Anti-incinerator activists in Meinung (
To show their determination to begin a new wave of opposition, activists again set up tents in front of the plant. The last attempt at opposition suffered a setback on Aug. 15 when police dispersed nearly 100 protesters who had camped out in tents in front of the plant for the previous 13 days.
Activists said they would not let any garbage trucks transfer waste into the plant, which they said was still operating illegally because it lacked a valid license to burn industrial waste.
Following the filing of a lawsuit against the owner of the plant yesterday, activists said that they were seeking support from international societies, and if such assistance is granted, it would mark a first for Taiwan's anti-incinerator movement.
George Cheng (
"We will urge our counterparts in other countries to send e-mails to concerned governmental administrative units, putting them under international pressure," Cheng said.
This could prompt officials to review not only the operation of the plant but also general waste management policies, Cheng added.
In formulating strategies to put pressure on the owner of the plant, Jihyu Waste Handler (
Yesterday morning, Chen, accompanied by Hsiao Tsun-hsiung (蕭圳雄) and Fu Jin-gui (傅錦桂) -- two representatives of the Meinung anti-incinerator activists -- visited the Chishan Branch of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office to file a lawsuit against Jihyu Waste Handler, saying that they suspected that some hazardous industrial waste had been burnt at the plant illegally.
Activists told the Taipei Times yesterday that the information regarding the burning of hazardous industrial waste was exposed on Saturday, when Legislator Yang Chiu-hsiung (
According to official documents that record the transportation of waste, activists said the questionable waste was from the Taipei County-based Central Mint of China (
According to the contract between the Kaohsiung County Government and Jihyu Waste Handler, the plant is only allowed to burn household and non-hazardous industrial waste.
Environmental protection officials from the Kaohsiung County Government took samples of the waste yesterday for further analysis but did not tell residents when results would be available.
Some activists visited the chief of the Environmental Protection Administration, Lin Jun-yi (林俊義), on Aug. 17 to urge him to force the local environmental protection department in the Kaohsiung County Government to review the operations at the Meinung Waste Plant to see if it was in fact operating illegally.
"Lin said that he could not say when the plant would be closed, but he did show his sympathy by promising us that he would try his best to close down the plant," said Cheng Cheng-yang (張正揚), secretary-general of the Meinung People's Association.
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