Tainan County’s Bureau of Environment Administration (BEA) yesterday fined and sanctioned the Chao Hsiang Co after it was discovered to be responsible for leaks of toxic pollutants.
Earlier this week investigators found dangerous levels of chemicals, including chromium, on a farm in Tainan County.
Officials from the BEA said that although their findings did not indicate that Chao Hsiang had caused the pollution on purpose, the company neglected to properly enclose their stock of furnace slag, a material that is often used for building roads and in other construction supplies.
Earlier statements made by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) stated that the harmful chemical chromium found in surrounding farmland most likely originated from the furnace slag the company was stockpiling.
The chemicals were spread over the area following the heavy flooding caused by Typhoon Morakot in August.
BEA officials consequently gave Chao Hsiang a deadline of yesterday afternoon to remove the slag as the company had also failed to acquire a license for stockpiling it in the area.
This contradicted earlier reports that the firm was operating legally. Tainan County authorities later confirmed that the slag was already in the process of being removed.
Officials added that they plan to claim compensation from the company for damage caused to farmland.
To ensure that the nation’s 24 other furnace recycling plants were complying with environmental regulations, EPA Director General of Waste Management Ho Soon-ching (何舜琴) said that the EPA promised to complete a comprehensive investigation into the other plants and make the report public within two weeks.
In a separate setting, more than a 100 farmers from Houbi Township (後壁) in Tainan County worried about lackluster rice sales after reports of chemical contamination in their area announced that they planned to pay a visit to the Council of Agriculture in Taipei today.
They plan to ask the Council to assist them to sell their rice as reports have already circulated that rice distributors had decided not to purchase their produce.
The COA had stated in earlier reports that the chemical chromium only harms the roots and is unlikely to affect the rice itself.
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