EPA gives green light to chipmakers despite protests

After finally completing a controversial environmental impact assessment (EIA) involving the high-tech chipmaking plant of a semiconductor manufacturer at the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park last month, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday began reviews of two similar cases yesterday.

The assessments are expected to be approved by the end of the month.

However, environmentalists blasted what they said was the EPA's insincere attitude in conducting the assessments.

"We regret to see this action taken by the EPA in cases involving chipmakers," Liu Ming-long (劉銘龍), secretary-general of the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation (環境品質文教基金會), told the Taipei Times yesterday.

Last month, the EPA passed a remedial EIA from United Microelectronics Corp (聯電, UMC), Taiwan's second largest chip manufacturer, after it had been discovered that its original EIA -- required in order to receive a construction permit -- had never been submitted.

Construction on UMCs wafer fabrication plant -- called Fab 8F (also known as UMC 5, 聯電五廠) -- began in 1998 after receiving a construction permit from the Science-based Industrial Park Administration (SIPA), under the National Science Council (NSC).

The company failed, however, to hand in an environmental impact assessment of the project's possible effects on the nearby Touchien River (頭前溪), a water resource protection area nearby.

When this was discovered last month, its license was revoked -- despite the fact the plant is completed and had been testing operations -- and then restored when necessary documents were handed in.

However, the EPA's responses in cases involving other wafer fabrication plants built by Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (WSMC, 世大) and UMC's Fab 8E plant, were less strict.

Members of the EPA's EIA board yesterday passed two cases conditionally, and transferred both to the agency's EIA Review Committee (環評審查大會).

It was expected that both cases would be approved at the next committee meeting.

Environmentalists, however, said they were disappointed by the EPA's behavior, which they said was a mere "rubber stamp" for industrial developers.

Liu said EPA officials should have dealt with the two cases in the same way as the UMC Fab 8F case, adding that environmental officials did not request the NSC or SIPA to demand a complete halt in operations.

With a total capital of over US$820 million, WSMC was established in May 1996 by local investors, including China Development Industrial Bank,Winbond Computers, and China Steel Corp.

"If EPA officials in the new central government continue giving in to administration agencies unduly influenced by economic developers, such as SIPA, we see no future for Taiwan's environment," said Liu, adding that industrial developers in the Hsinchu park should begin taking environmental protection into account.

EPA officials said yesterday that they had sent documents to officials at the NSC, the SIPA's governing body, but have received no answer.

Next week, EPA officials will conduct a field inspection on another plant built in the park by Analog Technology, Inc (立生半導體).

Analog, also located in the Touchien River water resource protection area, completed a six-inch wafer Fab in 1998 without completing the necessary EIA.