A survey on the sources of sediment pollution in the Dahan River (大漢溪), a tributary of the Tamsui River (淡水河), will begin soon as part of the government’s efforts to clean up the nation’s major rivers, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said.
“The Dahan is the first target because initial surveys show that its sediment has suffered the most serious heavy-metal pollution among all rivers,” said Tsai Hung-teh (蔡鴻德), executive secretary of the agency’s Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Fund Management Board.
The new survey would focus on tracking the sources of pollution and how the pollutants are spread, Tsai said after a meeting with experts on river pollution.
Photo: CNA
The board began looking into water and sediment pollution in major rivers in 1997 and has completed tests for heavy metals and organic pollutants in 27 rivers, Tsai said.
“It was discovered that the water and sediment of more than one-third of those rivers were seriously polluted,” Tsai said, adding that the Dahan had the highest copper content in its sediment compared with other rivers.
The river also ranked among the top five in terms of zinc and nickel content levels in its sediment and water, Tsai said.
The new survey will start from the Sanying Bridge in the upper stretch of the Dahan and end at estuary six of the Tamsui River, Tsai said, adding that the Tamsui’s two other branches — the Sindian and the Keelung rivers — would also be covered in the study.
“The project will cost about NT$21 million [US$697,000] and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2013,” Tsai said.
Meanwhile, the New Taipei City Government reminded residents not to harvest vegetables grown on artificial wetlands along the Dahan and Tamsui rivers because such crops may contain toxic chemicals or heavy metals.
“The vegetables have been planted to help purify river water, but they are not edible because some of them may absorb toxic pollutants in the rivers water or sediment,” a city official said.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS