The number of academics and specialists opposing the development of the Kuokuang Petrochemical Park, a new petrochemical complex in central Taiwan, has been growing, a professor of applied mathematics at National Chung Hsing University said yesterday.
More than 280 members of Taiwan’s academia have added their signatures over the last two weeks to a petition against the Kuokuang petrochemical complex, which is to be developed on tidal land reclaimed from the sea in the central county of Changhua, Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said.
More academics and specialists are expected to join the petition drive before the middle of this month, when the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) might convene a meeting on the possible impact of the project on the topography of the coastal area between the county’s Dacheng (大城) and Fangyuan (芳苑) townships, Chen said.
The EPA has convened a series of meetings since early last month on the project’s possible impact on dolphins, water resources and human health.
The EPA’s move to speed up the environmental assessment process for the project was reportedly made under the instruction of Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to allow the construction of the project to go ahead as planned.
Wu’s order came after a warning from Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co that private investors would withdraw their funding from the project if it fails to pass the EPA’s environmental impact assessment at the end of this year.
Chen said the academics are against the development project because it could cause severe water and air pollution that would affect the area’s coastal wetlands, farm crops and residents.
The development project has also caused grave concern that it could threaten the survival of a species of mud shrimp that lives in the region and damage the livelihoods of local fishermen.
The petrochemical complex could also lead to the extinction of the critically endangered Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, of which there are less than 100 left, Chen said.
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