Taoyuan and Changhua County farmlands have the highest concentration of heavy metal pollutants, while 95 percent of farmland subject to Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) regulations are not undergoing any remediation program, a survey conducted by the Taiwan Environmental Information Association showed.
A total of 5,574 plots of farmland covering 932.7 hectares were in 2002 designated as areas regulated by the administration, the association said, adding that 45 percent of the plots are in Changhua and 34 percent are in Taoyuan, 13 percent in Taichung, 4 percent in Hsinchu and 2 percent in Tainan.
While about a half of the plots have been deregulated, 2,800 are still under administration regulation, 1,325 of which are in Changhua, covering 225 hectares, and 1,280 in Taoyuan, covering 150 hectares, the survey showed.
That 95 percent of the plots not undergoing any remediation reveals the passivity and carelessness of environmental agencies, association secretary-general Chen Juei-pin (陳瑞賓) said, adding that there had been no efforts to clean up pollution in 98 plots that have been subject to administration regulations for more than 10 years.
Copper is the most common source of heavy metal pollution. It was found in 70 percent of contaminated farmlands, followed by nickel, zinc, chromium, cadmium, lead, arsenic and mercury, the survey found.
The administration distributed NT$526.26 million (US$15.68 million) from 2002 to 2012 to help local governments clean up polluted farmlands, but the National Audit Office said that the funds were “insufficient and not fulfilling their purpose,” and many plots were under administration regulation for years without being remediated, while numerous deregulated farmlands became recontaminated after being restored, Chen said.
“Although the Control Yuan asked the administration in 2013 to improve its remediation measures, they are still too slow to meet pressing demands to control heavy metal pollution. The administration and local governments should publicize the extent of farmland pollution and put forward a comprehensive remediation plan,” he said.
Based on research conducted by the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, which collected 137,000 soil samples from rice paddies covering 580,000 hectares between 1992 and 2008, the administration estimated that there were about 15,000 hectares of contaminated farmland, which exceeded the 932.7 hectares of administration regulated farmland, Chen said, adding that these farmlands might be the tip of the iceberg regarding the issue of pollution.
In September last year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced a set of regulations to legalize unlicensed factories operating on agricultural land, which could easily aggravate heavy metal pollution and worsen conditions for agriculture production, Chen said, calling on the ministry to instead relocate plants to underutilized industrial parks.
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