Calling for the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to suspend the execution of the latest, “illegal” environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the Miramar Resort Village in Taitung County, a dozen representatives from nine civic environmental groups yesterday presented their requests in front of the administration.
Organized by Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan (CET), the groups said the Supreme Administrative Court had already reached a final verdict which declared the EIA conclusion of the beachfront Miramar Resort project in Taitung County’s Shanyuan Bay (杉原灣) invalid earlier last year, but the local government neglected the ruling and held another controversial EIA meeting that gave approval in December last year.
The groups said that because the latest EIA meeting was conducted illegally and Miramar said it would commence trial operations in May, they said they had already filed a complaint to the EPA on March 5 and that they were making another formal request yesterday morning asking the administration to put a stop to what they called “the worst development case in the history of Taiwan’s environmental issues.”
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“It was an invalid EIA meeting ... and if it is allowed, it will set a bad precedent for future cases, demolishing the EIA system,” said Thomas Chan (詹順貴), an attorney affiliated with the Primordial Law Firm who works closely with environmental groups.
“I believe the EIA conclusion will be withdrawn again if the lawsuit goes to administrative court,” he said.
Chan said that the conclusion was illegal because the case was not reviewed at the central government level, as it should have been according to administrative procedures, the review committee members did not avoid conflicts of interest, the case was evaluated on a continuing basis rather than starting fresh and the conclusion gained conditional approval but lacked provisos, he said.
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union academic committee convener Gloria Hsu (徐光蓉) accused the EPA of allowing developers to apply to alter the restrictions of the EIA’s conditional approval and urged the Miramar Resort Village to stop destroying the beach.
Aboriginal folk singer Takanow (達卡鬧), the convener of an alliance against the Miramar project, said the alliance was worried that a domino effect will lead to more such development projects along Taiwan’s east coast bypassing their EIAs, and said local residents want jobs compatible with environmental protection, unlike the ones provided by the resort.
He and Lin Shu-ling (林淑玲), an Amis Aborigine who lives in the area, said that some local people are planning a social movement encompassing environmental and Aboriginal issues along the east coast in a walk from Taitung County to Taipei next month.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
REWRITING HISTORY: China has been advocating a ‘correct’ interpretation of the victory over Japan that brings the CCP’s contributions to the forefront, an expert said An elderly Chinese war veteran’s shin still bears the mark of a bullet wound he sustained when fighting the Japanese as a teenager, a year before the end of World War II. Eighty years on, Li Jinshui’s scar remains as testimony to the bravery of Chinese troops in a conflict that killed millions of their people. However, the story behind China’s overthrow of the brutal Japanese occupation is deeply contested. Historians broadly agree that credit for victory lies primarily with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led Republic of China (ROC) Army. Its leader, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a
RSS