Civic groups yesterday hurled shoes at the Environmental Protection Administration’s (EPA) entrance as a gesture of protest against their exclusion from the fourth meeting of experts on algal reefs at the agency.
The algal reefs in question are in Taoyuan’s Guantang Industrial Park (觀塘工業區) and its yet-to-be-built port in Guanyin District’s (觀音) Datan Borough (大潭), the planned site of state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (CPC, 台灣中油) third liquefied natural gas terminal.
The EPA has since June 5 last year convened four environmental impact assessment committee meetings to review the project and three meetings with experts to determine the disputed value of the ecosystems on Datan’s coast.
As the previous meetings were boycotted by environmental groups and adjourned without a consensus being reached, the EPA last week announced that it would hold two more meetings with experts on Tuesday and yesterday, but sparked criticism by saying that yesterday’s meeting would be open to and live-streamed for the media, but not to civic groups.
Members of the Taoyuan Local Union and the Taiwan Water Resources Protection Union yesterday placed more than 100 pairs of shoes in front of the EPA’s entrance as a “silent protest” against their exclusion from the meeting.
The shoes stood in for environmentalists who could not come to voice their protest, as many were busy preparing for a concert today on Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard that aims to rally support for the algal reefs, the groups said.
The nation does not need any more ports, as a large portion of its coast has been ruined, assessment committee member Jeng Ming-shiou (鄭明修) said during the meeting, adding that CPC should consider building the terminal at the already-developed Port of Taipei in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里).
The Executive Yuan should make a stand and decide on a venue for the terminal, or the project might become as controversial as Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co’s (國光石化) naphtha cracker project, which was finally scrapped by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) due to overwhelming pressure, Jeng added.
EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) and Deputy Minister Chan Shun-kuei (詹順貴) attended the meeting to express their respect for the experts, but soon left.
Chan said the EPA did not rush to green-light the terminal project as some groups claimed, or it would not have held so many assessment meetings.
The meeting closed with the experts advising CPC to consider building the terminal at the Port of Taipei or another less controversial site, or if that was not possible, CPC should offer complete documentation about local ecosystems to convince experts and civic groups.
Taiwan Water Resources Protection Union convener Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said the meeting was held in vain because the EPA should have clarified the utility’s controversial land purchase with the experts before the meetings.
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