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EPA gets tough with river polluters
ILLEGAL WASTE:
More than 3,000 inspections across the nation revealed that factories go as far as secretly installing underground pipes to carry water into rivers
By Chiu Yu-tzu
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Jun 05, 2003, Page 4
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"We will reward those volunteering information with as much as NT$200,000 because 23 percent of cases involving illegal hidden pipes are exposed by them."
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Cheng Shean-rong, director-general of the EPA's Bureau of Water Quality Protection
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To tackle river pollution problems, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has carried out more than 3,000 inspections nation-wide in the last five months, closing down seven serious polluters and sending two factory owners to court for illegally discharging waste water.
The EPA picked last year as the Year for Treating River Pollution, to tackle pollution problems at nine major rivers in Taiwan. From the beginning of this year, the EPA focused on the 13 most polluted rivers to check the secret discharge of industrial waste water.
According to Cheng Shean-rong (¾GÅãºa), director-general of the EPA's Bureau of Water Quality Protection, their focal point was exposing hidden pipes used for illegally discharging waste water from factories.
In the last five months, Cheng said, environmental inspectors exposed 43 hidden pipes. Ten of these cases, Cheng said, were reported to the EPA by volunteers.
"We will reward those volunteering information with as much as NT$200,000, because 23 percent of cases involving illegal hidden pipes are exposed by them," Cheng said on Tuesday.
He said that local environmental officials and volunteers worked hard to go into remote areas covered by weeds in order to find hidden pipes.
Cheng encourages residents to pay attention to unusual pipes in remote areas close to rivers.
"Industrial pollutants, including toxic heavy metals, may be transferred through the food chain to people because polluted river water is often used for irrigation," Cheng said,
The EPA fined 35 violators for discharging waste water without permits, and 163 violators for not meeting regulations pertaining to waste water discharge.
According to Chen, seven factories were ordered to shut down due to serious pollution and two factory owners in Kaohsiung and Changhua counties were charged in court.
A total of six factories received a NT$600,000 fine while 213 others were fined NT$60,000 for polluting rivers.
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