Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) yesterday confirmed that about 5 hectares of farmland near Yu Hung Technology’s plant are polluted and said that rice grown in the area would be destroyed immediately.
In 2015, the plant in Taoyuan’s Lujhu District (蘆竹) was found to have illegally dumped its furnace slag in sewers, which caused serious metal and dioxin pollution in nearby Shenmai Pond (滲眉埤).
Later that year, the Taoyuan City Government ordered the company to stop operations and banned cultivation of 15.95 hectares of farmland near the factory.
However, a report on Wednesday by the Chinese-language Next Magazine said that rice cultivation had resumed on adjacent farms.
The Council of Agriculture on Wednesday said that the 3-hectare farmland referred to in the report is not covered by the prohibition.
However, the city government yesterday confirmed that about 5 hectares of farmland were at high risks of soil pollution.
The 5-hectare farm was found to contain copper concentrations higher than the standard 200 parts per million per kilogram of soil, Taoyuan Department of Environmental Protection Water and Soil Quality Protection section chief Yeh Meng-fen (葉孟芬) said, citing the result of the agency’s quick test on Thursday.
She said the agency was unable to confirm the pollution source at the moment, but a final report is to be published in seven to 10 days.
The polluted rice farms are upstream from the pond, whereas Yu Hung’s facility is downstream, she said, adding that the city has yet to determine whether the company should be held accountable for the soil pollution, she added.
With the nation bracing for Typhoon Nesat, the agency has adopted a “preventive” measure by destroying rice grown on the 5-hectare plot, she said.
“The 3 hectares of polluted farmland is right next to the company’s facility,” Tainan Community College researcher Chao Jui-kuang (晁瑞光) said after learning of the agency’s response. “They are avoiding the core problem.”
Chao said he and fellow researchers found that some unknown agencies had dug out the pond’s bottom soil to fill nearby farmland, as the soil from different places shares the same metal colors and similar levels of copper concentration.
Green Formosa Front director Lin Chang-mao (林長茂) said the city government has been covering up for companies that had caused the pollution.
“This time we found 5 hectares of land [were polluted], who knows if there might be 10 hectares next time?” Lin said.
Agriculture and Food Agency Secretary-General Weng Chen-hsin (翁震炘) said the copper concentration in the rice grown in the 122-hectare land around the pond did not exceed a standards test in 2015.
“The pollution might not have come from the Shenmai Pond, but from another source,” he said, echoing Yeh’s remark that a reliable conclusion should be made after the final report comes out.
Additional report by Hsieh Wu-hsiung
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