Environmentalists blasted the Environmental Protection Admin-istration (EPA) yesterday for its disappointing performance in 1999 on several controversial issues, including controversial environmental impact assessments, air quality control, hazardous industrial waste management, illegal waste dumping and poor waste recycling.
Displaying an annual transcript graded by environmental groups and journalists at a press conference yesterday, DPP lawmaker Lin Chung-mo (
"Although we were happy to see the establishment of the environmental police and a revised waste disposal act during the past year, we were disappointed by the EPA's poor performance -- such as a lack of comprehensive environmental impact assessments for development projects favored by the central government," Lin said.
Lin took the Eighth Naphtha Cracker Project (
"What will remain of the marine environment after several industrial complexes have been constructed along the west coast?" Lin asked.
Environmentalists attending the press conference yesterday said that Taiwan's policy of building more industrial complexes conflicted with the global trend in attempting to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
"We need to take great care when formulating industrial policy. Although Taiwan is such a small country, it ranks 24th among the world's top carbon dioxide producers," said Hsu Kuang-jung (徐光蓉), a professor of atmospheric science at National Taiwan University.
Waste disposal is also of great concern to activists. They said that although the revised waste disposal act had made life tougher for illegal waste handlers and enterprises generating hazardous waste, active supervision by the EPA was in question.
"This year during its crackdown, the EPA closed more than 160 illegal waste dumps across the nation. But it has so far only investigated 50 of them to establish their level of danger.
As for the remaining sites, EPA officials say they have not established a specific deadline to complete all evaluation work," said Joyce Fu (伏嘉捷), secretary-general of the Green Formosa Front (台灣綠色陣線).
Fu also pointed to EPA hesitation in dealing with issues involving hazardous industrial waste issue, citing the 4,600 tons of mercury-tainted waste generated by the Formosa Plastics Group -- now awaiting transshipment in Kaohsiung Harbor -- as an example.
"I wonder what laws and regulations could have permitted the EPA to extend the deadline for storing the waste at Kaohsiung Harbor until the end of next year?" Fu asked, referring to the debacle as an example of wrestling between the EPA and heavy industry.
Fu said that the controversial waste -- rejected by Cambodia, the US, France and locally affected Taiwanese people -- should prompt the EPA to draw up a comprehensive industrial waste management strategy during the next year.
"Recycling conducted by the EPA has been inefficient. Privatization of the recycling industry should be the way of the future," said Eric Liou (劉銘龍), secretary-general of the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation (環境品質文教基金會).
Other environmentalists expressed concern over the inefficient management of the removal of construction materials from areas stricken by the 921 earthquake.
"We've heard that some waste has been dumped along riversides because of a lack of temporary dump sites," said Lin Sheng-chung (
EPA officials refuted the allegation, saying instead that construction waste removed from damaged structures was being taken to official temporary dump sites, from which much will eventually be recycled.
"We will soon begin an efficient recycling process to turn the waste into base materials for several construction sites in central Taiwan, including Chang-pin Industrial Complex (
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