Kaohsiung County officials agreed yesterday to issue the necessary documents to the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) soon so it can import its controversial mercury-tainted waste from Kaohsiung Harbor.
FPG reached an agreement on Monday to offer residents in Jenwu (
"Since the agreement between the firm and residents has been reached, we will help the firm to import the waste smoothly," Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) said yesterday.
The waste has been in temporary storage at the port since April 1999, after it was returned from Cambodia.
FPG earned a notorious reputation internationally after its contracted waste handler dumped the waste illegally in Cambodia in 1998, leading to several deaths.
After several countries subsequently rejected advances from FPG to treat the waste, the firm began to consider importing it back to its factory site in Jenwu for treatment.
But Jenwu residents immediately objected to the plan, expressing little confidence in FPG, which had previously concealed related information about the controversial waste.
Following months of negotiations with residents, FPG agreed to offer NT$15 million in compensation to Jenwu township for local infrastructure and hire experts to monitor FPG's treatment on the waste.
In addition, FPG said it would offer a guarantee in the form of a NT$100 million check made out to the township to ensure that the company finishes the treatment job within eight months without producing any pollution.
Environmentalists told the Taipei Times yesterday that using the compensation properly would be the next focus.
"The last thing we want to see is that FPG gets involved with hiring experts, who are to monitor the treatment," said Joyce Fu (
"FPG's attitude has never been sincere since the waste was discovered in Cambodia in 1998. We regret to see that the firm tends to leave the public in the dark while controversy continues," Fu said.
Fu said the compensation would be used to buy health insurance for residents or pay for utilities.
FPG officials have confirmed the company would take delivery of heat recovery facilities used in the treatment and purchased from the US on June 18. Also a treatability test would be conducted soon.
Members of a monitoring team under the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said that they would travel to Kaohisung County to exam the machine after it is installed.
"In the future, the EPA-led monitoring team might not need to become involved since local residents may use the compensation money to hire professionals to monitor the treatment," said Liu Ming-long (劉銘龍), a member of the team and secretary-general of the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation (環境品質文教基金會).
Liu said that treating mercury-tainted waste was much easier than treating nuclear waste and that the necessary technology to carry out the job would not be difficult for FPG to acquire.
Liu said he was more concerned about hazardous industrial waste that remains untreated.
"Don't forget that part of 7,000 tonnes of mixed waste secretly dumped at Hsinyuan township (
Liu said that the budget for the last step to remove the waste from the site was about NT$960 million.
"Why hasn't the EPA explained to taxpayers why they pay for such industry?" asked Liu, adding that the EPA should establish a comprehensive mechanism to manage hazardous industrial waste as soon as possible.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS