Protesters yesterday again petitioned the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to revoke the 18-year-old environmental impact assessment (EIA) approval for CPC Corp, Taiwan’s development project in Taoyuan’s Guantang Industrial Park.
The company plans to build its third liquefied natural gas terminal on yet-to-be reclaimed land off Datan Borough (大潭) in Guanyin District (觀音).
However, environmental groups say the project could damage a wide stretch of algal reef that could be 7,500 years old, as well as the first-level endangered coral Polycyathus chaishanensis, which is found on Datan’s coast.
Photo: CNA
“The third terminal should be ready to supply natural gas from July 2022,” the company said in its report of environmental difference analysis to the EPA in June, citing the government’s policy of generating 50 percent of electricity from natural gas by 2025.
“Guantang Industrial Park is not a biodiversity hotspot,” the report said.
At an ad hoc committee review in June, the company was asked to submit more response strategies to reduce the project’s environmental consequences by the end of this month.
Following the discovery in late June of the endangered coral by Academia Sinica biologist Allen Chen (陳昭倫), environmental groups last month submitted a petition to the agency, asking it to nullify the company’s EIA approval.
However, the agency on Thursday said that nullifying the project’s EIA is “not necessary,” adding that it would take reef protection and the coral discovery into account in its next committee review.
A group of protesters demonstrated in front of the agency’s offices as they handed in a second petition to an EPA representative.
If the EPA would not revoke the company’s EIA based on the discovery of endangered coral, the protesters would file an administrative lawsuit against the EPA, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association lawyer Tsai Ya-ying (蔡雅瀅) said.
“The company could build the terminal at the Port of Taipei [in New Taipei City’s Bali (八里) District], where land reclamation is already finished,” Taoyuan Local Union director-general Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政) said, rejecting the company’s claim that there is no alternative venue.
Although conservation groups have attempted to produce evidence of the area’s rich biology, both the Forestry Bureau and local government have not designated the coast as a conservation area.
“The designation procedure should be started by the local government,” Forestry Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Hong-chi (楊宏志) said.
Taoyuan Department of Agriculture Forestry Division chief Liu Hsiu-ching (劉秀卿) yesterday said that “to designate it as a conservation area” would “bear on the nation’s energy policy.”
CPC has filed an application for a second committee review and EPA officials are to conduct a field examination of the algal reef on Tuesday.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese