The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday launched its annual showcase for soil and groundwater protection in Taipei, drawing hundreds of global delegates to learn about the agency’s efforts to prevent soil and water contamination and the nation’s pollution-monitoring technologies.
The three-day exhibition, dubbed the International Conference of Remediation and Management of Soil and Groundwater Contaminated Sites, highlights partnerships between the EPA, local precision manufacturing companies and academic experts to develop and apply new environmental protection technologies.
For example, National Taiwan University associate professor Huang Chien-fen (黃千芬), an expert on sediment surveying, is guiding the agency on how to operate a sub-bottom profiler — a machine that performs real-time data analysis on sediments to find areas with excessive levels of heavy metals.
Agency official Chang Chih-wei (張志偉) said that the device helps the EPA locate areas that need to be excavated to prevent heavy metals from being consumed by freshwater animals or tapped for irrigation and entering the food chain.
Regarding dioxin sampling, EPA Environmental Analysis Laboratory division head Chen Yuan-wu (陳元武) said the agency is collaborating with a private firm to develop a continuous centrifugal system to sample dioxins in groundwater, wastewater and drinking water from purification plants.
The machine uses filter paper and foam to extract dioxins in water samples before frozen samples undergo detailed analysis, he said.
The machine, although developed over a period of more than three years, cost about NT$500,000 (US$16,150), making it more time-saving than its predecessors and more cost-efficient than its Japanese counterparts, which cost twice as much, he said.
On managing defunct factories, agency official Sun Tung-ching (孫冬京) said plant or land owners must pass the EPA’s soil analysis before they can set up factories in other places or lease their land to other operators.
There are about 120,000 defunct plants nationwide, she said.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
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