The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) expressed willingness to take over responsibility from the Industrial Development Bureau to regulate slag, as frequent dumping of the material was a central issue at a Legislative Yuan session yesterday.
At a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, EPA Deputy Director Chang Tzi-chin (張子敬) said the agency was willing to take over regulation of slag — which is defined as a product rather than as waste and is managed by the bureau — to streamline overlapping functions between government units, which have been blamed for causing illicit disposal of the material.
“We do not object to taking over [the regulation of slag], because the current situation has created such a mess that we have to clean up,” Chang said, but added that the agency would need more resources for the proposed takeover.
A steelmaking by-product, furnace blast slag has become an environmental issue since a large amount of the material was found illegally dumped in Kaohsiung’s Cishan District (旗山) in 2013.
The discovery of protrusions on walls made with adulterated concrete containing untreated slag at the Taipei New Horizon (臺北文創) complex again highlighted the problem, with the bureau in March announcing a three-month ban on the use of furnace blast slag as a building material.
The bureau yesterday proposed measures to tighten regulations on the use of slag in concrete and asphalt, restrict steelmakers to transporting slag to certain reprocessors and establish a third-party supervisory system to oversee the process of slag treatment.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) criticized the proposed supervisory system, saying third-party institutions might still certify substandard slag, as they would be paid by steelmakers, not the government to conduct quality tests.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the bureau does not have any penalty for illegal disposal of slag and cited an EPA regulation that stipulates a maximum fine of NT$30,000, which he said was too light a penalty to curb potential dumping, even with the draft measures.
DPP Legislator Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴) said the draft measures cannot prevent illegal dumping, as most of the transportation of slag goes unreported and undetected.
Chang said the EPA is considering requiring all trucks that transport slag to install GPS tracking systems to deal with the problem.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard