Citing the Administrative Penalty Act (APA, 行政罰法), the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday fined a water treatment plant a record NT$130.5 million (US$3.9 million) for illegally dumping untreated wastewater into the sewage system.
The agency called on all water treatment plants around the country to invest in new equipment if they are not adequately equipped to process wastewater.
The case marked the first time the agency switched from the Water Pollution Protection Act (水污染防治法), which has a maximum penalty of NT$600,000, to the APA.
“In the past, EPA inspectors investigated suspected violations involving wastewater by taking random samples,” EPA Department of Water Quality Protection director general Chen Hsien-heng (陳咸亨) said.
“When a plant failed the inspection, no investigation was carried out to determine the reason for the failure, whether it was poor compliance in using treatment facilities or that capacity was inadequate. That approach did not provide for significant improvement on the matter,” Chen said.
In August, the EPA received an anonymous report by an employee of RSEA Engineering Corp that said the company had been illegally dumping about 10,000 tonnes of untreated wastewater and mud per day via an unregistered pipeline into the sewage system, Chen said.
The company had been commissioned by the Industrial Development Bureau to process wastewater emitted by businesses in Taoyuan County’s Guanyin Industrial Park since 2004.
While RSEA facilities were only designed to process 31,200 tonnes of wastewater per day, it had contracts with businesses in the park to process 42,000 tonnes, the source said.
The company had misled EPA investigators, the source said, by pouring sodium chlorate — a strong oxidant — into its treated wastewater pipes, which temporarily lowered the water’s chemical oxygen demand level, a measure of organic pollutants in the water.
“Though the unregistered pipe had been dug up [and destroyed] when we investigated, RHEA’s accounting books and other records showed the company had been making illegal emissions since 2005,” Chen said.
As a NT$600,000 fine is “next to nothing” for such a company, Chen said the EPA turned to other laws to penalize it.
“We found that APA Article 18 stipulates that if, by breaking a law the gained benefit exceeds the maximum statutory amount of a fine, the fine may be increased to the extent appropriate within the scope of the benefit gained,” Chen said.
Citing APA Article 20, Chen said the EPA requested that RSEA return such profits.
“Given that RSEA spilled 10,000 tonnes of untreated wastewater per day for the past three years while charging business in the park for the ‘treatment,’ we will ask it to pay back the NT$130.5 million processing fee that it charged,” he said.
Chen said that as RSEA runs the sole wastewater treatment plant in the park, it would be impractical to demand that the company shut down temporarily.
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