Following a fire that broke out at Taoyuan County’s Kuanying Industrial Park before dawn on Saturday, the Taoyuan County Government’s Environmental Protection Bureau yesterday said that initial testing on the concentration of toxic chemical substances in the air showed levels were within the appropriate limits, but added that wastewater had polluted a nearby river.
The fire broke out at 1:29am on Saturday near Datong 1st Rd in the industrial park and the flames spread across seven plants, including the Gearex Corp, the bureau said.
The bureau said that because the toxic chemical substances stored at Taiwan K.K. Corp and Lysurf Chemical Co were affected by the fire, it immediately initiated the emergency response mechanism and the Environmental Protection Administration also sent its toxic substance emergency response team.
Along with the response team, the bureau said it applied the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy technique to obtain pollution data in the surrounding at-risk areas.
The probe found that the concentration of methyl alcohol was 68.5 parts per million (ppm), below the standard of 200ppm; while the concentration of ethyl acetate was 56ppm, below the standard of 400ppm, collected at 4:30am.
The concentration levels of methyl alcohol and ethyl acetate had dropped to 5.4ppm and 2.8ppm respectively when tested at 6:30am, the bureau said, adding that the toxic substance stored at Taiwan K.K. Corp — hydrazine — had become nitrogen oxides when burning, so hydrazine had not been detected.
The bureau said it will impose a fine between NT$100,000 (US$3,336) and NT$1 million on the Gearex Corp for air pollution caused by its fire accident, based on the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法).
In addition, a fine between NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 will be given to Ener-Com Technology Co for violating the Water Pollution Control Act (水污染防治法) by polluting the nearby Fulin River, the bureau said.
The bureau added that if the situation does not improve before a designated date, the company can be ordered to suspend its work.
According to the bureau, about 5,000 barrels, each containing 190 liters of industrial waste organic solvent, were stored at the Ener-Com Technology Co, and so it was obliged to place booms and sandbags along the Fulin River as well as using two tanker trucks to extract the wastewater from fire trucks in order to prevent the water pollution from spreading farther.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
RSS