With legislators having until today to review a proposed amendment to the Water Pollution Control Act (水汙染防治法) in the current legislative session, environmental protection groups yesterday urged Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators not to block the passage of the draft amendments, which would impose steeper fines on companies and farms that bypass rules to discharge excessive amounts of wastewater and pollutants.
Without giving any names, Environmental Jurist Association secretary-general Echo Lin (林仁惠) said that due to possible influence-peddling between KMT legislators and corporations, some legislators delayed the review process by presenting reasons aimed at diverting attention, thereby blocking the passage of the draft amendments.
KMT legislators Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆), Chiang Hui-chen (江惠貞) and Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉) were among those who opposed proposals to raise fines during the latest committee meeting to review the amendment on Dec. 31.
Tsai debated with Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) officials over raising the fine for firms that do not submit wastewater pollutant monitoring data or firms that file forged data, asking whether firms that violate the rules out of negligence are to be fined, while Chiang engaged in a heated exchange with Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬), a supporter of the proposal.
Su, who opposed raising the fines for operators in the animal husbandry sector who dump excessive amounts of outflow, told his counterparts who support the proposal: “Let’s see whether you will let out a cry of hunger when you have no pork to eat.”
In response to the KMT legislators’ concerns about smaller establishments receiving hefty fines, attorney and long-time environmentalist Thomas Chan (詹順貴) said the main purpose of the amendment is to deter large corporations from causing pollution by raising the maximum fine, and that judges would issue penalties according to the severity of the violations.
Citing the example of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (AEC), which dumped massive amounts of wastewater into Houjin River (後勁溪) in Greater Kaohsiung, he said that the company was given only a NT$3 million fine and that the penalty was not even imposed based on the water act, which at the time of the ruling, in October last year, stipulated just a NT$600,000 fine for firms that discharge more wastewater than permitted.
“The KMT legislators may sugarcoat their blocking the amendment by saying that raising the fines would have a negative impact on industry, but the most important aspect of this amendment is to protect law-abiding firms and shelter them from the unwanted competition brought by violators,” he said.
Taiwan Watch Institute’s Herlin Hsieh (謝和霖) panned the Council of Agriculture and the KMT for what he said was their “perverse” stance while objecting to proposals to increase fines for animal farmers and saying that the farmers should be consulted before setting the amounts of the fines.
“The council should provide guidance to small farmers so that their outflows can meet requirements, instead of worrying that they might not be able to afford the fines,” he said.
Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan director Tsai Hue-hsun (蔡卉荀) called on KMT legislators to behave conscientiously at the legislature today to best serve the public interest.
With reference to the ASE case, she said: “Let’s not forget whose money will be spent to cover the expenses required to clean up streams when they become polluted.”
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