A proposed referendum to stop CPC Corp, Taiwan’s third liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project in Taoyuan has once again sparked concern and it is crucial for the public to have access to information on the project.
Based on my experience as convener of the project’s environmental impact assessment meeting and as a member of the post-assessment monitoring committee, I feel a responsibility to share more information about the process, as well as touch on the avoidance and reduction of the environmental impact.
First, this project was part of the development plans for the Guantang Industrial Park (觀塘工業區) and Port in Taoyuan. The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) approved the assessment for the industrial park in 1999, while comparative environmental impact analyses were completed in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2009. The EPA approved the assessment for the port in 2000.
During the assessment and comparative analyses for the industrial park and port, two landfills were constructed in the area of the third LNG terminal, showing that it is an extension of the development plans for the industrial park and port, rather than a new assessment.
Second, the EPA restarted the comparative analysis process for the project in June 2017, holding five task force meetings, three meetings with algal reef experts and two on the comparative environmental impact. The government finally finished the process in September 2018, after more than one year.
As the ecology of the algal reefs is a critical issue in the project review, the government convened meetings with algal reef experts at the demand of civic groups. The experts were recommended by interested parties: civic groups, the local government, the project developer and government agencies.
The experts discussed the impact of the project on the algal reefs off the coast of Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) and told the government how it should handle the impact. This shows that the project underwent a thorough comparative environmental impact analysis.
In terms of avoiding and reducing the environmental impact, the Datan algal reefs are mainly threatened by topographical changes and water pollution. By restricting the industrial park’s development area to the existing landfills and areas on land, the project is expected to circumvent the uncovered algal reefs and the area’s endangered Polycyathus chaishanensis coral.
Regarding the port’s development, it is to be built offshore — given that currents in the Taiwan Strait run parallel to the coastline — to reduce the length of the levee, necessitating fewer piers and allowing seawater to naturally flow past the hollow landing stages. This would protect the original algal reef habitat.
An ecological report on the algal reefs for the project showed that they are mainly found in waters less than 10m deep, while the endangered coral are found mainly in waters less than 5m deep, so the assessment requires that the offshore port be constructed in waters deeper than 10m. It also requires the construction of an early warning system along the algal reefs on the coast to ensure the water quality.
Thermal discharge from the Datan Power Plant would aerate the sea water, cooling discharge from the third LNG terminal and helping to achieve pollution-free discharge.
The comparative analyses for the third LNG terminal project are open and transparent. They can be downloaded online and serve as an important reference to the public.
Lee Chien-ming is a professor in National Taipei University’s Institute of Natural Resource Management.
Translated by Edward Jones
On May 7, 1971, Henry Kissinger planned his first, ultra-secret mission to China and pondered whether it would be better to meet his Chinese interlocutors “in Pakistan where the Pakistanis would tape the meeting — or in China where the Chinese would do the taping.” After a flicker of thought, he decided to have the Chinese do all the tape recording, translating and transcribing. Fortuitously, historians have several thousand pages of verbatim texts of Dr. Kissinger’s negotiations with his Chinese counterparts. Paradoxically, behind the scenes, Chinese stenographers prepared verbatim English language typescripts faster than they could translate and type them
More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun (雷軍) on May 22 made a high-profile announcement, giving online viewers a sneak peek at the company’s first 3-nanometer mobile processor — the Xring O1 chip — and saying it is a breakthrough in China’s chip design history. Although Xiaomi might be capable of designing chips, it lacks the ability to manufacture them. No matter how beautifully planned the blueprints are, if they cannot be mass-produced, they are nothing more than drawings on paper. The truth is that China’s chipmaking efforts are still heavily reliant on the free world — particularly on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
On May 13, the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment to Article 6 of the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of nuclear reactors from 40 to 60 years, thereby providing a legal basis for the extension or reactivation of nuclear power plants. On May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators used their numerical advantage to pass the TPP caucus’ proposal for a public referendum that would determine whether the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant should resume operations, provided it is deemed safe by the authorities. The Central Election Commission (CEC) has
RSS