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.
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