The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has announced a set of draft regulations covering water pollution control, stipulating that pollution intensive industries must disclose emissions information of 129 toxic chemicals, while proposing to cap emissions of heavy metals to mitigate farmland contamination.
The administration identified 129 chemicals for which emissions information should be made public by large emitters, including dioxins, benzene, chromium, formaldehyde, polychlorinated biphenyl and trichloroethylene, which are designated as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction by the Ministry of Labor, or defined as the Group 1 carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Industries, including oil refining, chemicals, electro-opticals and semiconductors, that discharge more than 10,000m3 of effluent every day must disclose emissions information of specified chemicals, such as concentration level and discharge volume, Department of Water Quality Director Yeh Chun-hung (葉俊宏) said.
The draft regulations are set to affect the nation’s largest wastewater contributors, including Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), state-run oil refiner CPC Corp (中油), Taiwan, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Yeh said.
The draft regulations are to take effect next month by the earliest, it added.
Meanwhile, in response to repeated farmland contamination by heavy metals, especially in Changhua County, the administration on Monday announced a set of draft measures that would allow local governments to set up heavy metal control areas, in which concentration levels of copper, zinc, nickel, cadmium, chromium and hexavalent chromium would be limited.
According to the proposed measures, areas where effluent-receiving water bodies have been disqualified as an irrigation water source should be designated as first-degree control areas, in which the establishment of new plants would be prohibited, while existing plants must process their wastewater to meet irrigation water standards, rather than industrial effluent standards as currently required.
Second-degree control areas are qualified to be used for irrigation purposes. New plants would be allowed to operate in those areas, but must treat wastewater according to irrigation standards.
The draft measures are designed to urge operators to operate in designated areas and relocate to industrial parks where wastewater is managed systematically.
The draft measures would give local governments the authority and legal provisions to designate heavy metal control areas.
Only Changhua proposes to follow the measures, as 271.63 hectares of farmland in the county have been found to be contaminated with heavy metals, and 44.1 hectares remain fallow, the administration said.
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