The government hopes an environmental impact assessment of Formosa Group’s plan to expand facilities at a naphtha cracker plant can proceed as scheduled despite two fires at the factory within the past month Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Hwang Jung-chiou (黃重球) yesterday said.
Hwang told a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus press conference that the Ministry of Economic Affairs would demand that the company provide “concrete and specific” explanations for the causes of the fires at its plant in Mailiao (麥寮), Yunlin County, before allowing the plant to resume operations.
“If the incidents were isolated, [the fire] will not affect the company’s expansion plan” and the company could proceed with an environmental impact assessment, Hwang said.
“However, if systematic problems are found, the ministry will need to see what they are,” Hwang said, adding that as the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) was responsible for the matter, the ministry would not send experts to monitor operations at the plant.
The company was ordered to stop operations at its hydrodesulfurization (HDS) unit after a fire broke out at the Mailiao plant on Sunday — the second in a month after a July 7 fire at the plant’s Alkene unit. It will only be allowed to resume operations after it passes a safety test organized by the Yunlin County government.
The EPA said that while no toxic chemicals were released on Sunday, air quality in surrounding areas had been affected, resulting in a NT$1 million (US$31,000) fine by the Yunlin County Government’s Environmental Protection Bureau — the most severe penalty stipulated in the Air Pollution Protection Act (空氣污染防治法).
Amid protests and calls for the expansion to be called off, Hwang yesterday emphasized the importance of the company, saying that as many as 370,000 jobs were related to the petrochemical industry.
Council of Labor Affairs Deputy Minister Kuo Fong-yu (郭芳煜), who also attended the conference, said the council would hold weekly inspections at the plant to ensure its safety. At present, the council inspects the plant every other week or once a month, Kuo said.
KMT Legislator Wu Ching-chih (吳清池) said Formosa could provide a safety inspection report to the Yunlin County Government every year.
Formosa had to shut one of its two gasoline-making residue fluid catalytic crackers at the complex on July 13 because of mechanical problems. The unit failed to restart as scheduled on Friday because of technical issues.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY HUANG
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