Environmentalists and Hsinchu residents yesterday rallied in front of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in Taipei to protest Asia Cement Co’s perceived maneuvers to circumvent environmental reviews of a proposed mining project in Hsiunchu County’s Guansi Township (關西).
Asia Cement planned to resume mining operations at a quarry in Guansi after the Hsinchu County Government deregulated mineral reserves in the county in 2013.
The company and two individuals, Lo Ching-jen (羅慶仁) and Lo Ching-chiang (羅慶江), filed three separate mining proposals that divided the 81-hectare quarry into three mining areas, each measuring about 27 hectares, which was widely seen as a bid to skirt the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法), which stipulates that a mining project larger than 50 hectares must automatically have a second round of environmental reviews, which apply stricter standards.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
The EPA’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) committee in December last year decided the three proposals should be considered as a combined project and undergo a second round of reviews, but that decision had to be approved at the EIA grand assembly yesterday.
However, Asia Cement last month withdrew its mining project, while the two other applicants downsized their excavation areas to lower the combined mining area to 47 hectares, in an apparent attempt to avoid a second round of reviews.
Dozens of Hsinchu residents protesting against the mining projects outside the agency said that Asia Cement was playing the law and abusing the environmental review system, and called for the rejection of all the projects.
“Asia Cement does not care about residents or the environment. Its indifference is evident in its withdrawal and division of mining areas to circumvent environmental reviews. If the company really meant to withdraw, it could abolished its mineral rights to show its sincerity,” Guansi resident Sung Ming-kuang (宋明光).
“Asis Cement’s withdrawal indicates a loophole in the environmental review system, which allows a development to pull out of a review to avoid being rejected and re-enter the review at will. The system should be revised to close the loophole,” Sung added.
Criticizing a proposal by Lo Ching-chiang to have the mining period of his project reduced from 34 years to 10 years, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association lawyer Hsieh Meng-yu (謝孟羽) said that, in practice, an approved mining project could apply for a mining period extension without undergoing further environmental reviews.
“The proposal was simply made to undervalue the mining project’s environmental impact and mislead the EIA committee. As long as Asia Cement still holds the mineral rights, it can file a mining application,” Hsieh said.
However, some Guansi residents expressed support for the mining project, saying it would create jobs in the township where the livelihood of many residents is tied to the cement industry.
“The company’s Hsinchu plant loses NT$150 million [US$4.48 million] every year, but we decided to continue its operation because we have a social responsibility,” an Asian Cement representative said, adding that the company has nothing to do with with the projects filed by Lo Ching-jen and Lo Ching-chiang.
The EIA grand assembly did not approve the EIA committee’s decision to have the projects directly undergo a second round of reviews and returned the two remaining projects to the committee.
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