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.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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