Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) officials continued their cleanup work following the recent oil spill off Taiwan's southern coast yesterday while controversy still rages over the EPA's handling of the incident.
EPA head Lin Jun-yi (
A Greek ship, the MV Amorgos, ran into submerged reefs near the Lungkeng ecological reserve in Kenting National Park, Pingtung County, on Jan. 14. Four days later, the ship's fuel oil began to leak.
It was the sixth time Lin had gone to inspect the scene since the oil spill started on Jan. 18.
"I have been very concerned about the oil cleanup work. Tomorrow I'll talk to experts from Alaska in order to come up with an efficient way to get things done," Lin said yesterday before he heading down south.
Lin yesterday also commented on his own position after opposition politicians demanded his resignation.
"Being a politically appointed official, I will shoulder all of the blame," Lin said in a statement released yesterday.
On Feb. 27, the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (研考會) presented to Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) a list of names of officials it thinks deserve punishment for their failure to take appropriate action in connection with the oil spill. It included the names of three politically appointed high-ranking officials, including Lin.
According to EPA officials yesterday, 461 tonnes of floating oil was collected during the first stage of shore cleanup work, which ended on Feb. 16. Since Feb. 17, workers have focused on removing sticky oil from coastal coral reefs and 62.5 tonnes of oil had been removed by Feb. 27.
Cheng Shean-rong (
"We inspected the ship yesterday and found that oil was still permeating [the hull] slightly," Cheng said.
The EPA yesterday began levying a fine of NT$1.5 million per day on the ship's agent.Officials said the fine would not be lifted until the agent took preventative measures against any further oil leakage.
According to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), the ship's agent will present a proposal on how to deal with the wreck by the end of March.
MOTC officials said that one possible solution was to break the wreck into pieces, after pumping out the remaining oil.
"Then, the broken pieces of the wreck will be dragged to remote waters and dumped there with the iron ore," said Younger Wu (
Wu said that a possible location for the pieces to be dumped was about 6.4 nautical miles northeast of where the wreck is located.
"We have been told by marine scientists that dumping iron ore there will not hurt the marine environment because the sea bed is 1,100m to 1,400m deep," Wu told the Taipei Times.
Yesterday, Control Yuan members Chao Jung-yao (
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