Pollution source stumps Kaohsiung investigators

Investigators are still trying to determine the source of an estimated 190 liters of oil that was dumped into the Houjing River (後勁溪) in Kaohsiung last week.

On Wednesday, Kaohsiung residents reported a foul odor emanating from the Houjing. Residents also noted that parts of the river were covered with a heavy black oil.

City officials suspect the oil may have come from factories located in the Jen-ta Industrial Zone in Kaohsiung County, but environmental inspectors have yet to determine the oil's source.

"We sampled the waste-water discharge of three factories in the Jen-ta Industrial Zone, but the results are still unavailable," said Hsieh Chi-yen (謝季燕), director of Kaohsiung County's Bureau of Environmental Protection.

More than 100 city garbage collectors spent three days working to clean up the mess last week. City officials say water-quality levels along the polluted section of the Houjing have begun to return to normal.

Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lin Yung-chien (林永堅) has vowed to find the source of the contamination. Lin inspected the river last week, along with Chang Feng-teng (張豐藤), head of the city's Environmental Protection Bureau.

Lin said that regional collaboration needed to be improved in order to solve pollution problems that affect more than one government jurisdiction.

Officials at the Southern Region Branch Inspection Bureau under the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday that the contamination incident was serious compared to earlier cases.

Still, emergency measures taken by the local environmental bureau helped to limit the effects of the contamination.

"However, the city has not yet decided whether to carry out a long-term ecological survey on the impact of the contamination," said a branch official, who declined to give his name.

EPA head Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) has vowed to get tough on river polluters, promising tougher inspections nationwide for factories that discharge their waste water into rivers.

Last weekend, Kaohsiung County environmental officials tested the waste-water discharges of several leather and dyeing factories, finding six that were in violation of environmental laws.

Officials said they found levels of heavy metals such as chromium in waste water that exceeded national standards.

Hsieh noted yesterday that finding illegal waste-water discharges was a challenge. The environmental official said that it takes just 30 minutes to dump hazardous waste into a river, making detection of illegal discharges difficult.

"However, the number of leather and dyeing factories has been reduced from 32 to 12 since last October because we've fined dishonest ones," Hsieh said.

Hsieh said more financial support from the EPA was needed for equipment that could carry out real-time monitoring of factories that discharge waste water into rivers.