Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) yesterday asked the city’s environment bureau to quickly identify which factories in the Taichung Export Processing Zone were responsible for emitting toxic material that contaminated underground water sources in Tanzih (潭子) and Beitun (北屯區) districts.
The city’s environment bureau last week found underground water around the Taichung Export Processing Zone contained 12 times more trichloroethylene than regular underground water.
Trichloroethylene is carcinogenic, the bureau said.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
It said the contaminated area was 3km long and 2km wide and posed a health risk to about 300,000 local residents the, adding that two factories were suspected of being behind the leaks.
Hu visited the contaminated areas yesterday and asked the environment bureau to determine the source of the leak.
He also called on residents in the contaminated area to avoid contact with water from underground sources and closed swimming pools at schools in the area.
Hu said he had ordered the fire department to deliver water to the contaminated area three times a day, adding that the city government would also help residents install running water if they had not already done so.
As the Taichung Export Processing Zone is managed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Hu has asked the ministry to build a wastewater treatment plant in the park and also requested that residents be provided with free health checks.
“I might take to the streets with Greater Taichung residents against the ministry if it does not resolve this problem,” he said.
The Taichung Export Processing Zone was established in 1971 and is currently home to 48 factories.
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