Dangerous pollutants found in farming soil

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) confirmed yesterday that areas of cultivated land in Kaohsiung and Changhua Counties have been seriously polluted by heavy metals.

The discovery of the contaminated land was made during a comprehensive survey of cultivated land nationwide that was prompted by the discovery of cadmium pollution in rice fields in central Taiwan in July last year.

Cheng Shean-rong (鄭顯榮), director-general of the EPA's Bureau of Water Quality Protection, said yesterday that 319 hectares of cultivated land that have been heavily contaminated by six heavy metals since the 1980s had been separated into small areas to facilitate future monitoring.

At a press conference yesterday, the EPA revealed the results of soil screening in Kaohsiung and Chang-hua counties, saying that parts of the monitored land had been contaminated by diverse heavy metals but not cadmium.

In Kaohsiung County, officials said, 4.24 hectares of agricultural land exceeded the legally stipulated safe levels for lead, copper, zinc, nickel and chrome.

The fields in question are in the townships of Fengshan (鳳山), Taliao (大寮), Kangshan (岡山) and Hunei (湖內). Concentrations of lead in some of the fields are four to five times the legal limit.

In Changhua County, 0.95 hectares of planted fields were polluted by zinc and nickel exceeding legal levels.

EPA officials said that they suspected that most of the polluted fields were irrigated by contaminated waste water discharged by nearby factories, some of which no longer exist.

"We are having difficulty tracing the sources of the pollutants because they may have been accumulated in the fields over decades," Cheng said.

In accordance with the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Act, Cheng said, local governments and the Council of Agriculture must produce strategies for dealing with crops in polluted fields.

Strategies to address the problem that may be adopted by both central and local government include publishing details of the locations, erecting fences to keep people from entering, destroying crops and preventing certain crops from being planted in the future, the EPA said.

Officials from Kaohsiung County's Bureau of Environmental Protection told the Taipei Times yesterday that they had not received the results of the EPA tests, but would work with the central government to develop strategies to deal with the contamination.

Hsieh Chi-yen (謝季燕), the bureau's director, told the Taipei Times that the local agricultural bureau would identify the owners of the polluted fields as a matter of urgency and identify which crops may have been contaminated.

"Some crops absorb certain heavy metals. It will take us some time to confirm whether crops have been contaminated," Hsieh said.

Hsieh said, however, that the central government should compensate farmers if a decision is taken to destroy contaminated crops.

"If a decision to destroy polluted [rice] was made, we hope compensation will be paid by the EPA's Soil Pollution and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Fund," Hsieh said.

The EPA's examination of cultivated land will be completed by the end of May. Results will be released to the public gradually.