The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) announced new off-site disposal measures for contaminated soil, with new licensing regulations required for firms to be allowed to process the waste.
Operators of properties designated as contaminated sites must now commission a licensed facility for the off-site treatment of contaminated soil, according to a clause in the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法), Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Fund Management Board executive secretary Ma Nien-ho (馬念和) said.
The EPA formulated a series of specialized “soil codes” — different indices and standards to govern the processing of different pollutants — as part of a new licensing process, Ma said.
Contaminated soils have to be transported using vehicles equipped with GPS to ensure traceability of contaminated substances, he said.
Previously, local environmental agencies would review off-site treatment projects on a case-by-case basis, with the reviewing criteria differing from one agency to another, he said.
There are only six processors who have obtained the license so far, while the nation produces 172,000 tonnes of polluted soil to be treated off-site every year, he said, adding that only two of the processors are soil recycling facilities.
Sixty-five percent of contaminated soil is buried, solidified or incinerated, while the rest is restored or used in concrete, bricks or aggregates, Ma said, adding that reused products must pass toxicity tests to determine whether they are harmful.
The EPA tracks the flow of the recycled products, he said.
There are 6,258 sites nationwide, making up a combined 3,524 hectares on the EPA’s watchlist of confirmed or possible pollution sites, most of which are in industrial hubs, such as Taoyuan and Changhua County, Ma said, adding that petroleum leaks caused by gas stations account for most of the cases, as older gas stations do not usually have double-wall storage tanks to prevent leakage.
One recently licensed processor is managed by state-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan, which can restore contaminated soil using biological agents to purge organic pollutants, he said.
In other news, the EPA on Monday announced amendments to regulations for fines for breaches of the Water Pollution Control Act (水汙染防治法), with daily fines replaced by fines per violation.
The new regulations stipulate that enterprises involved in unauthorized releases of wastewater or other breaches that could severely affect a body of water must take immediate steps to remedy and improve the situation.
A correction period of 90 days is allowed for minor breaches, the EPA said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,