Chapter 366: Sedimentation Tank No. 3

At exactly 2:00 p.m., the gavel fell. The associate professor set his stack of papers on the table, tapping the edges twice against the surface to square them.

The court clerk read out his name, unit, and title: an associate professor from the environmental school of a provincial university, appearing as the expert assistant requested by the defendant. He stood, gave a brief nod, and said, "I've prepared four points. Ten minutes."

Judge Luo said, "Stick to what's on your paper. When you're finished, you'll take questions."

He turned over the first page.

"Ratios like this are called fingerprints in the literature, but that term needs a discount. It's about whether a number falls within a certain range—not the ridges on a fingertip. In this case, nine points were sampled, with two control sites: one on the far side of the hill, one upstream. To identify a single source, beyond these points you'd need a batch of background samples from the same region but different sources. This case has none. Different factories, different mines—their ratio ranges sometimes sit side by side, sometimes overlap. When they're adjacent, one ratio alone can't separate them."

"The remediation plan is calculated by area and by schedule: one hundred eighty days. This region gets heavy spring and summer rain. Whether that timeline can actually be met has no precedent. Intervening losses were estimated from the plan, not calibrated against year-over-year monitoring."

He closed the paper and looked up. "That's all."

Lu Jibai stood, holding nothing.

"Three questions. Have you personally tested a single sample from this case?"

"No."

"Have you personally collected samples from Huishui Ditch or the plant site?"

"No."

"You mentioned overlapping ranges just now. Can you name a specific source—which operation, which outlet—whose ratio falls within the range in this case?"

The associate professor paused. "I cannot designate a source on behalf of the defendant."

"One more," Lu Jibai said. "Consistency doesn't mean identity—I agree with that. By the same token, does inconsistency carry more exclusionary weight?"

"Inconsistency has stronger exclusionary power."

"Nothing further."

Judge Luo turned to the plaintiff's bench. "Does the appraiser wish to respond?"

Appraiser Rui opened the opinion. "I'll speak to what I did. Nine sample points, two controls. Sampling, sealing, transport—every step has a signature. As for ratios: from a single source, results cluster in one narrow band. Different sources generally fall elsewhere, though some are adjacent. In this case, bottom sediment outside the plant's stormwater outlet, sediment in the ditch, and soil from farmland along the ditch all cluster in one place. The control site on the far side of the hill does not fall in that cluster. I can only speak to consistency and inconsistency."

"Can you rule out other sources?" Han Chongli asked.

"I cannot."

"Let that be entered into the record," Han Chongli said.

The associate professor added: "On this point, the appraiser and I have no disagreement."

Lu Jibai turned. "Then where's the disagreement?"

"The disagreement is about sufficiency," the associate professor said. "I'm speaking to whether it's enough, not whether it exists."

"It's enough." Lu Jibai said. "Nothing further."

At 3:20 p.m., the expert assistant withdrew. Footsteps and chair-scraping sounded from the far end of the corridor. Someone in the gallery flipped through a notebook; the paper rustled faintly. Chai Guizhi pulled the gray cloth bag with the safety pin tighter against her knee.

At 3:30 p.m., Judge Luo said, "Witness Wu Zhiqiang, please enter."

A bailiff brought him in through the side door. Work uniform, nothing over it, the baseball cap folded and stuffed into a pocket with one corner showing. He walked to the witness stand and stood still, hands flat against his trouser seams, standing straighter than he'd sat on the corridor bench.

The clerk read the cautions one by one: testify truthfully, perjury carries legal liability; no observing the trial before testifying, answer only what's asked. He said, "I understand."

Han Chongli questioned first.

"At the Hengyue New Materials Baixi plant, which section are you responsible for?"

"Water treatment."

"How is production wastewater handled?"

"Fully recycled. Not a drop discharged."

"What comes out of the stormwater outlet?"

"Rainwater."

"Has production wastewater ever gone out through the stormwater outlet?"

"No."

"Never once?"

"Never once."

She sat on the plaintiff's side, her hand resting on her notebook.

He finished his answers, hands still flat at his seams. There was one thing his mouth never touched. It weighed heaviest in his chest.

The keyboard clatter, the notebook paper in the gallery, a car passing outside—all of it receded far away. Only that one word remained, standing in place:

Sedimentation Tank No. 3.

[Thud. Gallery Seat, one use today.]

That word would follow her for days. Whenever anyone else spoke, it would jump out on its own. She knew.

She lifted her hand from the page and turned it over. On the topmost grid of the previous page was written "Long-term." Still blank.

She raised her hand. "The plaintiff requests to question the witness."

Judge Luo nodded. "Proceed."

"You manage water treatment at the plant." She stood. "What is Sedimentation Tank No. 3 used for?"

"Settling tank." The answer came fast.

"Does the settling tank have an overflow outlet?"

He paused. "It does."

"The pipe connected to that overflow outlet—where does it go?"

"To the emergency accident pool."

She handed the three pages to the bailiff, who carried them to the bench, and at the same time said, "The plaintiff submits two additional items. First, the defendant's own pollutant discharge permit implementation report, printed from the public disclosure portal of the National Pollution Discharge Permit Management Information Platform. The footer shows the web address and print time; the collegial panel may verify the page in court. Second, photographs attached to the court's February 25 on-site inspection record of the plant, already in the case file."

Han Chongli stood. "One is from a public platform, the other is already in the file. The plaintiff should explain why these weren't submitted within the evidence deadline."

"The implementation report is public—it can be opened at any time. The photographs are in the file; the defendant has them too." Lu Jibai said. "The witness testified today that the overflow outlet connects to the emergency accident pool. The plaintiff submits, in response to that single sentence, a document the defendant filed itself. This isn't new evidence. It's verification."

Judge Luo said, "Submission permitted. The defendant may cross-examine. Clerk, verify the webpage."

The clerk turned the laptop toward the presiding judge. The page footer showed the URL and a timestamp. Judge Luo read it twice, then pushed the computer back.

She read from the page: "Sedimentation Tank No. 3 has an overflow outlet; overflow connects to the emergency accident pool."

"This report—was it filed by your plant?"

"It was."

"Which reporting period?"

"Last year's."

"There's another line on here." She held the page where the witness could see it clearly. "The overflow from Sedimentation Tank No. 3 connects to the emergency accident pool. That's what you just said. What is the emergency accident pool for?"

"For accidents."

"What about normally?"

"It's not used normally."

She submitted the second item. The photograph passed through the bailiff's hands to the bench, then back to hers.

"This photograph was taken on the afternoon of February 25, when the court conducted the on-site inspection of the plant. There's a whitish ring along the wall by Sedimentation Tank No. 3. A pipe runs from the bottom of the tank, through the wall, and connects to the stormwater ditch. Were you present that day?"

"I was."

"You led the court personnel and the appraisers to that pipe and said something. What did you say?"

"I said it was for maintenance."

Han Chongli stood immediately. "Presiding Judge, that question plants the answer."

Judge Luo looked at him. "The witness will answer as he remembers it. Plaintiff, rephrase."

She set the photograph flat on the table, both hands on the edge.

"That pipe running out of Sedimentation Tank No. 3—where does it connect to?"

"The stormwater ditch."

"During maintenance, what's it used for?"

"Draining."

"Draining what?"

His mouth opened, then closed.

"The water stored in Sedimentation Tank No. 3—is that production wastewater?"

"Yes."

"That pipe connects to the stormwater ditch. During maintenance, where does the water in the tank go?"

He pulled the cap from his pocket and held it, knuckles whitening. The presiding judge said, "Witness, answer."

"Heavy rain, the tank fills, it goes out that way."

In the back row of the gallery, someone shifted. The clerk's fingers paused half a beat over the keyboard, then struck down again.

"Let the clerk record the exact words," she said. "Please ask the witness to confirm."

The clerk read it back. Wu Zhiqiang listened, then said, "That's what I said."

The lay assessor with glasses looked up, his pen still held mid-barrel. "Let me note this. The water in that pipe—does it count as water the plant discharged?"

"That's rainwater," Wu Zhiqiang said.

"Was the rainwater mixed with water from the tank?"

Gripping the cap, he answered very low: "It was mixed."

Han Chongli picked up the thread. "How many times a year does this happen? Any records?"

"Hard to say. A few times a year."

"Does the plant know?"

"The plant says they're working on the rain-sewage separation."

"Presiding Judge." Han Chongli turned toward the bench. "Please have these two remarks entered into the record: this is overflow during rain, an occasional occurrence, not routine discharge of production wastewater; and the overflow outlet connecting to the emergency accident pool is itself a compliant design."

Judge Luo said, "So recorded."

She placed the photograph back into the file and said, "Nothing further."

At 4:20 p.m., Prosecutor Qi stood.

He held a single page and read slowly: the Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau's supervisory monitoring of the defendant's stormwater outlet since 2025—sampling sites, sampling dates, tested parameters, conclusions. All three rounds concluded with lead exceeding standards. The penalty in the enforcement file was also presented.

"Who obtained these?" Han Chongli asked.

"The Municipal Procuratorate lawfully obtained them from the Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau," Prosecutor Qi said. "I only read what's on the page. Three times, the same outlet, the same parameter."

"Sampled water doesn't represent all three hundred sixty-five days of the year."

"I read what's on the page." Prosecutor Qi pressed the paper to the corner of the desk and sat down.

At 4:40 p.m., court debate.

Lu Jibai spoke first, his voice low, each sentence landing.

"In this case, the law assigned the hardest burden to the defendant: it discharged into the ditch where there is water and soil, and it must prove that what it discharged has no connection to what's in the ditch. To date, the papers the defendant has given this court contain not one water-sample report it commissioned, not one sediment test it ran."

"Its own implementation report states that the overflow from Sedimentation Tank No. 3 connects to the emergency accident pool. Its water-treatment supervisor, today on the witness stand, said: 'Heavy rain, the tank fills, it goes out that way.' The defendant's counsel just said the overflow outlet connecting to the emergency accident pool is a compliant design. The emergency accident pool is for accidents. What the witness described today was not an accident. It was rain."

"The isotope ratio page: bottom sediment outside the plant's stormwater outlet, sediment in the ditch, and soil from farmland along the ditch all fall in one cluster. The control site on the far side of the hill is outside it. The expert assistant says this doesn't equal identity. I agree. He says the disagreement is about sufficiency—then let the collegial panel consider whether these three items together are sufficient."

He paused.

"Of these three items, one is from a public platform, one was photographed by the court during its inspection, and one was spoken in court by the defendant's own employee. None bear the plaintiff's signature."

Han Chongli stood and pushed his glasses up slightly.

"Standing of the plaintiff. The 2023 document is a Notice of Order to Correct Within a Deadline—not an administrative penalty. An organization that does publicity and training year-round, suing on behalf of a village for 3.12 million yuan in remediation costs—whose interests does it actually represent? The panel should consider this carefully. Its charter and its annual report are in the file."

"Remediation costs. 3.12 million yuan, calculated by plan, by area, over one hundred eighty days. Spring here is rainy. Whether that timeline can actually be met—the appraiser couldn't say either. Intervening losses of 460,000 yuan were estimated on an annual basis. We ask the court to reduce the amounts."

"On whether the ditch contents are connected to the defendant's discharges, the expert assistant's opinion has already made it clear: consistency doesn't equal identity, and sufficiency is another matter. And in the video from that night, there is not one person from the defendant, not one vehicle."

"The court is requested to dismiss all claims."

She stood and said only a few lines.

"The name of that 2023 document can't erase what the Center has done over five years. Standing is measured by what it does, not by whether the defendant has ever been fined."

"3.12 million yuan is the appraisal institution's calculation based on the plan. If the defendant thinks it's too high, it can submit its own plan. To date, it hasn't."

"The emergency accident pool is for accidents. The witness said rain."

Final statements.

Cai Qingru stood, hands clasped in front of her, speaking slowly: "We don't want money. We want that ditch, that schoolyard, back the way they were."

She added one line: "Six claims in the complaint. The panel is asked to review them one by one."

Han Chongli: "The court is requested to dismiss all claims. The defendant does not agree to mediation."

At 6:10 p.m., the gavel fell.

"This court will deliver judgment on a scheduled date. Notice will be given separately, and the judgment served on all parties. Court is adjourned."

People in the gallery rose one by one. Chai Guizhi hugged the gray cloth bag to her chest and stood slowly, then walked to the center aisle and nodded toward the plaintiff's bench, saying nothing.

The corridor lights were all on. Outside the windows the sky was still light, a thin layer of dust settled on the sill.

Lu Jibai walked on her outer side, two pages folded in his hand.

"How did you think to ask about Sedimentation Tank No. 3?"

"During the inspection that day, he said it was for maintenance."

"That photograph's been in the file for over a month."

"Yeah."

He turned to look at her, and didn't ask again.