The environmental impact assessment committee in Taoyuan County plans to discuss the case of Quanta Display in the group's regularly scheduled meeting tomorrow.
The committee came under attack last week after President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen said he'd get on his hands and knees to beg if it meant a speedier review for Taiwan companies seeking approval of their assessments.
Quanta Computer chairman Barry Lam (
Members of the review committee say they won't let their guard down in protecting the environment simply because of Chen's criticism.
They added that high-ranking officials should visit Taoyuan to learn the details of the case and the extent to which the county's environment has been polluted.
At issue is Quanta's waste-water discharge from its plants. Quanta says its discharge meets standards set by the central government. But committee members want to impose stricter standards because the discharge goes into the heavily-polluted Nankan River (
Specifically, the two sides are debating what level of "biochemical oxygen demand," or BOD, should be allowed in the waste water.
BOD refers to the amount of oxygen taken up by microorganisms that decompose organic waste matter in water, and is used as a measure of the amount of certain types of organic pollutant in water.
Taoyuan officials want to set the standard at 20mg/l, while Quanta says it should be 25mg/l. Government guidelines, meanwhile, suggest a more lenient standard of 30mg/l.
Activists from the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union say it's reasonable for Taoyuan officials or other local governments to set environmental regulations that are tougher than national standards.
"Local governments are obligated to protect residents by taking in account different geographic conditions, industrial polluters and the amount of pollution" in the area, said Hsu Kuang-jung (
Hsu said that reviews of environmental impact assessments shouldn't necessarily hamper a developer's plans as long as the applications are written honestly.
"In the past, several controversial proposals contained fraudulent statistics or irrelevant basic information," Hsu said.
Lin Sheng-zhong (
"Because of the involvement of money and privilege, some over-exploited places in Taiwan have become environmental burdens," Lin said. "Why do these firms have to establish factories in places that are heavily polluted?"
In related news, The Environmental Protection Administration is scheduled to submit proposed changes to rules governing the approval of EIAs to Premier Chang Chun-hsung (張俊雄) tomorrow.
Among the measures is a stipulation that local governments act on an EIA within 40 days of receiving the application.
Typically, an application can take between 60 and 90 days before the assessment is approved.
In addition, the Environmental Protection Administration has proposed that local governments hire professionals who possess expertise in dealing with matters related to environmental impact assessments.
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