Despite recent reports of a large oil slick looming off the north coast of Taiwan, an official from the Environmental Protection Administration’s (EPA) water pollution office said yesterday that they have yet to find any hard evidence that an oil slick has occurred.
“According to a story published by the Chinese-language China Times, the National Central University [NCU] contacted us and the Coast Guard Administration [CGA] immediately after they spotted a possible oil slick on a satellite image,” Hsu Jen-che (�?A) told the Taipei Times in a telephone interview.
“But in fact, we only learned about it when I saw the news online,” he said.
As soon as the EPA received the information, they contacted the CGA and began a search for the oil slick.
“We worked until around 10pm [on Thursday night] and began the search early on [Friday] morning,” Hsu said. “We even called in police helicopters to help, but we found nothing.”
The CGA also checked its telephone records since Monday, “but there was no record of anybody reporting the suspected oil slick,” he said.
“The report said that the oil slick was 30km in length and some 500m to 1,000m wide,” Hsu said. “But normally, an oil slick from a fishing boat would only span to around 2km to 3km.”
As of press time, the EPA was still unsure of what it is that appeared on the satellite image.
“We’ve contacted the NCU lab, and they said there’s no one there during the weekend,” Hsu said. “We can only try to figure it out on Monday at the earliest.”
The EPA was prompted into action after the NCU’s Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research said on Friday it had spotted the oil spill off Jinshan (金山), Taipei County on Wednesday.
“Multiple ENVISAT satellite radar images show that the oil slick is 30km in length and some 500m to 1,000m in width,” said Liu Shou-an (劉說安), director of the space research center.
The oil slick had been traced to a point almost directly north of Taiwan’s northernmost point Liu said.
At the time, the center said the spill thought to be the result of a leak from a merchant ship sailing in a north-northwest direction.
“We’ll also inform neighboring countries of the discovery and ask them to assist in tracking the movement of the vessel,” Liu said.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about