Illegal leather tanning factories along Fengshan River (
EPA Administrator Chang Juu-en (
PHOTO: CHAI CHING-HUA, TAIPEI TIMES
At the ceremony, also attended by Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), Fengshan Mayor Lin San-lang (林三郎), and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yi-shih (林益世), clear water was poured into the river to symbolize the river's future vitality.
"Staff of environmental agencies at all levels will inspect illegal tanning factories in order to revive the Fengshan River," Chang said.
Originating in the mountainous areas of Kaohsiung County, the river passes through Fengshan City, population 300,000, before entering neighboring Kaohsiung City.
The commissioner said that three or four decades ago, when its water was still clean, the river was a popular place for swimmers. However, now it is notorious for being heavily polluted by household sewage and industrial wastewater.
"To make the river accessible, restoration projects will include planting trees, paving paths for recreational walkers, and building sewer systems," Yang said.
In the county, a sewage treatment plant will be completed by April next year to intercept polluted waters.
EPA officials said that for decades the waters of the 20km Fengshan River have been polluted by waste water from illegal leather tanning factories.
Since 2002, the river has been listed as one of the nation's 13 most seriously polluted rivers ranked as deserving comprehensive treatment.
According to Leu Horng-guang (
As a result, three registered factories were penalized for discharging untreated wastewater, four illegal tanning factories were shut down, and two illegal wells used by tanning factories were closed.
After visiting the river yesterday, Leu said that treating the river was urgent.
"The river water I observed under the scorching sun in the south was even bubbling," Leu told the Taipei Times.
According to Leu, in 2004 and 2005 the EPA will allocate the local authority about NT$400 million to carry out restoration work along a 5km section of the river near Fengshan City.
The first stage of this work will be completed by the end of next year.
Downstream, the river crosses the border into Kaohsiung City and runs through the industrial zones of the city. It was once so heavily polluted that no fish could survive in it.
Several years ago, however, the Kaohsiung City government built a sewer system to intercept the polluted water. Currently, about 300,000 metric tons of polluted river water are diverted to a municipal sewage treatment plant daily.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS