Prosecutors hand out dumping indictments

Two controversial illegal waste dumping cases in southern and central Taiwan ended temporarily yesterday when prosecutors indicted waste handlers, officials and industrial firms involved, proposing millions of dollars in fines and lengthy prison terms.

In Kaohsiung County, four officials involved in the operation of a waste incinerator in Meinung township (美濃) were indicted for corruption yesterday.

The accused include former and current Meinung township wardens Chung Hsin-tsai (鍾新財) and Chung Shao-huei (鍾紹恢), as well as two former and current environmental officials, Lin Cheng-ming (林振明) and Huang Ming-ying (黃銘英).

Prosecutors asked that Chung Hsin-tsai and Lin be sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison and Chung Shao-huei and Huang be sentenced to five years each. It is believed that the accused earned at least NT$194 million by helping Sunny Friend Environmental Technology Co Ltd (日友公司), which runs the household waste incinerator.

According to prosecutors, who have spent nine months investigating the case, in 1997 the officials proposed building an incinerator in a buffer zone beside a river, where construction is prohibited.

Later, the officials forged documents to help Sunny Friend receive financial assistance for waste management from both the Cabinet's Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and local government.

Prosecutors said the officials also forged documents to help the company to obtain an operating license from the local government.

The prosecutors also allege the company secretly burned industrial waste in the incinerator and dumped toxic fly ash and bottom ash collected from the incinerator in a nearby river, which leads to the Kaoping River (高屏溪), one of the main sources of drinking water for millions of residents in the south.

Hsinchu firms targeted

In related news, in Taichung, 19 people involved in an illegal toxic solvent discharge case were also indicted yesterday, including United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) Chairman John Hsuan (宣明智) and Vanguard International (世界先進) Chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀).

Officials for UMC and Vanguard yesterday declined to comment on the indictments, saying that they had not yet received copies of the court documents.

In October, at a site in Wuji township in Taichung County, prosecutors -- accompanied by environmental protection officials -- caught workers hired by Ho Hsing Barrel Co (合興桶業公司) rinsing contaminated barrels used for toxic chemical solvents. Over 100,000 contaminated barrels were discovered at the site.

EPA officials said that toxic solvents -- including potassium hydroxide, silica and hydrofluoric acid -- might have seriously polluted the soil where it was dumped and may have contaminated the nearby Tatu River (大肚溪).

Prosecutors allege that the sources of the toxic waste solvents were several high-tech industrial firms, including UMC, Vanguard and Daiion (太洋新技), one of the Taiwan branches of Japanese firm Mitsubishi Chemicals. Two Japanese officials with Daiion were also indicted yesterday.

Under the Waste Disposal Act and the Toxic Chemical Substances Control Act, prosecutors indicted Tsai Fa-tzu (蔡法次), the head of Ho Hsing, and asked for a five-year prison term and a fine of NT$1 million for each of the four firms.

Li Ching-yi (李慶義), spokesman for the Taiwan High Court's Prosecutors' Office Taichung Branch, said the toxic solvent corrosive hydrofluoric acid was produced by Hsinchu-based Daiion.