Fu Jin-gui (
Fu was astonished a few days later by what he observed at his workplace. The temperature of the burning waste was kept between 500C and 600C.
"Since starting work at the incinerator I was never told that the burning temperature should be kept between 850C and 1,100C," Fu told the Taipei Times.
PHOTO: CHIU YU-TZU, TAIPEI TIMES
For Fu, a 50-year-old native Meinung resident with a junior high school education, incinerator-related science and technologies were difficult to understand.
But he did know that operating a machine against regulations was dangerous.
"I asked my supervisors about the temperature but was only told to mind my own business," Fu said.
PHOTO: CHIU YU-TZU, TAIPEI TIMES
Instead Fu took photos as evidence and reported the offense to the authorities.
Due to his report, the incinerator was fined NT$100,000 and Fu lost his job along with his NT$25,000 monthly salary.
NO REGULATIONS
The waste incinerator in Meinung, designed to treat 110 tonnes of waste per day, is one of more than 100 small-scale incinerators in Taiwan. This number includes 38 registered incinerators which can handle medical waste.
While the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is focusing on establishing regulations for large-scale incinerators, small-scale facilities like the one in Meinung have been operating without regulation.
The EPA did not reveal the facts about dioxin emissions from small-scale incinerators until last December, and only after being questioned by legislators.
EPA officials admitted that the dioxin emissions of some of these small-scale incinerators was much higher than levels set as acceptable by other countries.
Among them, a medial waste incinerator in southern Taiwan was forced to shut down because of unacceptable dioxin emissions, resulting from incomplete combustion at temperatures lower than they should have been.
Although EPA officials promised that regulations for small-scale incinerators would be established by the end of this year, residents living near the incinerator were given no choice except to carry on living in a worsening environment.
"What confuses us is the fact that the incinerator operated without problems, even without a license," Chang Cheng-yang (張正揚), secretary-general of the Meinung People's Association (美濃愛鄉協進會) said.
Testing on the incinerator was begun in September last year, Chang said, but it did not file an application for a license to operate until eight months later.
"The point is that it kept operating during this time without permission. We residents feel like we have been guinea pigs for the incinerator," Chang said.
monster foods
Meanwhile, a vegetable farmer who would only agree to be referred to as Chiou, told the Taipei Times that some farmers were worried by what they claimed were unusual phenomena, possibly caused by the operation of the plant.
"The color of the tips of the leeks turned white, mysteriously," said Chiou.
He said that farmers in Kaoshu (
Walking around his vegetable farm, Chiou pointed out white spots on the leaves of water spinach and complained that crops might have been affected by the incinerator.
"No one has explained to us [farmers] why this has happened," Chiou said, adding that even his sons wouldn't eat the vegetables that they had planted.
something in the air
Not only plants but people have been affected too. Unexplained diseases with similar symptoms have terrified some residents living downwind of the incinerator.
"One day, I felt so itchy I couldn't bear it any longer. I couldn't stop scratching my feet, said Chung Tsai-hsuan (
Chung said his father and some neighbors also suffered from similar symptoms, but doctors could find no cause for the affliction.
Hsiao Chu-liang (
"We suspect that chemicals emitted by the incinerators had polluted the air, because many children had the same symptoms," Hsiao said.
LOCAL OPPOSITION
Residents wonder why the government did not stop or delay the Meinung incinerator.
Chung, Hsiao and other residents handed over a petition to the Kaohsiung County Government last month to ask for an immediate cessation of the plant's operation, in addition to a health risk assessment for residents.
They even questioned whether the incinerator was necessary.
"Many residents suspect that the incinerator burns industrial waste transported from other countries and this could be the main reason for its existence," the now unemployed Fu, the former operator at the incinerator, said.
Meinung residents only generate 40 tonnes of regular waste every day, about one-third of the capacity of the incinerator.
"We worry about not only dioxins but also heavy metals emitted from the incinerator, because it burns both family and industrial waste," said Hsiao Tsun-hsiung (
Some members of the Meinung People's Association said the groundwater may also have been contaminated by pollutants emitted by the incinerator, because it was only 300m away from the Laonung River (
According to a study by Sung Kuo-cheng (
Dioxins, which are produced by industrial processes such as waste incineration and paper-pulp production, have been confirmed as a human carcinogen.
Dioxins enter the food chain when animals eat contaminated plants and the compound then accumulates in blood and fatty tissues.
In May, the US Environmental Protection Agency released a report stating that it had previously underestimated the toxicity of dioxins by as much as a factor of 10.
WHAT next?
The EPA is establishing regulations on all types of incinerators, including small-scale facilities that treat 300 tonnes of waste or less per day.
According to the EPA, by 2001 70 percent of waste in Taiwan will be burned in 21 public large-scale incinerators. By 2003, another 15 private large-scale incinerators will also be built.
As for small-scale incinerators, the EPA's new deputy administrator, James Lee (李界木), said last month that current policies relating to incinerators would be reviewed soon.
"Any small-scale incinerators emitting pollutants beyond acceptable levels will have to be shut down immediately," Lee said.
The builder of the incinerator in Meinung, Yunlin-based Jihyu Waste Handler (
However, smoke coming from the Meinung incinerator is still darkening the horizon for unemployed Fu, irritating Meinung residents and also those in neighboring townships, who may not become fully aware of the threat posed by the plant's continued operation.
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