On May 14, the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Thanh Hoa province said that it had just issued a decision to sanction administrative violations against BOB Hanoi Co., Ltd. - Branch 1 (address Thach Quang Industrial Park, Thach Quang commune, Thanh Hoa province).
The decision clearly states that Thach Tuong Export Garment Factory in Thach Quang commune, Thanh Hoa province (under BOB Hanoi Co., Ltd. - Branch 1) has had a series of serious environmental violations, thereby being fined a total of more than 1.5 billion VND. The violations were identified as including many errors related to industrial waste and wastewater.
No waste handover record: The Company did not make a record when transferring industrial waste to a treatment unit, violating regulations on environmental protection.
Failure to report hazardous waste: The company did not report to state agencies about the storage of hazardous waste for more than a year without finding an appropriate treatment facility.
Changing the design status without reporting: The company has renovated the wastewater treatment system without notifying the environmental licensing agency, violating the conditions in the environmental permit.
Wastewater discharge violations: The company discharged wastewater not in accordance with the environmental permit issued, and did not install a discharge flow meter.
Untreated waste discharge: Detection that the company's wastewater drainage system has manholes connected to rainwater collection ditches, creating conditions for untreated wastewater to overflow into the environment.
Wastewater dilution: The company uses well water to dilute wastewater before discharging it into the environment to meet technical standards.
Waste discharge exceeding standards: Wastewater after treatment still exceeds technical standards for waste by 1.1 to 1.5 times.
Discharging wastewater without waterproofing measures: The company lets wastewater overflow into ponds without waterproofing technical solutions, causing environmental pollution.
In addition to the administrative fine, BOB Hanoi Co., Ltd. - Branch 1 must also pay the cost of requesting environmental sample analysis to the Economic Police Department - Thanh Hoa Provincial Police with an amount of more than 15 million VND.
In addition to fines, BOB Hanoi Co., Ltd. - Branch 1 was also revoked of the facility's environmental permit (Environmental Permit No. 10/GP-UBND dated January 18, 2023, issued by Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee to BOB Hanoi Co., Ltd.) for 4.5 months to remedy violations.
Countermeasures:
Forcing the dismantling of the surface water collection ditch (overflowing rainwater) connected to the sewer to collect wastewater from the laundry factory before entering the air conditioning tank of the centralized wastewater treatment system; renovating and rebuilding the sewer to collect wastewater of the centralized wastewater treatment system to ensure that wastewater collected from the laundry factory through the sewer to the air conditioning tank does not see through or overflow into the rainwater collection ditch.
Forced to dismantle the entire structure and pipeline of drilled well water to dilute wastewater at the wastewater disinfection tank after treatment before discharging into the environment of the centralized wastewater treatment station.
Previously, as Lao Dong Newspaper reported, in the first half of April 2026, many households in Quang Trung village, Thach Quang commune discovered that drilled well water suddenly turned red-purple, accompanied by a foul odor.
According to people, this situation had happened before, but this time it is serious and prolonged. Not only is the color of the drilled well water changed, a similar phenomenon has also appeared at Bai Ron stream in the village.
After the incident occurred, people reported it to the local authorities and functional agencies. Upon receiving the information, functional forces checked and took water samples to verify and clarify.
