Residents from Kaohsiung’s Cishan (旗山) and Neimen (內門) Districts rallied in front of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday to file charges against the city government for allegedly favoring a waste processor that plans to build a landfill for industrial waste at the foot of Matou Mountain (馬頭山).
The residents, led by a local self-help group, pressed charges against Fuchun Corp (富駿事業股份有限公司) for allegedly constructing a road at the foot of the mountain without authorization.
The group said a development application the company submitted to the city government stated that it would renovate a 200m farm road at the premises, but it had actually constructed a road that is more than 1500m long and has slopes with more than a 50° gradient.
The road was allegedly illegally built without the city government’s approval and the company failed to conduct water and soil conservation at the site, leading to soil loss and exposed tree roots in the area, the group said.
The city government was included on the lawsuit for purportedly shielding and catering to the interest of the waste processor, the group said, adding it had filed many petitions with the government, but were only given perfunctory responses.
The protest and legal action were the latest of a series of protests against the proposed landfill project, as local residents said the proposed site is upstream of the Erren River (二仁溪), near the Agongdian Reservoir (阿公店水庫) and could pose a threat to the municipality’s water quality if toxic waste were dumped at the site.
In a meeting with local residents at Cishan on Aug. 19, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said the landfill project was rejected by the city government’s environmental impact assessment committee and the company had not yet filed a reapplication.
Kaohsiung Water Resources Bureau on Friday said that it had conducted an inspection at the road construction site following residents’ complaints and found defective on-site management, such as poor drainage systems and slope protection, but no illegal activity as claimed by the residents.
In response, Fuchun Corp said in a statement that it had conducted all construction in accordance with city government regulations, and that it withholds the right to sue the self-help group for its allegations and trespassing on company property.
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