Residents of Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西) yesterday rallied in front of Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) buildings in Taipei, ahead of the review of three mining proposals for a limestone quarry in the township, demanding that the agency merge the three proposals into a combined project so that stricter environmental reviews would be undertaken.
Targeting a quarry run by Asia Cement Co until 2003, three proposals have been filed — by Asia Cement and two individuals, Lo Ching-jen (羅慶仁) and Lo Ching-chiang (羅慶江), that if successful would see a total mining area of 81.57 hectares.
Citizens of the Earth researcher Pan Cheng-cheng (潘正正) said the three mining projects share the same quarry, the same mining facilities and the same water collection areas, and all plan to supply limestone to Asia Cement, which makes the three proposals an inseparable project in essence, but developers divided the quarry into three to circumvent environmental laws.
Photo: CNA
According to the the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法), a mining project larger than 50 hectares must automatically have a second round of environmental reviews — in which stricter standards apply. However, each of the three projects plans to zone a mining area of between 26 and 28 hectares.
The Executive Yuan promulgated a set of regulations regarding the development of the cement industry in 1986, which saw cement plants relocate from western Taiwan to eastern Taiwan, but the Legislative Yuan abolished the regulations in 1997. The Hsinchu County Government deregulated mineral reserves in the county in 2013, and the three proposals represent the first attempts to re-establish cement plants in the west of the nation since deregulation.
“My orange grove was destroyed by a mudslide in 2012 that was caused by a collapse of the quarry’s spoil heap, but Asia Cement only gave me 300 packs of cement in lieu of compensation and did nothing about cleaning up their waste. The company is a bully and is harming residents,” Guansi resident Tai A-hung (戴阿宏) said.
“Rock blasting often damaged residents’ houses, but the company only gave us a few thousand New Taiwan dollars each and went on ignoring the problems it caused us — and the environment,” township resident Sung Ming-kuang (宋明光) said.
Taiwan exported 3.49 million tonnes of cement last year, and producing more cement than the nation needs only benefits a handful of business owners, Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance legislative candidate Thomas Chan (詹順貴) said, adding that the three projects would only create a maximum of 31 jobs, which would not compensate for their enormous environmental and social costs.
Guansi local Chu Tien-yi (朱天衣), a writer, said that residents want stability and peace, and the government should not shield or collude with big corporations.
Later yesterday, the EPA’s environmental impact assessment review committee announced that in further reviews it would consider the three proposals as a combined project.
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