More than 1,000 dead fish that were discovered on Monday in Jingualiao Creek (金瓜寮溪), a tributary of a creek that runs into the Feitsui Reservoir in New Taipei City, sparked concerns over the safety of drinking water in the greater Taipei area, home to more than 5 million residents.
Water quality tests conducted jointly by the Taipei Feitsui Reservoir Administration, the Taipei Water Management Office and the Pinglin District Office later on the same day showed that both the acidity and oxygen content of the water in the reservoir are within normal ranges.
This indicated that the fish did not die because of bad water quality and that the water in the reservoir is safe to drink, officials said.
The dead fish were discovered in the lower reaches of Jingualiao Creek, 100m south of Lirenban Bridge, just before the creek joins with Beishih Creek, which runs directly into the reservoir.
A similar incident happened in August last year.
Local residents suspected that the incident on Monday might have been a case of poachers using a pesticide called rotenone to collect fish.
Cuku Borough (粗窟) Warden Wang Cheng-yi (王成意) said that the pesticide could have been used to obtain large quantities of fish with high economic value such as ayu — also known as sweet smelts — which breed from this month to September every year.
Officials with the Taipei Feitsui Reservoir Administration said that they have handed samples of the dead fish to relevant agencies for a comprehensive autopsy report to pinpoint the cause of death.
The administration has also dispatched personnel to clean up the rest of the fish, which are to be incinerated, officials said.
The officials said that even though the incident took place outside the reservoir, it has caused severe concern among residents of the Greater Taipei area.
To prevent such an incident from recurring, officials from the Taipei Feitsui Reservoir Administration said they have filed a report with the New Taipei City Police Department to start a investigation for possible suspects in the potential poaching incident.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS