The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday that it is scheduled to deliver a comprehensive review on the impact of the Formosa Group’s No. 6 Naphtha Cracking Plant by the end of this year.
A preliminary review from the EPA showed that the penalties leveled against the group’s naphtha cracking plant between 2006 and this year have topped NT$7.7 million (US$240,000).
The EPA decided to review the environmental impact of the plant, in Yunlin County’s Mailiao (麥寮), which has been in operation for more than 10 years, at the request of the Control Yuan.
Aside from complaints that the Control Yuan received in recent years, many environmental groups and Mailiao residents have protested against the plant over the years.
The EPA started the review on April 28, and it is scheduled to be complete by Dec. 31. The review will look at the plant’s impact on the nation’s economy, environment, society and culture. While the comprehensive review will not be finished for another six months, the EPA has said it will brief the public on the results as it finishes each part of the review.
So far, the EPA has completed about a quarter of the review. The report the EPA released yesterday showed that the local environmental bureau has inspected the plant 133 times over the past five years. The plant was found to have broken regulations 15 times, with 14 of them involving fines against the plant.
The EPA also found from the petitions submitted by the public that most people complained about the plant’s influence on fisheries and air pollution. Some also complained about strange smells emanating from the plant.
The EPA has also asked Formosa to submit a health risk assessment to determine if exposure to the pollutants generated by its No. 6 Naphtha Cracking Plant could cause cancer.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching