The Taoyuan City Government on Monday ordered that waste-processing firm Yu Hung Technology Co (宇鴻科技) suspend its operations and carry out environmental remediation for the soil and air pollution it has caused in the Guolin Borough for more than a decade.
The order came after Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) earlier this month promised protesters the city would take action against Yu Hung.
Taoyuan Department of Environmental Protection personnel on Monday night delivered a notice to Yu Hung, informing the firm about the suspension.
Surrounded by hundreds of apprehensive residents, the firm’s offices were heavily guarded by police officers to prevent any scuffles should angry residents enter its premises.
The firm initially refused to sign the notice and made the officials wait more than an hour, and it was not until Borough Warden Chen Hsi-ta (陳錫達) called Cheng, asking the mayor to cut off its utilities, that one of Yu Hung’s employees finally emerged and signed the document.
Cheered by the scene, the onlookers erupted into a jubilant roar and later set off fireworks at a nearby park.
Chen lauded the department’s move, describing it as “belated justice.”
He said that Yu Hung had been polluting the environment for the past 14 years.
An investigation report released by the Environmental Protection Administration in March found that the firm’s premises had been contaminated with excessive levels of heavy metals, including cadmium, copper, chrome and zinc.
Furthermore, an environmental survey at the Shenmei Pond (滲眉埤), a former irrigation pond, led by Chung Hwa University professor Huang Huan-chang (黃煥彰), found extremely high heavy metal concentrations and elevated readings of dioxins, up to 188 nanograms per kilogram, in the pond’s sediment.
Environmentalists and Guolin residents said that waste emitted by Yu Hung through its outflow pipes and smokestacks included asbestos, waste acids, alkaline fluids and contrast agents used in medical imaging.
None of these materials should be treated at an incinerator, they said.
Department Deputy Director Ni Ping-hsiung (倪炳雄) said the penalty was issued under the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法), which stipulates that operations of establishments found to have caused “serious pollution” be suspended.
Under the act, the firm must decrease its effluents, improve its waste storage capacity and maintain a record of where and how its waste is processed, he said.
He said that the department has performed air-quality monitoring measurements at Yu Hung’s premises and would perform an analysis of the soil at the site to verify the presence and concentration of pollutants.
All the monitoring data are to be submitted to an assessment panel of experts and academics, and the company will only be allowed to resume operations after the data meet legal requirements, Ni said.
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