Despite strong opposition from environmental activists, the Environmental Protection Administration’s (EPA) environmental impact assessment (EIA) committee yesterday gave conditional approval to the Phase-3 development project at the Central Taiwan Science Park.
Sixteen committee members who attended the meeting gave their unanimous support to the project, which covers properties between Houli (后里) and Cishing Farm (七星) in Taichung County. No one suggested that the project should be abandoned or put to a second round of review.
Aside from minor revisions to the text, the conclusions reached at the committee generally followed those made by a special taskforce that did a preliminary review of the case. The Central Taiwan Science Park Administration will be required to follow several specific requirements during construction and operations at the Phase-3 zone, including regulating water usage, ambient water quality and emission of volatile organic compounds.
The administration’s decision to host the impact assessment meeting enraged environmental activists, who staged a protest in front of the EPA building in the afternoon and called on the committee to send the Phase-3 development project to a second round of review.
“The Supreme Administrative Court annulled the ruling on the development project, but the EPA was convinced that it would pass the EIA committee at the end of August,” Green Party representative Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said, standing in the rain with other activists. “The EIA system is dead and the case will pass today.”
The meeting yesterday was presided over by the Environmental Protection Agency Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏). Before members of the committee ruled on the case, Shen allowed about 20 representatives from environmental groups, the Central Park Science Administration Workers Union and residents from Houli to voice their concerns.
Mercy on the Earth secretary-general Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) was one of the EIA members who reviewed the case in 2006. He said that although eight EIA members proposed that Phase-3 be sent to a second stage of reviews four years ago, the committee still granted conditional approval to the case. It is unclear whether the EIA members four years ago thoroughly addressed certain concerns, including massive use of farmland, the impact on fishery resources and regulations of air pollutants, Lee said.
He also said there were questions as to whether the science park would commit to not using water reserved for irrigation in the eventuality that the park faced water shortages.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS