Residents living close to Taipei Songshan Airport protested outside the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday, saying the government should compensate them as quickly as possible for tolerating noise caused by landing and departing aircraft.
The protesters, led by candidate for Taipei City councilor Chen Teh-sien (陳德賢) of the Taiwan Solidarity Union, were mainly from Datong (大同) and Zhongshan (中山) districts. They said the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) had promised it would compensate 100 households living in the designated noise control zone every year by installing soundproof facilities.
“There are about 100,000 households located in the noise control zone,” the protesters said in a statement. “However, 10 years have passed and only 5,092 households have been compensated.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The protesters said decibel levels measured by the CAA at selected locations were much lower than those measured by the residents themselves. They said noise pollution would be much higher when direct flights between -Songshan and Tokyo’s Haneda airports are launched later this month.
“The noise from the airport has caused long-term damage to the residents’ health,” Chen said. “Taipei City’s Department of Environmental Protection is responsible for executing the installation of soundproof facilities and should not pass the buck. It obviously has colluded with the CAA by only recognizing the standards that the CAA set for giving out compensation.”
The EPA said it would soon organize a meeting which the CAA and residents could attend to talk about solutions.
“We will focus on two things. One will be the actions taken by the CAA to reduce the noise generated by aircraft landing and taking off and the other will be to see if there is any other way to make soundproof facilities available sooner,” said Hsieh Yein-rui (謝燕儒), director of the EPA’s Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Department.
Hsieh said compensation for noise control was funded by aircraft landing fees paid by the airlines using Taipei Songshan Airport. To facilitate the installation of soundproof facilities, the Department of Environmental Protection has divided the residents into three categories based on decibel measurements. Those living in the Category III area, which has a measured decibel of 75 or above, will be given priority, followed by those in the Category II and Category I areas respectively.
EPA statistics showed the CAA has yet to finish the installation of soundproof facilities in Category III areas.
“In the past, Songshan could collect aircraft landing fees of about NT$100 million [US$3.25 million] per year,” Hsieh said. “The launch of the high-speed rail service hurt domestic flight services badly, which in turn caused the landing charge to drop drastically to approximately NT$30 million per year.”
The CAA said the locations where noise levels were measured were determined by the CAA, the department as well as local residents and, therefore, cannot call the shots.
Statistics from the CAA showed that approximately NT$1.5 billion has been spent on noise control between 2000 and this year and NT$900 million was used for the installation of soundproof facilities.
A total of 5,165 households in the noise control zone are qualified for compensation for soundproof facilities. So far, 50 have yet to have them installed, the CAA said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS