The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) released a report yesterday showing that five out of seven locations in the Kaohsiung area suspected of being contaminated with slag pollutants were within legal standards.
The controversy arose on Nov. 11, when more than 9,000 ducks from a duck farm on one of the sites were culled after being found to contain high levels of certain toxic chemicals.
The EPA said the findings should bring closure to the entire issue of Kaohsiung County’s land contamination, which has received much media attention over the past two weeks.
The findings showed that five out of seven locations in the Dapingding area (大坪頂) — which includes parts of Kaohsiung County’s Daliao Township (大寮) and neigboring Kaohsiung City — had contamination levels that were within EPA standards, while the other two locations were found to contain high levels of harmful chemicals and minerals, a problem the EPA promised to immediately resolve.
Liu Ming-long (劉銘龍), a high-ranking official at the EPA, said the agency did not know why such high levels of dioxins were found in the ducks, given that the land was within safety standards. He said the agency had asked a team of experts to look into the matter.
The ducks had previously been 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 dioxin.
The two locations found exceeding standards included an aluminum slag plant and a parcel of land immediately bordering a temple on Shanbian Road (山邊路). Liu said the EPA had asked the owners and operators of the land to immediately clear the waste and clean the land pollutants.
He said if they failed to comply, Kaohsiung County authorities would act to prevent the areas from endangering public health, adding that both cases had been sent to the Kaohsiung District Prosecutor’s Office for further review.
Of the other five areas, two were classified by the EPA to be of medium priority, and the agency promised to investigate them further. Officials said that none of the area’s underground reservoirs were contaminated.
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