The Taipei City Government has ordered all four major natural gas companies operating in the city to inspect all of their pipelines within a week, following reports of two gas leaks in Zhongshan (中山) and Wanhua (萬華) districts that came on the heels of the gas explosions that devastated Greater Kaohsiung last week.
Residents of Wanhua’s Guoguang Community reportedly smelled leaking gas for five consecutive days last week. However, after calling the Great Taipei Gas Corp to complain, they were told: “Smelling a little gas will not hurt you.”
When the blasts rocked Greater Kaoshiung’s Cianjhen (前鎮) and Lingya (苓雅) districts on Thursday night and early Friday, killing at least 28 and injuring 286, the Guoguang residents became even more alarmed and telephoned the borough warden on Friday morning to demand a response.
“Is the city government going to wait until there are corpses before taking action?” one resident said.
In response, Great Taipei Gas engineer Chang Yung-chang (張永章) said the company had inspected the site of the reported leaks several days ago and found no cause for immediate danger, adding that the firm had sealed the leaks and plans to change the pipes today.
However, Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lambasted the company as callous, saying it should have sent an emergency team to handle the matter the moment it received the complaints.
In a similar incident, the city police and fire departments also received reports of a suspected gas leak near No. 158 Songjiang Road at 9am on Friday. The gas company dug up the road to conduct an inspection and found minor leakage, though it declared the pipe to be in the green after carrying out some maintenance work.
Also on Friday, Taipei Deputy Mayor Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文) led an inspection of a gas storage unit in Neihu District (內湖) and said that the underground gas pipelines criss-crossing Taipei carried low-pressure gas and did not transport any chemical substances.
A disaster like the Greater Kaohsiung blasts would not occur in Taipei, Chen said, adding that the city’s major gas suppliers were being made to inspect all their pipelines within the week.
Greater Taipei Gas vice general manager Huang Chao-chi (黃朝枝) said during the Neihu inspection that the company has electronic surveillance systems in place that oversee the flow, volume and temperature of the gas at each pressure regulation station.
The systems alert the company immediately of any change in these factors so it can shut down the valves enabling gas distribution remotely to contain any potential damage, Huang said.
The company checks its high-pressure pipes once a month, its medium-pressure pipes once every six months and its low-pressure pipes once a year, Huang said, adding that it replaces them on a regular basis according to the amount of corrosion or rust they have incurred.
In related news, a gas leak was detected yesterday at a liquified petroleum gas fueling station in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重), though officials said there were no safety concerns after emergency measures were implemented by the New Taipei City Fire Bureau and the station’s operator.
The leak was reported at about 5am by area residents who reported an unusual smell coming from the gas station operated by state-owned gasoline supplier CPC Corp, according to the fire bureau.
Firefighters said they diluted the concentrated liquefied petroleum gas in the air by spraying water to reduce any immediate danger from any leak, which could have resulted from an aged or malfunctioning valve in the station’s pipelines.
The operator of the station also turned off the main gas valve to ensure the area remains safe, and will replace the broken component, fire bureau officials said.
Additional reporting by Tsai Ya-hua, Yeh Kuan-yu and Staff writer, with CNA
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS