The Taipei Sewerage Systems Office yesterday confirmed that the Bali Wastewater Treatment Plant in New Taipei City discharged untreated wastewater into the sea in February and last month, bypassing standard procedures for the sake of expediency, but rejected allegations that the facility has been polluting the Taiwan Strait for years.
The Chinese-language Next Magazine yesterday reported that the plant’s operator, Huimin Environmental Tech Corp (惠民實業), had discharged untreated effluent into the plant’s nearby waters.
Footage taken by the magazine showed that the wastewater the company discharged into the sea was covered by a thick layer of brown scum.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Sewerage Systems Office
Waters near the plant were reportedly colored by the untreated effluents and gave off an unpleasant smell, the report said.
The plant in Bali District (八里), which started operating in 1997, is the largest wastewater treatment plant in Asia, treating an average of 1.2 million tonnes of wastewater from the 6.4 million residents of Keelung, Taipei and New Taipei City on a daily basis.
Following an inspection yesterday morning, Taipei Sewerage Systems Office Director Chen Shih-hao (陳世浩) said that the untreated effluent was released on Feb. 6 and March 9, when a channel directing wastewater into one of its two sedimentation pools was being dredged and cleaned, and the pool was closed.
The dredging took at least four hours, during which Huimin, instead of directing wastewater to the other pool to be treated, discharged it directly into the sea.
The brown material floating on the surface of the untreated water was excrement and toilet paper flushed from households, Chen said.
However, it was unlikely the wastewater discharged on the two dates had caused the Taiwan Strait serious pollution as it had been diluted, he said.
Huimin is to be fined NT$250,000 (US$8,229) for breach of contract, while Glitter Technology Co (宇堂工程顧問), a firm contracted to manage Huimin, is to be fined NT$50,000, he said.
Chen rejected a part of the report that said the plant had polluted its neighboring waters for more than five years, citing the results of 20 random inspections conducted by the New Taipei City Environmental Protection Department at the plant’s outlet pipe between August 2014 and last month.
The reports showed that the facility had only one violation — in 2015 — when excessive levels of Escherichia Coli were detected in its outflows.
Chen said that any office employee found to be negligent in monitoring the plant would be punished.
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