The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should stop the Hushan Reservoir (湖山水庫) project within 60 days or face legal action, an alliance of environmental advocates demanded yesterday.
Lin San-chia (林三加), chair of Environmental Law Committee of the Taipei Bar Association, and others, including Robin Winkler, director of the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association, made their way to the front of the agency's building where they presented Fan Da-vid (范大維) of the EPA with a letter of demands giving the EPA 60 days to "take appropriate action" over the Hushan situation before they take legal action.
Fan declined to join the group in chanting "Love Taiwan, say no to Hushan Dam."
"The Environmental Impact Assessment for the project was officially completed in 2000, making it seven years old," Lin said. "This is in direct contravention of the 16th statute of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法), which calls for a re-evaluation of all Environmental Impact Assessments older than three years before a project can go forward."
The groups also maintain that the area in question has been listed by the animal welfare organization BirdLife International as one of the most important nesting sites for the endangered fairy pitta.
These facts were also neglected in the 2000 Environmental Impact Assessments, rendering the survey flawed, Lin said.
Chang Kow-lung (張國龍) last Friday threatened to sue Winkler for "slanderous remarks against the EPA" after Winkler, who is also a member of the Environmental Impact Assessments Committee, said the agency was on the side of business rather than the environment.
Winkler, however, did not play up the role reversal yesterday. Instead, he apologized for any tactlessness.
"I did not grow up in Taiwan and I am still ignorant of many Taiwanese ways," Winkler said, "Maybe my choice of words was unfortunate."
However, Winkler did not back down from his claim that the EPA has been fighting for the business community not the environment.
"The EPA sees its function and the function of the commissioners as passing cases as quickly as possible," Winkler said.
Edward Huang (黃光輝), director-general of the EPA's department of comprehensive planning, disputed that Environmental Impact Assessments for the reservoir site is out of date, saying that the supporting infrastructure has already been built within the three-year limit even though construction has yet to take place.
"[Environmental Impact Assessments Committee] members need to remember that they are an advisory body consulted for their expertise," he said.
Winkler said even the number of projects passed by this Environmental Impact Assessments Committee -- considered so touchy that it was termed the "obstacle" committee -- would result in a more than 40 percent increase in carbon dioxide emitted by Taiwan if they were all developed.
"We need to focus on a sustainable and long-term economy, not a short term economic vision limited to the length of a presidential or legislative term," he said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS