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.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition