Officials from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday that a final deadline for Formosa Plastics Corporation (
This answer was given after the issue was raised by environmentalists from the Formosa Green Group (FGG
EPA administrator Tsai Shung-hsiung (1/22勳雄) said at the meeting with activists yesterday, that a special team of EPA officials had been dealing with the issue and in the future neither the EPA nor the Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC) would "keep people in the dark." The administration has been criticized by both green groups and residents for its weakness in dealing with the Formosa Plastics waste issue. To raise awareness of other toxic waste problems FGG activists played out a sarcastic skit in front of the EPA building.
Activists want to draw attention to hazardous industrial waste disposal problems such as the the lack of permanent disposal sites and proper tracking systems.
At a meeting later with EPA officials, environmentalists asked for an exact date for FPC to solve its mercury-tainted waste situation.
"It's been over a year since the Formosa scandal of illegally dumped waste was revealed, but since that time we haven't seen any further action taken by the EPA, except for several extensions [on the storage of the waste]," said Joyce Fu (
Environmentalists said that five extensions in the past year by the EPA could be regarded as a sign of its recalcitrance. It could also signify that FPC, a major industry player, has strong ties with the government. Holding up a list of several past EPA policies the activists asked for more details of environmental damage caused by waste handlers.
"We hope the EPA can trace the past activities of all toxic industrial waste handlers efficiently. All of these groups should be held responsible for the illegal dumps they have created," Fu said.
Activists argued that regular inspections at factories were necessary, because this would be essential in preventing further soil, water and air pollution -- resulting from illegal waste dumps.
The EPA's Tsai said officials had classified fifty illegal waste dumps out of the 162 existing -- based on the extent of injury to people -- and that they would try to complete the rest of the categorization work as soon as possible. However, EPA officials admitted yesterday that nothing has been done so far about beginning regular inspections at manufacturing facilities.
GFF members stressed that existing industrial waste dump problems reflected a lack of responsibility on the part of industry.
"We hope to see industrial leaders writing environmental reports for the government and the public in the future, to show that they are determined to overcome environmental difficulties they might encounter in business," said GFF's chairman Wu Tung-chieh (
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