Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday that the development of the Central Taiwan Science Park’s Houli branch — the park’s Phase 3 — was expected to be restored legally based on a new environmental impact assessment (EIA) that was passed late last month
His pronouncement came one day after the government lost a lawsuit before the Supreme Administrative Court over the flawed EIA for the Phase 3 development.
Wu said the approval of the new EIA met the requirements of the Taipei High Administrative Court, which two months ago ordered a halt to the expansion project “until the Environmental Protection Administration [EPA] reaches a conclusion on a new EIA.”
On Tuesday, the agency’s Environmental Impact Assessment Committee gave conditional approval for the Phase 3 project to proceed.
Two of its conditions were that water consumption at the park should not exceed 57,152 tonnes a day and that the park should conduct a survey of endemic diseases in its environs.
The agency said the new EIA emphasized the “health hazard” and “public participation” criteria, which allowed the public to give their opinions as part of the EIA process.
“We therefore conclude — preliminarily — that it will be lawful to restart the project,” Wu said.
The National Science Council (NSC) is expected to issue a new development permit for the project based on the new EIA.
The committee’s approval of the new EIA has drawn strong protests from environmentalists, who have threatened to file another lawsuit with the Taipei High Administrative Court.
That court rescinded the initial EIA for the Houli project in 2008 on the grounds that it did not pass a health hazard evaluation.
Its ruling was upheld by the Supreme Administrative Court in January, and in line with that decision, the Taipei High Administrative Court issued an injunction on July 30 to suspend Phase 3.
The government stopped work on infrastructure development projects on the site after the injunction, but allowed industrial production to continue while the EPA and the science council filed an appeal against the injunction last month.
That appeal was rejected by the Supreme Administrative Court on Thursday.
‘IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE’
It said the EIA had not passed a second review or health hazard evaluation, and that if the project were to go ahead, it would cause “irreversible damage” to the environment and the health of local residents.
The Supreme Administrative Court also said the development permit for the project was invalid because it had revoked the EIA in January.
CASUAL, INDISCREET
Environmental lawyer Chan Shun-kuei (詹順貴) said the new EIA was just as “casual and indiscreet” as the first one and had not been subject to a second phase of strict reviews.
Environmental groups are expected to file a lawsuit next week to demand that it also be revoked.
‘JUSTICE’
Lin San-chia (林三加), the lawyer who filed the previous suit on behalf of farmers in Houli Township (后里), Taichung County, said the judiciary has repeatedly sent out a message of “environmental justice” since the Taipei High Administrative Court rescinded the old EIA in 2008, but President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has turned a deaf ear to the message.
DISASTER’S SOURCE
Calling the Executive Yuan “the source of the disaster,” Lin said legal action would be useless unless the Ma administration repented its mistakes.
Most of the public facilities and infrastructure for the Central Science Park’s Phase 3 area have already been completed and some companies, including AU Optronics Corp and Sunner Solar Co, have already begun production at the site.
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