Civic environmental groups yesterday staged a protest at the Environmental Protection Administration in Taipei to call for Formosa Plastics Corp’s naphtha cracker in Mailiao Township (麥寮), Yunlin County, to arrange its own water supply instead of using water meant for irrigating farms during the dry season.
An ad hoc environmental impact assessment (EIA) meeting was held five years ago to review the possible environmental impact caused by the cracker’s proposed plan to meet its water usage needs. The plan entailed collecting used water from the end of an irrigation canal derived from the Sinhuwei River (新虎尾溪).
The Taiwan Water Conservation Alliance said that an EIA committee that reviewed the cracker’s 4.3-phase expansion project in 2007 had asked the plant to come up with a way to be self-sufficient in its water supply so as not to deprive the surrounding farms of too much water.
The solutions proposed by Formosa Plastics were reviewed by the agency two years ago, but the plant is still having difficulties meeting its water needs, said Wu Li-huei (吳麗慧) of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union’s Changhua Office.
Wu urged the company on behalf of the union to invest in technologies such as seawater desalination to supply the cracker with the water it needs and leave the fresh water to be used by locals and farmers.
Yunlin County Environmental Protection Union chairman Chang Tsu-chien (張子見) said that during the dry season — which typically lasts from February to May — between 40 percent and 90 percent of the water used by the cracker is meant to be used for irrigation.
Using groundwater in the dry season causes land subsidence, so the government should immediately force the plant to implement a new water supply plan, Chang said.
Changhua Medical Alliance for Public Affairs consultant Yang Joe-ming (楊澤民) said that forcing the plant to acquire its own water supply is the only way that it will invest in state-of-the-art environmental engineering technology and leave the fresh water available for farming purposes.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS