Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) yesterday said the government should suspend the fifth phase of Formosa Plastics Group’s No. 6 naphtha cracker complex because its fire control system may not be able to handle major accidents.
Ahead of an on-site inspection of the Yunlin County complex and a public hearing on the project by the Ministry of Economic Affairs today, Liu voiced concern that neither local fire departments nor Formosa Plastics could handle chemical fires.
“The expansion plan of the fifth phase of the No. 6 naphtha cracker project should be suspended until a complete risk assessment of the project is completed by the end of this year,” he said.
That report will detail the environmental impact of the complex and contingency plans for accidents.
After a fire on July 7 in the complex took three days to extinguish, Liu questioned whether local fire departments could handle more serious accidents.
It took more than 100 people and 20 fire engines to put out the fire covering 908m² — just 0.003 percent of the total 2,600 hectare zone, Liu said.
There are hundreds of oil tanks in the complex, including 38 that can hold up to 130,000 kiloliters, he said.
“The head of the Yunlin County Fire Bureau admitted that local fire departments would only be able to control a single fire in a 130,000 kiloliter oil tank in the complex,” Liu said
If other oil tanks caught fire at the same time, the fire control system could collapse, Liu said.
The complex was proposed in 1973. In 1991, Formosa Plastics won government approval to build the petrochemical complex on two offshore industrial zones in Yunlin.
The complex has an oil refinery, three naphtha cracking plants, plastics factories, a co-generation plant, a thermal power plant and the Mailiao Industrial Harbor.
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