A long and winding road for environmentalists objecting to a development plan for the Pinnan Industrial Complex (
To avoid enraging environmentalists and local residents over the possible destruction of the area's lagoons, one of the most controversial development plans was not included -- the construction of a new industrial harbor.
EPA officials and experts at the EIA Review Committee said this particular aspect of the project would be the subject of another separate EIA.
The EPA said their version of the current EIA would force the concerned companies -- Tuntex Group (東帝?h) and Yieh-loong Co (燁隆) -- to reset the development's boundary in order to exclude lagoons.
Officials said, however, that the harbor might take up some part of the lagoons, as previously detailed in their development plan, if the EIA for building the harbor is passed in the future.
The issue of the lagoons became important in 1994, when several local and national environmental groups began a mission to save endangered black-faced spoonbills, which winter at coastal lagoons within the boundaries of the planned complex.
After learning of the EIA's approval, both conservationists and legislators expressed disappointment at the government's policy of economic development taking precedence over the environment.
"Never have I seen an EIA as vague as this. We don't know how much sandstone is to be used for the project and we don't have details of the seawater desalination plant. EPA officials should have evaluated the EIA while taking subsidiary plans into account," said Lin Sheng-chung (
"The EPA should not pass the EIA when so much uncertainty still exists. Until today, the Water Resource Bureau still has not said where the water supply for the complex will come from. It will require around 196 thousand tons a day," said Shieh Jyh-cherng (
"I find the passage of the EIA questionable because I don't see any detailed calculation for future carbon dioxide emissions from the complex," said Lin Su-chen (
Professor Lin said that continuing with the Pinnan project was inconsistent with conclusions drawn by the government-sponsored National Energy Conference (
"The experts at the EIA review meeting know that the environmental impact involving the loss of coastal lands would be very severe once the project gets under way. If we don't protect the environment in which our future generations will live, what will Taiwan's future be?" asked Su Huan-chih (
Su added that the government should consider the contradictions between several of the ongoing policies.
"Research reports provided by the National Science Council have pointed out the negative impact -- such as air pollution and acid rain -- that the proposed Pinnan project will have on area surrounding a planned science and technology base in Tainan County.
However, Chou Wu-liu (
"I believe that the project will bring residents more job opportunities and pull several declining coastal villages out of recession," Chou said.
The controversial project was planned by the Tuntex Group and Yieh Loong Co back in July 1993.
Local residents and environmentalists, however, were left in the dark about the plan up until 1994, when the first public hearing was given at the Legislative Yuan by DPP lawmaker Su Huan-chih (
Numerous demonstrations over the past five years have forced the two companies involved to tailor their construction plans in an effort to meet the conditions to pass an environmental impact study.
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