Water conservationists yesterday protested over a proposed amendment to the Water Pollution Control Act (水污染防治法), which would allow treated household wastewater to be added into groundwater systems.
At a public hearing of an amendment to the act, activists said the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) should prohibit all wastewater from entering groundwater systems and help recycle and process effluent to be reused by industries.
According to the act, treated industrial wastewater can be added to groundwater to replenish groundwater systems if it does not contain pollutants or toxins, but other types of wastewater — mainly household effluent — are not subject to the same regulations. The EPA wants to revise the act to include all types of effluent.
“Areas like Changhua and Yunlin counties rely on groundwater as their drinking water source, so we are against the idea of pumping treated wastewater underground, even if the draft amendment is stricter than the existing regulations. The government should not try to solve ground subsidence by polluting groundwater bodies, which is throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” Changhua County Environmental Protection Union secretary-general Huang Chiu-feng (黃秋鳳) said.
While groundwater has been used in agriculture, fish farming and animal husbandry in Changhua, many groundwater bodies in the county have been polluted — possibly by factories that allegedly pump wastewater underground — and the EPA’s measures would only lead to pollution and food safety issues, Changhua-based activist Shih Yueh-ying (施月英) said.
Taiwan Water Resources Protection Union director Jennifer Nien (粘麗玉) said the Reclaimed Water Resources Development Act (再生水資源發展條例) was passed last year to develop recycled water, and that effluent could be a reliable alternative source of water for industrial development, instead of being used to recharge groundwater.
“There is no need to inject treated wastewater into groundwater, and laws should be made to order all wastewater be recycled and treated for reuse by industries,” Nien said.
The EPA said it did not relax regulations, but instead set to increase the maximum penalty for injecting contaminated fluid into groundwater to a five-year prison term and NT$15 million (US$451,467) fine, as well as prohibiting 189 toxins, pollutants and carcinogens in water that can be inserted into groundwater.
“Because the treatment standard for water to be injected into groundwater is extremely stringent, which is equal to drinking water standards, there has been no company applying to inject wastewater underground ever. However, the draft amendment has been proposed to more heavily punish potential violations,” the EPA said.
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