Minister of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Stephen Sheng (沈世宏) said yesterday that the penalties leveled against the Formosa Petrochemical plant in Kaohsiung County’s Renwu Township (仁武) would remain unchanged.
Sheng made the remarks at the Legislature’s Health, Environment and Social Welfare Committee when he briefed lawmakers on the actions the EPA had taken to contain the groundwater and soil pollution found at Formosa’s Renwu plant.
Last year, the EPA found that levels of 1,2-dichloroethane, believed to be a carcinogen, were 30,000 times higher than maximum allowable levels according to government regulations.
A taskforce commissioned by the Kaohsiung County Environmental Protection Bureau concluded on Wednesday that two wells located outside the plant had water containing levels of 1,2-dichloroethane that exceeded government regulations.
One well built near Wuhe Village (五和) to monitor the pollution was found to have water containing seven times the level of 1,2-dichloroethane allowable by the government. The other was a well drilled by local citizens that was found to have levels 1.75 times the allowable level.
As the taskforce cannot determine if the pollution found in the two wells was caused by Formosa’s petrochemical plant, it said that Formosa need not shut down the plant.
Lawmakers yesterday cast doubts on whether the EPA can actually ask Formosa to pay the fine.
Sheng said that under the Water Pollution Control Act (水汙染防治法), the Renwu plant could be fined a maximum of NT$600,000.
“But we decided to cite the Administrative Penalty Act (行政罰法), which takes into account the ‘improper gains’ Formosa made throughout the years by saving money it should have spent to contain the pollutants,” he said. “This would make the penalty heavier.”
The EPA previously said the fines could range from NT$38 million to NT$150 million.
Although Formosa knew about the pollution in 2002, the EPA could only calculate the penalties the firm had accumulated since 2006, when the Act was promulgated, he said.
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