12 Local Governments in Southern Gyeonggi and Chungcheong Province's Yellow Sea Region Take Joint Action on Fine Dust

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Fine dust councils in southern Gyeonggi Province centered on Pyeongtaek and local governments in Chungcheong Province's Yellow Sea region have launched a joint response to fine dust pollution.

On the 10th at the Pyeongtaek City Hall Integrated Situation Room, six local governments from the southern Gyeonggi fine dust council and six local governments from Chungcheong Province's Yellow Sea administrative council—12 municipalities in total—signed a 'Fine Dust Joint Council Accord' and pledged to respond jointly to fine dust issues.

Attending the accord ceremony were Pyeongtaek Mayor Jung Jang-sun, Icheon Mayor Eom Tae-jun, Osan Mayor Gwak Sang-wook, Yeoju Mayor Lee Hang-jin, Dangjin Mayor Kim Hong-jang, Boryeong Mayor Kim Dong-il, Seosan Mayor Maeng Jung-ho, Anseong Vice Mayor Choi Moon-hwan, and approximately 80 related officials.

The accord began with a proposal by Pyeongtaek Mayor Jung Jang-sun in February, followed by six cities in southern Gyeonggi reaching consensus in April and signing the accord in September. Today, the agreement has expanded to include Chungcheong Province, developing into a council of 12 local governments.

Today's accord was made possible because the six local governments in southern Gyeonggi and the six local governments in Chungcheong Province's Yellow Sea administrative council share common ground regarding the causes of fine dust generation. It stemmed from a shared recognition of the severity of the fine dust problem.

The signatory municipalities are geographically located at the shortest distance from China and are the areas most affected by Chinese-origin fine dust in South Korea. Large-scale air pollutant emission facilities are also heavily concentrated in these municipalities.

Of the nation's 61 coal-fired power plants, half of them—30 plants—are concentrated in Chungcheong Province's Yellow Sea region: Dangjin (10 units), Taean (10 units), Boryeong (8 units), and Seocheon (2 units). Based on single-facility standards, Hyundai Steel emitted the highest amount of air pollutants in 2018, and major industrial complexes such as Pyeongtaek Port (ranked 5th in national cargo volume), Pyeongtaek Western Thermal Power Plant, and Poseung-Bugok National Industrial Complex are also located here.

These facilities, which are major causes of fine dust, are national key infrastructure facilities. It is difficult for individual municipal governments to pursue fine dust improvements on their own. To effectively reduce fine dust, broad regional cooperation that transcends administrative boundaries is necessary.

On this day, city and county heads actively empathized with the regional fine dust problem. They reached agreement that it would be more effective to prevent and resolve resident damage from fine dust by strengthening joint response capabilities through mutual solidarity between Gyeonggi Province and Chungcheong Province, and to pursue emission reduction policies through active consultation with central government ministries and related companies.

According to the future implementation directions discussed intensively at the accord ceremony, the policy is to set up respective fields including civic communication, government recommendations, project implementation, and information sharing, and to actively respond to external fine dust issues through systematic council activities.

Through the joint council's working-level meetings, specific countermeasures will be developed. Additionally, in January next year, plans are in place to meet with the Minister of Environment to discuss emission reduction measures for fine dust issues from key government industries affecting the Seoul Metropolitan Area.