“We only started to suspect that the duck farm was polluted after passing it on the way to conduct another pollution analysis,” Huang said.
The color of its soil and its surrounding vegetation all appeared to be polluted, he said.
Huang said that if he had not tipped the authorities off, it was unlikely the Daliao duck farm would have been investigated. The ducks were later found to have levels of copper, nickel, chromium, zinc, arsenic and lead that were two to 10 times the safety limit. They were also found to contain up to five times the recommended maximum level of dioxins — which the WHO states can cause impairment of immune, nervous and reproductive systems after long-term exposure.
EPA officials said there was not enough manpower and resources to investigate every single location for traces of illegal dumping. They said that currently, the EPA already knows of 175 contaminated locations nationwide, all of which were the result of illegal dumping before 2001. Of the 17 locations that pose an immediate threat to the public, 16 have already been closed and one is in the process of being closed, officials said.
Wang said the EPA relies on public complaints to find polluted land. He said the Daliao duck farm was located in an area that was sparsely populated and as a result, no one came forward before Huang.
However, faced with intense media pressure over contaminated land, he promised the EPA would, “develop a more complete plan for dealing with illegal dumping.”
The EPA will work with local authorities because “these problems usually fall under their jurisdiction,” Wang said.
The problem with the EPA’s reliance on public complaints is that most of the public lacks an understanding of how to spot signs of pollution, critics said.
As a result, it is very likely large areas of contaminated land will remain polluted for some time to come, Huang said.
Recent media attention would suggest that the issue of contaminated land has finally caught the attention of both the public and the EPA, Chao said.
However, if it weren’t for the Daliao ducks, the whole issue may have simply been buried, he said.
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