Environmental activists from Changhua County gathered in front of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday, urging it to reject the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ (MOEA) industrial land reclamation project near the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park.
The activists, who represented several civic groups, said that the government had already rejected Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co’s plans to build a naphtha cracker in the county, to protect the area’s important wetlands, so it should not approve the ministry’s proposal to reclaim land using basic oxygen furnace slag and coal ash.
Chang Shu-fen (張淑芬), representing a women’s health group, said that most of the county’s residents still drink groundwater, but if furnace slag and coal ash are used for land reclamation, no one can guarantee that hazardous substances would not contaminate the water supply, especially since the area’s arenaceous soil is highly permeable.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Changhua County Environmental Protection Union secretary-general Shih Yueh-ying (施月英) said “the pH value of basic oxygen furnace slag is between 12 and 13, meaning it is a strong alkali, and if it flows into the ocean it would harm the marine environment.”
There are heavy metals and dioxins in furnace slag and coal ash, which could end up being ingested by people through the food chain if the toxic substances have contaminated the groundwater used in aquaculture, she added.
Taiwan Water Conservation Alliance spokesperson Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said information provided by the ministry about the permeability of the soil in the area is insufficient, but other research reports about the soil along Changhua’s coastline showed that the permeability near the area is not appropriate for land reclamation.
Saying the potential risks of the project are too high, they urged the Environmental Protection Administration to reject the ministry’s proposal.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS