The Ministry of Environment has revealed a report on the violation by environmental pollutant emission facilities nationwide during the months of Jan through March, 2003.

Accordingly, out of the total 23,241 air and water quality pollutant emission facilities which were subject to regulation, about 7.5%, or 1,749 facilities were disclosed for either violation of regulations or, improper or non-license operation.

The Ministry issued orders for various administrative penalties according to the severity of the offense. For some of the facilities with minor offense, only orders for improvement have been issued, whereas some were ordered to cease operation, or permanent shutdown of the facilities.

Regionally, Daegu City had the most violations with 11.4%, followed by Gyeonggi Province, 10.3% and Incheon City, 8.8%. The number of the facilities which were caught for violating the regulations has decreased about 1.3 % from last year.