The environment impact review committee of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) ruled yesterday that it will form another taskforce to review the Tree Valley Park's (樹谷園區) plan to attract TFT-LCD manufacturerers.
The Tree Valley Park is located to the west of the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學工業園區).
The Tainan County Government first proposed the development, and it later entrusted Chimei Group with the task of implementing the development plan.
Originally, the park was designed to house the downstream corporations of the TFT-LCD industry. However, as many of these corporations have moved to other countries, Chimei decided to change the park design to include upstream TFT-LCD corporations.
By law, Chimei is required to resubmit the development plan for a review of the environmental impact.
Yesterday, the Tainan County magistrate Su Huan-chih (
Some of the committee members questioned the county officials on issues regarding the use of water from other counties and carbon dioxide emissions.
Others also questioned how well the developer is prepared to handle flooding issues, since the amount of rain within the area has exceeded the average measured for the past 100 years.
Su also got into an argument with Gloria Hsu (
Hsu said that the county government knew the law but broke the law anyway. She said the county had asked organizations that might have conflicts of interest to come and speak on their behalf, which was against the meeting rules.
Su said, however, that Hsu's accusations were groundless because Hsu and other former committee members have neither participated in the taskforce meetings nor reviewed the documents.
In related news, the committee also ruled yesterday that another taskforce will be launched soon to review the development of the Formosa Steel Plant.
The committee members first voted for the ruling four weeks ago, but the EPA decided to halt the results due to opposition from environmental groups.
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