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.
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