Investigation on the destruction of farmland and theft of sand and gravel at the border of Jiangsu and Shandong provinces: landfill of construction waste, sudden dumping of soil for reclamation. In the Huo family | farmland | garbage
The surface of cultivated land is mixed with construction waste, the sudden dumping of soil and rotary cultivation pretends to be reclaimed, and deep pits formed by year-round illegal mining are not repaired... Ganyu District in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province and Junan County in Linyi, Shandong Province border, and the underground area at the junction of Zhewang Town and Tuanlin Town in the two places is rich in mineral resources. The phenomenon of damaging cultivated land and illegally mining sand and stones has repeatedly occurred.
Recently, Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporters saw in the border area between these two provinces that the problem of scattered destruction of farmland and illegal land occupation and sand washing is intertwined, resulting in multiple agricultural land scars. However, the lack of timely and sufficient information exchange between the two regions, as well as the lack of a long-term linkage law enforcement mechanism, also provide opportunities for illegal mining groups to take advantage of.
On June 12th, a large pit formed by illegal mining in the northern part of Huojia Guanzhuang Village. All the pictures were taken by Li Zhihao, a journalist from Xinhua Daily Telegraph
The "decoration" style of reclamation is being questioned as a way to hide one's ears and steal the bell
During the summer harvest season, the reporter arrived at Huojia Guanzhuang Village, Zhewang Town, Ganyu District, Lianyungang City. The village is adjacent to Tuanlin Town, Junan County, Shandong Province in the north. The farmland here is heavily planted with crops such as peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans. In a wilderness, a yellow excavator is leveling the land, which looks very eye-catching.
The reporter walked forward and saw solid waste such as red bricks and plastic in the soil piled up next to it. The person in charge of on-site construction organization told reporters that the reason there is construction waste in the ground is because it used to be a cement floor for stacking sand materials.
The reporter noticed that after digging nearly half a meter deep in the middle of the plot, excavators can still see a large amount of red bricks, gravel, and even waste such as bicycle tires and toilet seats. The land officials from Junan County and Ganyu District present have different opinions on this: one side claims that this place was once a road, while the other side claims that it was once a ditch.
There are more problems than just this piece of arable land. Two to three hundred meters east of the above-mentioned plot, soybeans and poplar trees are planted on a piece of farmland. From a distance, it is not much different from ordinary agricultural land. When approached, the crops and trees are sparsely and disorderly planted, and the farmland is also mixed with red bricks and cement blocks.
Nearby villagers randomly dug three locations with pickaxes, but still could see a large amount of construction waste. On the north side of the plot, several tens of meters away, a seven or eight meter long sand washing machine is covered in rust, and the sand next to it accumulates into small hills. On the agricultural land belonging to the Shandong boundary on the west side, there are also a large amount of bricks, stones, and sand piled up.
A land official from Jiangsu province presented a satellite image to the reporter, stating that a hardened road appeared on the plot in 2018 and was restored to its original state after being demolished in 2019, with no significant changes to date. After receiving public opinion reports that this was once a sand theft site for construction waste backfilling, they dug two deep samples on site and found that they were all sandy soil, and there was no problem of burying construction waste.
On June 13th, an excavator cleared a lot of construction waste from a farmland in the north of Huojiaguanzhuang Village.
"Do we still need to dig soil for sampling? You can see with the naked eye that there is construction waste everywhere on the surface!" said a villager at the scene, who said that the land has been abandoned since it was illegally mined and backfilled. In April this year, the day after he reported this issue to officials in Zhewang Town, Ganyu District, the plot was suddenly covered with raw soil and later planted with crops by the villagers. "The soybeans grown here grow shorter than elsewhere," said the villager.
During the journalist's visit, there happened to be a similar "decoration style" reclamation. On a farm plot in the northwest corner of Huojiaguanzhuang Village Cemetery, some villagers have reported that the plot has also been illegally mined, and the washed silt has accumulated into a mountain. Recently, they have just launched a raid to clean it up. When the reporter went the night before, he saw that although the land had been filled and leveled, construction waste could still be vaguely seen. However, when the reporter went again the next morning, the land was once again covered with soil and leveled, and rotated into ditches and ridges. After digging down more than ten centimeters, the accompanying villagers still found a large amount of stones and debris.
In April of this year, the local self media "Lao Guang Media" in Lianyungang exposed through video and text the sand washing plant owners' destruction of farmland and sand mining activities that began before the New Year. The original author of the report, Chen, stated that the situation he reported was true and led the reporter to visit the site of the incident.
On June 12th, crops were planted around a mobile sand washing machine in the northeast of Huojiaguanzhuang Village.
"Small scattered" illegal mining and sand washing have existed for a long time, eroding farmland
The reporter spent several days squatting in the border area between Jiangsu and Shandong, visiting more than ten villagers in the fields and asking if there was any phenomenon of destroying farmland and stealing sand and gravel. They all believed that this was a well-known phenomenon. "Last night, someone illegally picked and crushed my peach tree," said a villager surnamed Li from Shandong who was farming, pointing to a small road across the Jiangsu border. The land had been dug up and now it has been filled in.
Behind the hidden reclamation lies the public secret of destroying farmland and illegally mining, while on both sides of the border area are multiple large pits, which blatantly exposes the madness of private mining and illegal mining here.
On the east side of the road at the entrance of Huojia Guanzhuang Village, there is a pit that is half the size of a football field, and on a section that is more than ten meters deep, the tooth marks of the excavator's rake can be vaguely seen. On the south side of the pond entrance, there is a slope that looks like a ramp for large trucks to transport soil.
According to a criminal judgment obtained by the reporter, in June 2017, without obtaining a mining permit, Huo Yifu, former Party Secretary of Huojia Guanzhuang Village, instructed and arranged for Wang, a villager who knew that he had not obtained a mining permit, to illegally mine nearly 30000 cubic meters of ore in the above-mentioned pit and pond. He then transported it to a sand washing point for washing, with some of the sand used for road construction in the village and the remaining sold for profit by Wang. Huo and Wang were sentenced to three years and two months and two years and eight months respectively for the crime of illegal mining.
On June 13th, an excavator cleared a lot of construction waste from a farmland in the north of Huojiaguanzhuang Village.
"Before me, there were people and even village officials who were stealing sand without permission. Why didn't they catch them? I was sentenced for building roads and sand for the village." Huo Yifu was indignant about his own experience. He stated that he was unaware of Wang's profit from selling ore, and he did not share the spoils. After serving his sentence and being released, he has been appealing and repeatedly reporting under his real name that multiple agricultural land in the village has been illegally mined and backfilled with construction waste. Some sand washing sites do not have land use procedures and occupy agricultural land for long-term operation.
At the junction of these two provinces, a site called Lianyungang Haotong Renewable Resources Co., Ltd. is piled up with a large amount of sand and gravel materials. The door is tightly closed, and the roar of machines cannot be heard. Recently, after being reported by villagers for purchasing, processing, and illegally mining sand and gravel, the local relevant departments found that the land use procedures were incomplete and it was considered illegal construction. It will be handed over to Zhewang Town for processing in accordance with the Urban and Rural Planning Law.
In addition, local village officials have also been exposed for illegally constructing sand and gravel factories by renting agricultural land. According to reports, Qin, the former party branch secretary of Dongwu Gong Village in Zhewang Town, rented 59 acres of agricultural land from Huojia Guanzhuang Village in 2016 to invest in the establishment of Lianyungang Tianhuifu Mining Co., Ltd. The actual land was enclosed on 169 acres for the construction of a stone processing plant with an annual production capacity of 600000 tons. The reporter learned from the Natural Resources and Planning Bureau of Ganyu District, Lianyungang City that in September 2020, the company was investigated by the land and resources department on suspicion of illegal occupation and destruction of farmland, and was transferred to the public security department for processing. In November 2021, the relevant suspect was captured and the ground buildings of Tianhefu Company were demolished.
The reporter noticed that as early as 2020, the Ganyu District Procuratorate and the Junan County Procuratorate jointly carried out special law enforcement supervision activities for illegal sand mining in the border area. "The procuratorates have all taken action, indicating that sand mining was rampant at that time, and large-scale illegal mining was rare. However, small and scattered illegal mining is still difficult to control." You Hongbao, a cadre of the Junan County Natural Resources and Planning Bureau, said that some land in the border area needs to be restored due to sand theft.
On June 12th, in a farmland at the northwest corner of the Huojia Guanzhuang Village Cemetery, villagers casually dug up a stone.
To eradicate illegal mining, both parties need to further strengthen cooperation
In recent years, efforts have been made to crack down on illegal mining in the border area between Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, and technology such as intersection cameras and drones have been used to strengthen patrols. The interviewed cadres and masses believe that solving the problem of illegal mining not only requires upgrading technical means, but also more importantly, facing up to the problem of the "separate management and one piece" law enforcement mechanism, as well as the phenomenon of grassroots cadres suspected of colluding with illegal mining groups.
The stubborn problem of border governance remains unresolved. The border between Zhewang Town and Tuanlin Town is located in the border area between the two provinces and three cities of Jiangsu and Shandong. There is a large amount of "flower planting land" in between, and some illegal mining groups take advantage of the unclear boundaries and difficult supervision of the border area to destroy farmland and illegally open sand washing plants and stone factories. However, there is no information exchange and joint law enforcement mechanism established between the two towns.
"Theft mining and sand washing usually occur in the early hours of the night, and it is difficult to detect them," said the relevant person in charge of the Junan County Self Planning Bureau. County law enforcement officers found clues of illegal mining within their jurisdiction and went forward to investigate. The criminal gang quickly transferred the equipment to the Jiangsu border, and once they crossed the border, they had no law enforcement power, watching the illegal mining personnel slip away.
The role of town and village cadres as outposts has failed. The interviewed villagers and officials believe that local village officials and township land and public security officials who are close to the frontline of the grassroots are the most likely to discover clues of illegal activities. However, some town and village officials turn a blind eye to such illegal activities, leading to the failure of the checkpoint function.
Interviewed officials and the public believe that illegal mining seriously damages arable land. They suggest that the two regions of Jiangsu and Shandong strengthen cooperation, explore the establishment of joint law enforcement mechanisms in border counties and townships, and implement rotating leadership to jointly crack down on illegal mining.
For agricultural land with obvious landfill solid waste, the local government and relevant departments should excavate and clean it up as soon as possible. For large deep pits formed by long-term illegal mining in history, ecological restoration should be carried out in a timely manner to prevent "decoration style" re cultivation and reduce abandonment. At the same time, the discipline inspection and supervision commissions and other departments in both regions should strictly investigate and deal with the phenomenon of grassroots cadres self monitoring and theft, and cut off the chain of interest transmission between them and illegal mining groups.
