Two thousand senior citizens from Nantou County's Tsaotun Township (草屯) yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, asking the central government to stump up the NT$216 million (US$6.7 million) in debt the township government has incurred after apparently following government policies.
The protesters, led by township Mayor Chou Hsin-li (
EPA officials responded and said the township put itself into the position by signing a seven-year contract with Chuchan Co (
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
To better meet the expanding demand for waste processing and in light of the difficulty procuring properties large enough to accommodate full-scale waste incinerators, in 1997 the EPA proposed a "transitional plan" and approved the construction of several smaller, temporary incinerators, Chou said.
Former Tsaotun Township Mayor Hung Tun-jen (洪敦仁) signed a seven-year BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) contract in 2003 with GEP after receiving the EPA's authorization to subsidize the county's garbage disposal fees "until a full-scale incinerator was completed," Chou said, adding that a full-scale incinerator in Nantou was proposed to be completed by last year.
Last year, having withdrawn the plan for an incinerator in Nantou, the EPA ordered the township to ship its waste to a larger incinerator in Taichung County's Wurih (
GEP filed and won a lawsuit against the township, and the Arbitration Association (ROC) ordered Tsaotun to pay NT$216 million for ending the contract three years early, he added.
Yesterday's mediator, DPP Legislator Lin Yun-sheng (林耘生) said that the central government should take some responsibility for the township's debt since "the township signed the contract when it was unaware of the four-year cap on the subsidy," Lin said.
"Now the county is bankrupt because the central government has withdrawn its subsidies," he added.
In response to the accusations, the EPA's Inspector General Chang Hoang-jang (張晃彰) said that the county knew the regulations but signed a contract with GEP anyway.
"The transitional plan clearly stated that local governments could build temporary incinerators and use them for up to four years because that is the time needed to build a large-scale incinerator," Chang said.
"Tsaotun township applied for the subsidy under this plan -- so there is no way they would not know about the time limit on the reimbursement," he said.
In addition, "to say that [the EPA] promised to reimburse Tsaotun for its garbage fees until a full-scale incinerator was built is only telling half the story," Chang said.
"The EPA did make such a promise, on the condition that the township completed its transitional incinerator speedily [within one year], which Tsaotun failed to do, so the promise did not stand," he said.
"Despite the fact that Tsaotun's construction was one full year overdue, which defeats the purpose of having transitional incinerators, the EPA still provided it four years of payments according to the plan," he said.
"The EPA has done its bit within reasonable realms, but what the county signed with its contractor is not related to the administration," Chang said.
As for the Wang's request to come up with a resolution within a month, Chang said that the administration will form a case committee to propose a plan, however, "We will continue to subsidize Tsaotun for transporting their garbage to the Wurih incinerator, like we do for all of Nantou's townships," Chang said.
"But we cannot encourage local governments to sign contracts with contractors while thinking that the EPA will clean up after them," he said.
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