A business entity who emits air pollutants shall establish air pollution prevention facilities and transmit data or measure and record them by performing self-measurement or having a measuring agent perform the measurement. However, recently, it has been found that some workplaces that emit air pollutants and measurement agencies have manipulated the data by reducing the measurement value or issuing false test reports without actual measurement.
In 2013, a waste disposal business entity was caught having manipulated the stack tele-monitoring system and emitted toxic gas exceeding the permissible emission levels for eight years. In 2016, a measuring agent was arrested and charged with having issued false measurement test reports in Gyeonggi-do. In 2018, 52 workplaces in Gyeonggi-do were caught in the “crackdown on the environmental management of facilities that cause fine dust,” and in 2019, 76 cases were detected, including false calculation of measurement results, in the "special guidance and inspection for 395 measuring agencies nationwide."
 The reason for the continuous mismanagement problems of air pollutant emission in industrial facilities is that any person who fails to measure pollutants or any person who falsely records the results of measurement or fails to record and keep them shall be merely subject to a slap on the wrist, an administrative fine not exceeding five million won.
However, since the deceit of air pollutant emission values by workplaces and measurement agencies is a direct harmful act against people suffering from fine dust and a very serious criminal act that prevents correct government measures by distorting even basic statistics on fine dust and that significantly reduces the bargaining power of the Korean government to cooperate with other countries, the amendment aims to tighten institutional weaknesses to eradicate such actions.

Details

A. Require the Minister of Environment to establish a system for verifying various information and statistics such as the emission sources and emissions of air pollutants and the numbers used in their calculations (Article 17 (4) newly inserted)
B. If a business entity violates any prohibited act of an emission facility or if he/she falsely makes a record of self-measurement results more than two times, order him/her to suspend operations for 30 and more days (Article 36)
C. Require a business entity who is exempted from the establishment of prevention facilities to perform self-measurement (Article 39 (1))
D. Require the Minister of Environment or Mayor/Do Governor to inspect from time to time whether a business entity has recorded the true measurement results of air pollutants (Article 39-2 newly inserted)
E. Stipulate that any person who fails to measure pollutants or any person who falsely records the results of measurement or fails to record and keep them shall be subject to imprisonment for not more than 5 years or a fine not exceeding 50 million won (Article 90, subparagraph 4-3)

If a business entity violates any prohibited act of an emission facility or if he/she falsely makes a record of self-measurement results more than two times, order him/her to suspend operations for 30 and more days (Article 36).