An ad hoc Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) committee meeting yesterday concluded that a fire which broke out at Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s Sixth Naphtha Cracker in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) in July 2010 had a negative impact on the surrounding environment and that the company must outline its response strategies in light of the case.
The meeting was held using information based on the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法) and the committee requested that Formosa Petrochemical Corp present an environmental impact investigation report on the accident. It added that the conclusions drawn from the findings of a third ad hoc committee meeting which took place in March require that the company come up with a response strategy for possible future accidents.
However, the EIA committee said the causal relationship of the accident and the negative impact on the nearby environment was unclear and needed to be discussed further.
Before the meeting took place at the Environmental Protection Administration, several representatives from civic environmental protection groups, academics and local aquaculture farmers held a protest in front of the building.
The activists and aquaculturalists presented evidence arguing that the collective mass death of ducks and fish near the plant after the fire was suspected to be connected to pollution created by the accident.
Taiwan Water Conservation Alliance spokesperson Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said about 2,500 ducklings at a nearby duck ranch died en masse on the morning of July 27 and they believe the deaths were directly related to the acidic dust which was released after 584 tonnes of heavy oil were ignited during the accident.
“The fire burned for almost three days and the duck ranch was located to the east of the plant with winds blowing from the southwest during those days,” Chen said, adding that a heavy rainfall occurred around 1am on July 27, just hours before the sudden death of the ducklings.
A member of the Changhua Medical Alliance for Public Affairs Yang Joe-ming (楊澤民), said that according to the EPA’s monitoring data from that period, levels of PM2.5 (particles under 2.5 micrometers in diameter), as well as damaging ozone, exceeded regulated standards in both Chunghua and Yunlin Counties by 16 and 11.1 times respectively.
During the meeting, Formosa Petrochemical Corp said its investigation into air quality, water monitoring and soil quality, as well as tests for heavy-metal in fish and crustaceans raised near the plant, showed that pollutant levels were all within regulated standards and that there was no scientific evidence to prove the animals’ deaths were caused by pollution from the plant.
However, Yunlin County Government’s Agriculture Bureau said excess amounts of heavy metal substances — up to five times the level that can kill rats in laboratory tests — were found in aquatic products.
Two local aquaculture farmers who raise Taiwan tilapia and clams said large amounts of their water-based livestock died after the incident, but the company was not willing to compensate them for their losses because they could not bring any scientific evidence to prove their case.
Yunlin County Deputy Commissioner Shih Keh-he (施克和) said the Supreme Administrative Court had already ruled that the accident had caused severe air pollution and so the company should stop shirking its responsibilities by saying it had caused no harm to the environment.
The meeting concluded that the company still has to provide a strategy which would include various environmental monitoring procedures.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai