The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) added nine industrial plants that leached excessive levels of toxic solvents into soil and groundwater to its list of controlled sites, with three violators ordered to assume full responsibility in carrying out environmental remediation.
The recently released results of the agency’s phase-five investigation, which concluded last year, found that nine facilities in Hshinchu, Miaoli and Changhua counties, as well as in Taoyuan, had discharged excessive concentrations of trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene into 4.5 hectares of land in their vicinity and into groundwater.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer considers both substances carcinogenic to animals and potentially carcinogenic to humans.
More than 1,300 former employees at plants that were operated by Radio Corp of America (RCA), which used the solvents from the 1980s until they closed down in 2004, have been diagnosed with various cancers, officials and workers’ advocates said, adding that 221 have died.
A plant operated by Hua Yuan Electrical Engineering (華淵電機) in the Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park and one run by Jing Ming Industrial Co (錦明實業), which has moved from its former site, were found to have contaminated groundwater with trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene.
Environmental surveillance carried out by the EPA found that the amount of trichloroethylene discharged into groundwater by Hua Yuan was 261 times greater than the maximum permissible limit, while its tetrachloroethylene output was 64.4 times greater than the legal standard.
The plant was also found to have emitted chloroethylene in concentrations 78 times the legal limit.
Hua Yuan polluted 1.92 hectares, almost the size of two soccer fields, the report found.
Jing Ming emitted trichloroethylene in concentrations 0.92 times greater than the maximum permissible value, while its tetrachloroethylene output exceeded the legal standard by 8,899 times.
Hsieh Cheng (劦呈), which has also relocated, discharged trichloroethylene in concentrations 10.3 times more than the legal limit.
All three sites have been designated by the administration as environmental remediation sites, meaning the pollution levels have had a profound impact on the environment.
Under EPA regulations, pollution control sites that local environmental protection agencies determine to have a profound impact on the environment are designated environmental remediation sites, with the proprietors operating — or that had operated — on the sites required to take full responsibility for restoring them.
The EPA’s Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Fund said that once a plot of land is identified as a pollution control site, groundwater use in the area is prohibited and the land cannot be sold or leased.
At this stage, the EPA has the authority to order proprietors to suspend or partially suspend operations, the agency said.
The agency said the nine firms exposed by the investigation primarily used the problematic solvents to rinse off remnants of lubricants or engine oils from machinery.
The toxic liquids contaminated nearby soil or groundwater through cracks in what the report called decrepit pipelines and storage tanks.
EPA Department of Environmental Sanitation and Toxic Substances Deputy Director-General Chen Shu-ling (陳淑玲) said trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene are on the administration’s list of controlled toxic chemicals, adding that officials of businesses that use the substances without permission face a maximum prison term of three years and a possible fine of NT$5 million (US$159,872).
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