After a five-month investigation of wastewater discharges at Taoyuan County’s industrial parks, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday said violations were frequent and that some firms could face fines of up to NT$10 million (US$343,000).
Environmentalists have more than once publicly called on the government to stop illegal wastewater discharges from the industrial parks at Tayuan (大園) and Guanyin (觀音) townships, and to stop the damage to rare algal reefs that began growing along the coast 7,500 years ago, which are now dying at an unprecedented rate.
Environmental Inspection Deputy Inspector General Yang Su-er (楊素娥) said the EPA initiated a five-month pollutant source inspection project near the reefs in April, and 81 violations involving 43 companies were discovered during 195 inspections in the area.
Bureau of Environmental Inspection North Branch Director Hsiao Chin-lang (蕭清郎) said three companies had been ordered to stop operations between May and June, and only resumed after improvements had been verified.
In addition, through in-depth investigations of several suspect companies during the five months period, the bureau also discovered that, apart from their previous methods of secretly discharging polluted wastewater through detoured subsurface pipes, companies now use various other ways to discharge the wastewater into rivers, Hsiao said.
The methods included saving the wastewater in hidden storage tanks and discharging it at night, diluting the wastewater with groundwater or tap water, mixing the wastewater with strong oxidant agents to affect the water quality test results and other methods, Hsiao said, saying that an important discovery this time was that some companies also commissioned waste treatment companies to assist in the illegal practices.
Companies violating the Water Pollution Control Act (水污染防治法) can be fined between NT$60,000 and NT$600,000 for each case discovered in the inspections, Hsiao said.
“Due to time-consuming operations and limited inspection manpower, it is difficult to discover the illegal practices every time, and we fear that the fine is not enough to make the companies improve their water discharge treatment facilities,” Hsiao said.
The EPA would enforce the Administrative Penalty Act (行政罰法) for aggravated punishment or fine the companies further, Hsiao said, adding that treatment companies that have participated in the illegal discharges would also be fined.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS