Environmentalists yesterday protested against an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for an expansion project at a naphtha cracker complex that failed to include fine particles.
The EIA for the fourth expansion project at Formosa Plastics Corp’s sixth naphtha cracker complex in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) did not list PM2.5 (fine particles less than 2.5 micrometers) as an item in the evaluation.
Before the impact assessment meeting, environmentalists gathered in front of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and called on committee members to reject a proposal to once again expand the plant.
The Taiwan Water Resources Protection Union said many accidents had occurred at the naphtha cracker complex in recent years, adding that several epidemiological investigations have shown that the occurrence of several serious diseases among local residents may have been caused by pollution from the plants.
“The developer should not use fake pollution reduction as an excuse for real expansion,” Yunlin County Environmental Protection Union chairman and former EIA committee member Chang Tsu-chien (張子見) said.
Although the developer claims the expansion project will not increase water usage and pollution, this was only a bargaining tool to ensure the approval of the project, Chang said.
The total air pollutant emission levels originally approved by the EIA had already been proven to cause serious health threats, even when the plants’ emission amount have not reached the regulated maximum level, Chang said.
“The reason for its pollution reduction is because the approved total emission level was unreasonably high,” he said, adding that it should not be used as a bargaining chip, and the total emission level should even be re-evaluated and amended to a level that is safe and endurable by local residents.
The Changhua Medical Alliance said that it was irresponsible to not take the health of local residents into consideration, by leaving out the evaluation on PM2.5 levels in the expansion project, when the volatile organic compounds and PM2.5 emissions from the plants may be connected to the occurrence of cancer in people living nearby.
The environmental groups urged the EPA to re-evaluate and reduce the total allowable air pollutants emission level and take PM2.5 levels into evaluation before approving the expansion project.
However, an analysis report on the difference in the environmental impact for the expansion project was conditionally approved at the EIA meeting yesterday afternoon.
The EPA said it has strongly requested that the developer reduce pollution emissions before increasing production output. The reduction level must be higher than the new plant’s emission level and reported to the EIA committee for approval before the new plant starts operations, the agency said.
‘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
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
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
RSS