages were polluted by traffic noise, which seriously affected the lives of some residents. Although the highway construction companies have installed sound barriers in some areas, the size and standards of sound barriers are different, and the environmental noise of some residents’ homes at night still exceeds the national standards.

　　After receiving reports from the masses, China Environmental Protection Federation filed a civil public interest lawsuit against noise pollution in Wuxi Intermediate People’s Court in March 2014, requesting that the expressway company immediately take active and comprehensive measures to control environmental noise pollution and eliminate the harm of environmental noise pollution in the villages involved.

　　In order to obtain monitoring data such as environmental noise pollution, the court entrusted the local environmental monitoring station to make a monitoring report, reflecting that the environmental noise of the five natural villages involved basically reached the standard during the day and generally exceeded the standard at night.

　　"Both sides have the willingness to mediate, and considering the reality that the expressway can’t be shut down, the court will consult relevant experts with the expressway company, propose a mediation plan for noise reduction and rectification, and reach a mediation agreement after mutual consent." Zhou Ke, the presiding judge of the case and the environmental court of Wuxi Intermediate People’s Court, introduced that the main contents include adding, heightening, extending the sound barrier, replacing the material of the sound barrier, etc. After the rectification is completed, the court entrusted noise monitoring to ensure compliance with relevant standards and not affecting residents’ lives.

　　Causality determination and loss quantification are the difficulties in noise pollution infringement cases.

　　"Noise is divided into four categories: social noise, traffic noise, enterprise noise and construction noise." Li Zongke, head of the Environmental Monitoring Corps of Nanjing Environmental Protection Bureau, said that although noise pollution is intangible, its physical and mental impact is objective.

　　Chen Ying, vice president of the Environmental Court of Jiangsu Higher People’s Court, told reporters that noise pollution has the characteristics of occasional and frequent interweaving. The identification of causality and the quantification of losses are difficult points in noise pollution infringement cases.

　　"The damage caused by noise pollution varies from person to person. The same level of noise will do relatively more harm to people with poor physique and neurasthenia; But for others, it may have little effect. It is usually difficult for the plaintiff to prove that noise may cause damage. " Chen Ying introduced that the amount of civil compensation is determined by the amount of damage, but it is also difficult to quantify the loss, which often needs to be proved by various ways and channels.

　　"Noise pollution infringement cases have their own particularity and complexity." According to Zhou Ke, noise pollution is irreversible, and once it happens, it cannot be reversed. The physical and mental health of residents who have been in a high-noise environment for a long time is bound to be affected. Therefore, for noise pollution cases, more emphasis is not on compensation for environmental pollution damage, but on taking noise reduction measures to prevent noise pollution from happening again.

　　In case of noise pollution, you can complain or sue.

　　In the case of Wuxi expressway noise disturbing people, the controversy hidden behind the case lies in what environmental noise standard should be applied to this kind of residential area.

　　Zhou Ke told the reporter that according to the 2008 Standard for Sound Environment Quality, Class I standards should be applied to sensitive areas of sound environment such as rural residential areas, while Class IV standards should be applied around traffic trunk lines such as railways and expressways. Judging from the judicial practice, there is usually a village before the expressway. According to the general logic and the principle of fairness, nearby villagers should not harm their own interests because of the public interests of the expressway, and the original Class 1 standard should not be reduced to Class 4 standard because of the expressway construction unless it is fully and reasonably compensated. However, the environmental noise standards recommended and approved by relevant departments are basically the most relaxed four standards, that is, 50 meters outside the red line of highway land is taken as the noise protection distance. This widespread phenomenon may lead to the judicial decision on the application of standards, which needs to be solved by top-level planning.

　　The reporter learned that less than 1% of noise pollution infringement cases were solved through litigation, and most of them were non-litigation channels. Chen Ying introduced that common square dances, neighborhood singing, site construction, etc., citizens often choose to make complaints and solve them through administrative law enforcement. Noise pollution caused by the operation of public facilities, such as highway noise, elevator motor noise, high-voltage line frequency conversion noise, etc., is public and persistent, and it is difficult to solve through administrative law enforcement channels, so it is more appropriate to choose litigation.

　　Li Zongke told reporters that noise pollution accounts for the majority of the complaints received by the environmental monitoring corps every year, with more than 20,000 complaints about construction noise. In recent years, noise reduction has been carried out in the local area by setting up noise barriers on the construction site and approving and controlling the source. As of May 13th this year, a total of 8020 related complaints were received, down 12.9% year-on-year. (Our reporter Yao Xueqing)