Changhua residents and legislators yesterday called on the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to maintain the designation of Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corp’s plants in the city as a “special industrial zone,” which makes the complex subject to stricter environmental monitoring.
The Changhua County Government in April designated the complex a special industrial zone, 51 years after the completion of the plant. The designation requires the company to establish a “green belt” around the complex to reduce pollution emissions and install advanced pollution detection devices to monitor a variety of pollutants.
However, the company appealed the county government’s designation, which prompted protests from local residents.
There is a coal-fired power plant in the complex, which generates a variety of trace heavy metals and toxic gases, and there are 88 schools within 5km of the complex, Changhua County Citizen Oversight Association director Liao Wan-ting (廖婉婷) said at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
“The plant’s pollution affects more than 56,000 students and teachers on a daily basis. The pollution not only harms 230,000 Changhua residents, but it spreads to neighboring Taichung, especially when the south wind blows,” Liao said.
The plant has poisoned the county for five decades, but the company is determined to fight the county government’s designation and environmental regulations, Changhua County Councilor Lin Shih-hsien (林世賢) said, calling on the central government to uphold the county government’s recognition to protect local residents’ health.
Changhua last year had the eighth-highest emissions of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 micrometer in diameter — in the nation, but Changhua County had the highest cancer rate, which might be related to undetected pollution created by the plant, Fight for Health Women’s Group Changhua Chapter director Yen Shu-nu (顏淑女) said.
“The designation should have already been made in 2013, and the county government’s recognition this year already came too late. The chemical complex has made more money with its coal power plant than its chemical business, and it is time to relocate the complex to restore the environment. Before that, the plant ought to reduce the amount of coal it burns,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Frida Tsai (蔡培慧) said.
“Although it sounds offensive, I really have to ask why the county government has delayed the designation until now. How can Changhua residents believe that the county government is willing to take care of them?” New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.
“I am very disappointed by the new EPA minister, who has adopted the same legal principles his predecessors used to prohibit local governments from banning the use of bituminous coal when central Taiwan is suffering from severe air pollution. If the central government does not have the guts to take action against air pollution, it should at least allow local governments to do so,” Huang said.
The NPP would propose amendments to the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法) to allow local governments to voluntarily limit the use of fossil fuels that cause heavy pollution, he said.
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