Waste oil found along the east coast since early this month could be runoff from the washing of oil tanker cabins, the Ocean Affairs Council said on Saturday.
No oil tankers that have recently passed eastern Taiwan have been found to have leaked waste oil, based on information gleaned from satellite images and drones, leaving the source of the oil unknown, the council’s Ocean Conservation Administration said in a statement.
The statement was released following an investigation conducted by local officials after several instances of waste oil were reported since the beginning of the month, mostly on coastal rock formations in Taitung City, Hualien County, Yilan County, Keelung and Pingtung County.
Photo courtesy of the Ocean Affairs Council
The first polluted coastal area, about 50 meters in length, was found on Green Island (綠島) off Taitung County on Dec. 1.
Other examples include a 150m by 40m area in Taitung’s Jialulan Recreation Area (伽路蘭遊憩區) and a 400m by 40m area in Yilan County’s Toucheng Township (頭城).
As of Saturday, local governments had dispatched 70 vehicles and 409 people to clean 16 areas, with 2.705 tonnes of waste — including oil-absorbent sheets, pebbles and sand — removed, the administration said.
To determine the source of the waste oil, officials from local environmental protection bureaus collected samples and used simulation and tracking technologies, but no sources were found, the administration said.
An analysis found that oil samples collected on Green Island were a mixture of light and heavy crude oil, the administration said, adding that the substance could be from runoff from the washing of oil tanker cabins.
Waste oil samples collected in Keelung and New Taipei City have been harder to analyze, because the light crude oil had volatilized and the remnants are coagulated, the administration said, adding that it is likely the same as that found on Green Island.
Also, two kinds of waste oil were collected in Pingtung County’s Jiupeng Desert (九棚大沙漠) — a sandy beach — but they were probably different from what was found on Green Island and in Keelung, it said.
The administration called on ship crew members to keep waste oil on their vessels and to hand it to certificated companies to dispose of when arriving at the next harbor.
Any vessel caught disposing of waste oil in the ocean faces a fine of up to NT$30 million (US$958,038) for breaching the Marine Pollution Prevention Act (海洋污染防治法), the administration said.
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