The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday said tests showed chromium levels were within safe limits at the Miramar Resort Village at Taitung County’s Shanyuan Beach (杉原沙灘).
The tests were conducted following environmentalists’ claims that soil samples from the resort contained high levels of chromium.
On Wednesday, environmentalists said that the results of tests they had carried out showed that three of seven soil samples collected near the development site contained high levels of chromium — in some cases six times higher than permitted levels.
This led them to suspect that construction materials may have been contaminated, which may pose a risk to public health.
On the same day, Miramar said that soil tests that it had commissioned, conducted by an EPA-authorized lab, had shown levels of heavy metals in the soil were all within safe limits.
In response to questions at a meeting of the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee at the legislature yesterday about the alleged soil pollution, EPA Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) said the agency’s latest test results showed no contamination.
Later in the afternoon, EPA Environmental Analysis Laboratory director-general Roam Guo-dong (阮國棟) said the administration had asked for the exact locations from which the environmentalists had obtained their samples, and sent inspection teams to collect samples from these locations on Wednesday.
“Five samples from a total of 12 samples collected at the site were sent to the laboratory for testing using two kinds of standard and precise methods in accordance with EPA regulations,” Roam said.
“The results showed the chromium level in the samples to be within safe limits,” he said.
The Miramar Resort Village has more than once been accused of violating the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法) in the past few years.
A Bureau of Environmental Inspection official said that the company had been reported by the bureau for violating the act seven times since 2006.
It had also been reported for violating water pollution control measures and its Environmental Impact Assessment.
However, the bureau had failed to uncover any violations during the inspection on Wednesday.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
RSS