Residents of Meinung township (
On Thursday evening, more than 100 Meinung residents and anti-incinerator activists attended a public hearing called by DPP legislators Hsu Chih-ming (
Hsu said that he would lead Meinung residents to protest in front of the Presidential Office if the local government failed to address the problem.
Controversy over the incinerator was sparked early this year after Meinung residents heard rumors that the facility was operating illegally.
An operator at the plant revealed that the incinerator sometimes burned waste at a temperature lower than was safe to do so.
In addition, residents said they believed hazardous industrial and medical waste had been transported to the plant in secret. The incinerator is only permitted to burn 110 tonnes of household waste daily.
After carrying out what they said was a long-term investigation, the anti-incinerator activists in Meinung claimed the procedure by which the government issued operating permits to the plant was questionable.
Local residents then filed a lawsuit in August and the case has since been taken over by Kaohsiung County district prosecutors. Last month, prosecutors interrogated several county government officials suspected of corruption linked to the incinerator. All were subsequently released on bail.
Investigations are now focusing on the process by which the plant's operating permit (操作許可) and construction license (建築執照) were issued by the local government.
Prosecutors said that one of the key points in question was that the waste incinerator was built in an area that previously was a buffer zone for the Laonung River (
Residents previously accused the Taiwan Provincial Government, before it was downsized, of arbitrarily narrowing the buffer zone along the river in 1998 to allow the incinerator to be built there.
Hsiao Chu-liang (
"The government, by allowing an incinerator to be built in a river buffer zone, has neglected the safety of millions living in the Kaohsiung metropolitan area downstream who rely on the river as a source of drinking water," Hsiao said.
During the hearing, local farmers played a videotape which documented what they said was "unusual crop damage" linked to the incinerator. Furthermore, the area affected by the damage is widening, they said.
One local resident, a mother, said that her child began suffering from asthma and a skin disease after the plant began to burn waste in September 1999.
She said that her child was only one of many in the area who suffered similar symptoms.
Due to strong local opposition, the plant has stopped accepting hazardous industrial waste for processing. Meinung residents, however, remain dissatisfied -- and say they will campaign until the plant is closed down permanently.
Hsu said that the plant should have already been shut down -- albeit temporarily -- while prosecutors conduct their investigations.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS