As speculation mounts over potential overseas sites where the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG,
News of the extension sparked outrage not only among environmentalists and legislators who have been monitoring the waste issue, but also from the Kaohsiung port authority, which claimed it had not yet been officially notified of the decision.
According to the Central News Agency, the EPA had given FPG a vaguely worded deadline of Dec. 2000 to "resolve the issue" but it had not said anything about when the waste should be removed from Kaohsiung.
The 4,600 tons of waste was originally dumped in Cambodia illegally last November by a contractor on behalf of the Taiwanese plastics giant. It was sent back to Kaohsiung after being rejected by the Cambodian government. It was supposed to have been shipped on to the US, but that transfer was held up by problems in identifying its components.
Officials at the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau (高雄港務局), who have been urging the company and the EPA to resolve the issue quickly, blew up yesterday, saying they had not been notified of the decision.
"Given the present circumstances [unless the harbor is formally notified of the decision], FPG will have to remove the waste within a week (by Oct. 26) and we will confiscate its deposit of NT$50 million, according to the contract signed in April," said Kaohsiung Harbormaster Huang Kuo-ying (
"Even if FPG presents us with the required documents issued by the EPA for the extension, we will strongly suggest that the controversial waste be cleared right away," said Huang.
Where exactly the waste could be sent remains the big question, although it appeared likely yesterday that at least part of it would be sent to the Netherlands.
According to the EPA, Formosa Plastics has been in contact with officials in the Netherlands, asking that country to accept some contaminated protective suits and the 32 iron barrels that had been used to store the waste. EPA officials also said they had helped in this regard by pursuing a diplomatic initiative through Taiwan's unofficial representatives in The Hague.
As for the bulk of the waste, rumors continued to swirl yesterday over whether it will be taken to an FPG factory site in Jenwu, Kaohsiung County. But EPA officials held out hope that the waste's topsoil would be sent to France while the solidified mercury-tainted waste would be sent to Germany.
Several shipping lines, including Yang Ming Lines (
As far as Kaohsiung port authorities are concerned, the waste's removal could not happen soon enough.
Harbormaster Huang said that a number of shipping companies had been complaining about the lack of space available for their use and the special privileges FPG had been granted over the mercury-tainted waste, such as its exemption from paying Kaohsiung Customs Bureau monitoring fees.
According to Customs regulations, the company should pay monitoring fees if its cargo is delayed from being removed from the port for more than 60 days. Huang said that so far FPG had not paid about NT$65 million in such fees, which had never happened before at the port. However, Customs officials said they had been informed by the EPA that the waste was "a special case" that could be excluded from the regulations.
"We did not charge the company because we were not really monitoring the waste as the EPA had taken over the case," Yeh Man-fu (
Environmentalists and lawmakers condemned the extension.
"The EPA is being manipulated by FPG. It has clearly failed in its efforts to deal with local hazardous industrial waste problems," said Shieh Jyh-cherng (
"EPA officials should have followed the spirit of the Basel Convention and sought a way to take care of the toxic waste properly at home," said Shieh.
DPP legislator Hong Chi-chang (
"If you've ever seen how much effort Formosa puts into building production facilities, you would be stunned to see how little attention the company pays to taking care of the waste it generates," said said Huang Kuo-cheng (
US-based environmentalists told the Taipei Times yesterday that it was "absolutely irresponsible" for FPG to continue seeking extensions.
"We have asked on numerous occasions for FPG to take their waste back to their corporate property and to stabilize it and store it carefully," said Jim Puckett of the Basel Action Network (BAN)."Polluters like FPG must minimize waste production at source or bear the consequences of dealing with it in perpetuity."
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