Sun, Sep 05, 1999 page2

• EPA landfill policy in question

  ENVIRONMENT A group of German incinerator specialists has questioned Taiwan's policy of using carcinogenic, mixed incinerator ash to pave the floors of landfills

  • By Chiu Yu-Tzu / STAFF REPORTER
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  Before wrapping up a week-long investigation into Taiwan's incinerators, German experts warned the Environmental Protection Admin-istration (EPA) yesterday of what they say is improper treatment of ash from incinerator furnaces.

  They say the burned materials contain carcinogenic (and suspected teratogenic) compounds including lead, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), but are mixed and dumped at landfills around the island. The scientists explained yesterday at a conference hosted by the EPA, that such treatment could cause soil contamination and eventually endanger people living nearby.

  After visiting two incinerators in Hsintien (新店) and Peitou (北投) that have been in operation since 1994 and 1998 respectively, incinerator specialists Werner Meyer, John F. Lee (李健夫) and Olaf Papke said the EPA's strategy to deal with incinerator ash was questionable.

  They said mixing and burying the substances at the bottom of landfills ran the risk of environmental contamination.

  Practices such as these for disposing of Taiwan's incinerator ash have been going on for years, say environmentalists.

  Anti-incinerator activists asked the German experts yesterday whether the EPA's methods were acceptable.

  "We all worry about possible environmental contamination caused by the floor of landfills paved with mixed incinerator ash," said George Cheng (鄭益明), an activist from the Taiwan Watch Institute (看守台灣研究中心).

  According to the visiting foreign group, there are two types of material that comprise incinerator ash. One type is found in the grate, called "bottom ash" (灰渣), that can be best described as "non-hazardous granulated pumice."

  The other type, called "fly ash" (飛灰) -- which comes from pollution control equipment such as electrostatic and bag filters -- is much finer in form, but far more toxic than bottom ash.

  EPA officials said yesterday that they have been using residue from waste incinerators -- mixing non-hazardous bottom ash and toxic fly ash -- to seal the floors of landfills. They added that they believed the method to be successful in preventing groundwater pollution.

  "We found that groundwater beneath the Shanchuku (山豬窟) landfill, using the ash floor, was cleaner than that at another landfill -- Futehkun landfill (福德坑) -- that had no such foundation," said Lai Ming-hwei (賴銘輝), deputy director of the Peitou Refuse Incineration Plant (北投垃圾焚化廠).

  But the German experts said Lai's explanation was unscientific because the issue had nothing to do with groundwater at all.

  "You cannot provide people with irrelevant scientific explanations. All components of the bottom ash are insoluble," said Olaf Papke, managing director of ERGO Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, a German bio-tech research center.

  "Using mixed ash at the bottom of landfills is rarely seen in other countries. In Germany, the non-hazardous bottom ash is recycled to produce waterproof bricks and material for pavements," said Dr. John F. Lee (李健夫), managing director of DFI Forschungsgesellschaft mbH.

  "As for the more toxic fly ash -- which contains various heavy metals -- we seal it in cans and then bury them deep in abandoned mine pits, to keep the heavy metal components from leaking into the environment and threatening people," Lee said.

  He explained that the amount of fly ash currently generated in Germany itself was limited, and that the country did not spend a great deal of money on treatment, but that such disposal methods are widely used throughout Europe.

  The scientists said the proper treatment of ash was only a part of the incineration process, and a proper attitude should be taken toward the whole spectrum of incinerator operations.

  Werner Meyer, from German-based chemical engineering company Goepfert, Reimer & Partner, asked why the price of building an incinerator plant in Ilan (宜蘭) County, was about 30 percent less than that of a similar one in Germany.

  "It's impossible to ensure the quality of incinerators if you build like this. All parts of the operating process might be affected," said Meyer.

  EPA officials did not respond to the criticism, saying only that budgets for the plant had already been set.

  The company contracted to construct the unit is a German firm.

  The incinerator specialists said they would do more statistical studies on data collected during their stay in Taiwan. "Some of the data shown here has really puzzled us," added Meyer, referring to possible mistakes during the dioxin concentration testing process.
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