Environmental campaigner Huang Huan-chang (黃煥彰) yesterday criticized the Environmental Protection Administration’s (EPA) handling of pollution allegedly caused by a furnace slag landfill said to contain China Steel Corp (CSC) waste in Kaohsiung’s Cishan District (旗山).
The 5.2-hectare landfill is in an area designated a water quality protection zone by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and is therefore unfit for burying furnace slag, as the material would release iron into the area’s groundwater, poisoning drinking water, he said.
An EPA survey in November last year found groundwater close to the site to be highly alkaline, with a pH level of 12.
Huang yesterday presented an official document issued by the EPA in response to a query by Tainan Community University — where he is a professor — about the content of the landfill, in which the agency wrote: “According to data provided by the land owner [Wanta Materials], the material in the landfill is ground granulated blast-furnace slag.”
He panned the EPA reply, saying that Wanta should be scrutinized instead of being quoted, which defeats the purpose of the inquiry.
A report on Chinese-language online news outlet The Journalist alleges that Wanta Materials signed a contract with CHC Resources Corp, a subsidiary of China Steel Corp, to source furnace slag resulting from CSC’s operations at a price of NT$5 per tonne, which Wanta dumps at the site.
However, the report also exposes another contract inked between the two firms, in which CHC reimburses Wanta NT$231 per tonne of furnace slag it buys, apparently as a commission to Wanta for providing an outlet for CSC to dispose of the furnace slag.
Referencing a Control Yuan investigation report, Huang said that Wanta allegedly dumped about 1 million tonnes of furnace slag into the landfill on behalf of CSC.
Huang said that an investigation by the EPA had found that ground granulated blast-furnace slag and desulfurization slag was 6m deep at the landfill, but a separate investigation conducted by the agency using ground-penetrating radar indicated that the landfill is between 20m and 30m deep.
He said that based on his calculations, 1 million tonnes of furnace slag would constitute the top 6.8m of the landfill, which he said begs the question: “What is CSC hiding underneath the top layer?”
He said residents in the area have found 19 types of furnace slag of various colors and shapes near the site, which the community college analyzed and found elevated levels of heavy metals, with heavy metal content in the slag varying from one sample to another.
The results indicated that there must be more kinds of furnace slag than is indicated in information made available by the EPA.
He called on the EPA to excavate the landfill to prove that there are no other pollutants.
He said the Kaohsiung City Government has allowed CSC to dispose of industrial waste in a water quality protection zone by claiming that furnace slag is a “byproduct” of steel manufacturing, and that the Tainan Community College has filed a lawsuit against the city government over its alleged breach of the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法).
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