Collaboration between police assigned to protect the environment and Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) inspectors has proven effective in collaring criminals, the EPA said yesterday.
Environmentalists, however, said that exposing the illegal dumping of waste was just a starting point and that the EPA should enact a comprehensive clean-up program to prevent the further spread of pollution.
The environmental police force's 96 officers were transferred from the National Police Administration in July 1999. Their brief was to solve criminal acts of environmental destruction. In 2002, another 96 recruits were added to the original number.
In the last five years, EPA officials said, the unit had assisted inspectors with local governments in tracing pollutants, controlling wastewater, investigating soil contamination and solving the crimes of toxic-waste dumping and gravel pilfering. Their efforts resulted in prosecutions of 53 people for 944 crimes against the environment.
According to Chang Hoang-jang (張晃彰), director of the EPA's Chief Inspectorate, 80 percent of prosecutions resulted from the work of inspectors while the others took advantage of tips from the public.
Chang said that a flexible arrangement teaming up environmental police and environmental inspectors from local government had been set up in March last year.
Over the last 14 months, illegal use of the environment had been efficiently dealt with under the arrangement, Chang said.
Citing an example of dumping exposed last October in Miaoli, Chang said that 867 barrels of unidentified chemical solvents were dug out from an abandoned factory site after nearby residents contacted authorities.
The team credited with the work consisted of EPA officials, Miaoli County Government officials, consultants from the Industrial Technology Research Institute and the environmental police.
"Nine days later, the sources of the toxic waste in the barrels were quickly identified: eight chemical plants in Taoyuan County," said Hsu Kuen-tien (許坤田), the head of the environmental police.
From January to last month, the combination of agencies dealt with 19,032 cases of pollution.
Hsu said the most difficult part of tackling environmental crime was gathering evidence.
"It takes time, manpower and a well-designed strategy to enforce the law," Hsu said.
Meanwhile, EPA officials said, more recent cases of dumping were being investigated carefully, including a notorious incident involving Taiwan Cement. Environmentalists sued the company early last month for illegally discharging waste oil at a site in Hualien.
Chen Hsien-heng (陳咸亨), deputy director of the EPA's Chief Inspectorate, said previous analysis showed the damage to the network of bomb shelters at the site, built during the Japanese occupation, had been contained.
Chen said the EPA would soon order Taiwan Cement to propose how it would restore the site.
However, Green Formosa Front chairman Wu Tung-jye (吳東傑) told the Taipei Times that the EPA's report was at best optimistic because prosecutors involved in the case said that treating the contaminated soil and groundwater could be challenging.
"The EPA obviously neglected public consultation during the analysis. All EPA procedures used to investigate the contaminated site must be open to the public to earn its confidence," Wu said.
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