The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday said it would abide by a court ruling on the Phase 3 Zone Development of the Central Taiwan Science Park, but warned of the negative consequences of that decision.
Yeh Jiunn-horng (葉俊宏), director-general of the EPA’s planning department, said the EPA would deliver the court ruling to the Central Taiwan Science Park Administration within seven days once it receives the official ruling.
Meanwhile, Yeh cited Article 14 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法), which says that “the competent authority may not grant permission for development activity prior to the completion of an environment impact assessment review or the authorization of an environmental assessment report ... The permission granted in violation of this regulation shall be invalid.”
“The EPA has completed the review and made public the results of the review. While the court annulled the effectiveness of the results, Article 14 does not apply in this particular case because the developer followed regulations by conducting the environmental impact assessment,” he said, adding that the administration’s view on the article was seconded by the Ministry of Justice.
Yeh said environmentalists disagreed with the EPA’s interpretation of Article 14 and filed lawsuits to challenge the interpretation.
The court has yet to rule on the case and the EPA cannot ask investors at the Phase 3 zone to stop construction simply because of a pending lawsuit, he said. If the court disagrees with the EPA’s interpretation, Yeh said it would be “the source of many disasters to come,” as it would add uncertainty on the results of other environmental impact assessment reports.
“Like a housing project that passes an impact assessment and the developer begins construction,” Yeh said, “Three years later, the environmental impact assessment becomes invalid, the building becomes illegal and all the tenants have to move out. More cases like this will happen. I can assure you that the Central Taiwan Science Park would not be the only one.”
Yeh denied the EPA had deliberately delayed the review of the health risk assessment.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS