The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday proceeded with its review of the health risk assessment of the Central Taiwan Science Park’s Phase-3 development project despite protests from environmental activists.
National Taiwan University (NTU) professor Chou Chin-cheng (周晉澄) said the health risk assessment report submitted by the Central Taiwan Science Park Administration for an EPA review yesterday should be burned in a furnace.
“The Supreme Administrative Court has annulled the conclusion of the EIA [environmental impact assessment] review. The EPA should redo the entire EIA, not just the health risk review,” he said in a protest staged in front of EPA headquarters yesterday afternoon.
He was referring to a Taipei High Administrative Court ruling upheld by the Supreme Administrative Court in February that nullified the EIA for the science park’s third-stage expansion project in Taichung County’s Houli Township (后里).
The Taipei High Administrative Court last month also ruled that construction work at the park’s Phase-4 zone in Changhua County’s Erlin Township (二林) has to be halted until a further EIA is conducted and approved.
While agreeing to stop work on infrastructure at the two sites, the EPA and the National Science Council — the agencies that oversee development of the nation’s science parks — said they would not shut down AU Optronics and Sunner Solar, which have already begun production or are building their plants at Houli.
Green Party spokesperson Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲), meanwhile, questioned the integrity of the experts in yesterday’s meeting, saying that two of the professors composing the health risk report should withdraw from the meeting because of conflict of interest.
“They are from the Chinese Medical University, and the university’s chairman is the board director at AU Optronics,” he said.
Despite the protest, the EPA meeting carried on with participating experts generally approving the health risk assessment. The meeting concluded, however, that the Central Taiwan Science Park Administration must add more information to the report, such as a detailed explanation on the methodology it used to estimate the impact of the Phase-3 development on ground water in the area and the local eco-system, as well as other relevant statistics.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office today requested that a court detain three individuals, including Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns. Chang is suspected of accessing a household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪), prosecutors said. Prosecutors yesterday directed investigators to search six locations, including the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Keelung office and the residences of several recall campaign leaders. The recall campaign leaders, including Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), Yu Cheng-i (游正義) and Hsu Shao-yeh
RSS