The Supreme People's Procuratorate recently released a batch of typical cases on procuratorial public interest litigation to support the construction of a Beautiful China. These cases aim to deeply implement the ecological environment code, fulfill the deployment requirements of the "Beautiful China Construction 15th Five-Year Plan," and guide procuratorial organs at all levels to perform their duties lawfully and handle public interest litigation cases with high quality and efficiency, providing a legal guarantee for the green foundation of Chinese-style modernization. This batch includes a total of 8 typical cases, comprising 7 administrative public interest litigation cases and 1 criminal附带 civil public interest litigation case. The cases involve air pollution, water pollution, solid waste pollution prevention, as well as the protection of farmland, minerals, biodiversity, and the ocean. Among them, the case of the Pingdu City People's Procuratorate and Gaomi City People's Procuratorate supervising the rectification of environmental pollution in the North Jiaolai River was selected.

The Pingdu City People's Procuratorate and Gaomi City People's Procuratorate supervised the rectification of environmental pollution in the North Jiaolai River through an administrative public interest litigation case. The North Jiaolai River flows through the four county-level administrative regions of Pingdu, Gaomi, Changyi, and Laizhou in Qingdao, Weifang, and Yantai, with a total length of 100 kilometers and a drainage area of 3978.6 square kilometers. It is an important ecological corridor in the Jiaodong Peninsula and a key river flowing into the Bohai Bay. Since 2025, water quality fluctuations have been evident at the national control sections of the North Jiaolai River, with some months dropping to劣 Ⅴ class. In the upper and middle reaches, total nitrogen concentrations were high in some sections, and indicators like ammonia nitrogen exceeded water quality control requirements at certain points. In the Cuijiaji Town section of Pingdu City, some livestock farms along the river had issues such as manure overflow being directly discharged into the river. In the middle reaches of the North Jiaolai River, north of the national control section, there were instances of illegal fishing gear and river enclosure for aquaculture. Near Liushu Wuzi Village in Gaomi City, there was overflow from sewage inspection wells, and some riverside enterprises lacked drainage permits, discharging untreated production wastewater into the urban drainage network. The insufficient treatment capacity of the third and fourth sewage treatment plants led to unstable effluent, affecting the water quality of the involved river sections. Due to the North Jiaolai River spanning multiple administrative regions, with diverse pollution sources and poor coordination between jurisdictions and departments, the joint regulatory mechanism was inadequate, leaving pollution issues unresolved and damaging the river's water ecology.

On July 16, 2025, the Shandong Provincial People's Procuratorate discovered clues of abnormal water quality in some sections of the North Jiaolai River during satellite remote sensing screening and assigned the case to the Qingdao City People's Procuratorate and Weifang City People's Procuratorate. Preliminary investigations indicated that the issues were mainly concentrated in the relevant river sections of Pingdu City and Gaomi City. The Pingdu City People's Procuratorate and Gaomi City People's Procuratorate filed cases in August and October 2025, respectively. The Shandong Provincial People's Procuratorate guided the formation of a joint task force from two cities and four procuratorates in Qingdao and Weifang to coordinate evidence collection, professional analysis, and supervision. The Pingdu City People's Procuratorate used data from the environmental protection department's monitoring platform, on-site inspections, drone surveys, satellite remote sensing, and commissioned testing to investigate pollution sources along the Cuijiaji Town section of the North Jiaolai River, identifying manure discharge paths from the livestock farms, pollution points, and illegal activities in the river. The Gaomi City People's Procuratorate conducted on-site inspections, checked the operation of riverside pipelines and sewage inspection wells, reviewed drainage permit archives, and analyzed online monitoring data and operation logs from sewage treatment plants to identify the causes of sewage overflow, enterprise drainage practices, and the operational status of treatment facilities.

On October 24, 2025, the joint task force held a meeting, inviting watershed management experts and specially invited assistant prosecutors to provide professional opinions on the causes of pollution, regulatory responsibilities, and remediation plans. Based on the distribution of pollution sources and administrative regulatory responsibilities, the joint task force identified the supervisory targets and key rectification points for Pingdu and Gaomi respectively. Relying on the "government-procuratorate linkage" mechanism and a cross-regional procuratorial cooperation mechanism, they pushed relevant regulatory authorities to enhance information sharing and law enforcement collaboration. On November 7, 2025, the Pingdu City People's Procuratorate, in accordance with Article 9 of the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China and Article 5 of the Regulations on the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Large-scale Livestock Farming, issued a procuratorial recommendation to the local ecological environment authority. This urged them to lawfully address the pollution issues from the involved livestock farms, supervise immediate rectification to eliminate environmental pollution, conduct special law enforcement targeting pollution from large-scale livestock farms, and establish a long-term regulatory mechanism. On November 10 of the same year, the Pingdu City People's Procuratorate issued a procuratorial recommendation to the local river management authority, based on Article 5, Paragraph 2 of the Regulations on River Management of the People's Republic of China (as revised in 2018) and Article 4, Paragraph 2 of the Qingdao City River Management Regulations, urging a comprehensive investigation and rectification of illegally installed fishing gear to ensure river flood safety and maintain water quality. Upon receiving the recommendations, the ecological environment authority urged the involved livestock farms to clean up overflowed manure, improve pollution prevention facilities, and conducted a comprehensive survey of over 300 large-scale livestock farms along the North Jiaolai River, prompting the construction of 117 new facilities to prevent manure overflow. The river management authority inspected 25 kilometers of the river, clearing 9 illegally installed fishing gear and 3 illegal livestock farming sites within the river.

In December 2025, the Gaomi City People's Procuratorate, in accordance with Articles 9 and 49 of the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China and Article 21 of the Regulations on Urban Drainage and Wastewater Treatment, issued a procuratorial recommendation to the local housing and urban-rural construction authority. This urged them to standardize drainage permit management and strengthen the maintenance and upgrading of centralized sewage treatment facilities and supporting pipelines. Upon receiving the recommendation, the housing and urban-rural construction authority accelerated the construction of the second phase of the fourth sewage treatment plant to resolve the overflow issue at the Liushu Wuzi Village sewage inspection well. It also urged the third sewage treatment plant to implement dredging, upgrade the hydrolysis acidification tank, and overhaul equipment to enhance treatment capacity. Additionally, a special investigation of drainage users along the river was conducted to strengthen drainage permit supervision, urging over 10 key large enterprises to obtain drainage permits.

Based on urging the administrative authorities to rectify pollution issues, the procuratorates promoted the improvement of cross-regional river basin management mechanisms. The ecological environment authorities of Pingdu, Gaomi, and Changyi established a joint law enforcement task force and formulated a joint law enforcement supervision plan for the North Jiaolai River basin, inspecting over 140 enterprises and large-scale livestock farms along the river, investigating 13 pollution cases, and imposing fines totaling over 1.1 million yuan. The river management authorities of Pingdu, Changyi, and Laizhou signed a memorandum on cross-domain joint law enforcement, conducting a joint river cleanup operation that cleared nearly 40 trap-type fishing gear and over 1,500 meters of illegally installed fishing gear. On February 2, 2026, the Pingdu City People's Procuratorate and Gaomi City People's Procuratorate jointly organized a public hearing on the effectiveness of the ecological environment remediation for the North Jiaolai River, inviting experts, people's congress representatives, and public representatives. After reviewing the site, water quality test reports, and listening to opinions, it was confirmed that the procuratorial recommendations had been implemented. The involved pollution issues had been effectively addressed, with sewage treatment facilities and drainage networks operating normally, drainage permits under routine supervision, and indicators like total nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen in the relevant river sections meeting water quality control requirements. Data from the Shandong Provincial Ecological Environment Monitoring Center's surface water quality report showed that the water quality at the Changping Road Bridge national control section of the North Jiaolai River consistently and stably reached Class IV. On February 5, 2026, the Pingdu City People's Procuratorate and Gaomi City People's Procuratorate lawfully concluded the case.

This case highlights the significance of ecological governance for cross-regional rivers entering the sea, which affects the health of river water environments and marine ecosystems. Addressing common challenges such as fragmented jurisdiction between left and right banks of rivers entering the sea, unclear responsibilities, and weak regulation, procuratorial organs can leverage the superior procuratorate's unified command and integrated duty advantages. Based on the distribution of pollution sources and administrative regulatory responsibilities, they can organize relevant procuratorates to file cases by jurisdiction, conduct coordinated investigations, and implement precise supervision, using procuratorial technology and professional expertise to enhance investigation quality and efficiency. While urging the resolution of specific pollution issues, they promote the improvement of mechanisms for information sharing, joint law enforcement, and regular consultation across regions, facilitating a shift from segmented and decentralized watershed management to coordinated governance of upstream and downstream, as well as left and right banks.