More than 100 people who live near Taipei's Sungshan airport complained yesterday that they were unfairly excluded from a scheme designed to compensate residents for the noise pollution caused by the airport.
"It's just not fair," one resident shouted at a press conference held by KMT City Councilor Chen Yung-te (陳永德) and New Party City Councilor Alex Fei (費鴻泰). "Having lived near the airport for 18 years, we are now almost deaf."
The residents, who live in Sungshan district's Mingfu (民福), Chingchung (精忠) and Chuang ching (莊敬) boroughs, argued that they lived only 20m to 30m from the airport but were still excluded from the priority noise compensation list drawn up by the city's Bureau of Environmental Protection.
According to Chen Chung-ming (陳聰明), a bureau spokesperson who attended the press conference, households are entitled to compensation of up to NT$150,000 a year each to pay for soundproofing. The scheme has been in operation since 1996.
The central government's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) conducts tests to assess the noise level in the area around the airport, Chen Chung-ming said, after which the bureau determines how much compensation each household is entitled to.
However, Chen Yung-te, whose constituency includes Sungshan district, said this method of calculating compensation was flawed.
"The bureau compiles its list based on noise-level information supplied by the Civil Aeronautics Administration," Chen Yung-te said. "But the information collected by the administration does not correctly reflect the level of noise these three boroughs suffer since [the administration's] 11 noise monitoring stations are all stationed quite far from these boroughs."
The city councilor said that the position of the monitoring stations meant that some residents were unfairly prohibited from claiming compensation.
Shen Shu-hung (沈世宏), director of the bureau, said that it compiled the list based on information given by the CAA.
The agency collected data according to formulas set out by the Environmental Protection Administration.
Representatives from the bureau at the press conference agreed to delay finalizing the compensation list until they had met with experts to clear up the disagreements over the way noise levels were monitored.
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