The recent confirmation of dioxin pollution on a site long known to be polluted with various chemicals has recently become the source of tension between a private company and the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).
The company, China Petrochemical Development Corp's (
Environmentalists say that the case highlights the problem of soil pollution in Taiwan.
"Firms have to be particularly careful with places which have been used as illegal dump sites, pesticide factories, military bases, repositories of chemical materials and gas stations," said Eric Liou (
Liou said that companies seeking to purchase land should ask for proof that the land has not been polluted.
On Feb. 17 last year, Liou reported to the authorities that the ground soil at one of China Petrochemical's factories in Anshun (安順), Tainan, had been seriously polluted by heavy metal, mercury, pentachlorophenol and dioxin.
By then, the 28-hectare site had been abandoned for two decades with no warning sign in place.
Long-neglected Issue
Environmentalists from the EQPF said that experts working for the foundation had discovered that concentrations of dioxin accumulated in the soil within a 1.8 hectare area inside the factory site were more than 130 times greater than limits set by Germany as acceptable.
In addition, environmentalists said that rain had been spreading mercury and other toxic pollutants into the soil for years.
Filed only two weeks after the Legislative Yuan passed the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Reme-diation Act (土壤及地下水污染整治法), the case was the first soil pollution case to be reported after the law came into effect. In accordance with the act, the current owner of the land, in this case China Petrochemical, must solve the problem under the supervision of the local government and the EPA.
Long before it received Liou's report, Tainan City Government had established a task force to monitor the site, which had first been reported in the early 1980s as being polluted with various chemicals.
After the China Petrochemical closed the factory in 1981, many letters were sent to Tainan City Government asking for a comprehensive investigation into the extent of the pollution on the factory site.
Local environmental officials, however, admitted that they could only request help from the EPA in carrying out further analysis because they had very limited knowledge of the technology required to examine concentrations of dioxin.
Old Problem, New Strategy
Years went by but the polluted site, in one of the most densely populated areas of Tainan, still had no warning sign and was ignored by both officials and its owner.
A tourist venue 500m north of the polluted site, Luermen Tienhou Temple, attracts countless devotees. A science and technology-based industrial complex is northwest of the polluted site and is surrounded by fish farms.
Although it was aware of the case and the potential threat it posed to the public, the EPA did not carry out a dioxin concentration analysis until last month. The EPA first discovered the extent of the pollution last week.
On May 8, the EPA's National Institute of Environmental Analysis (環檢所) released the results of 13 soil samples, which were collected from soil in residential areas neighboring the site, the estuary of the Luermen River and the adjacent fish farms.
EPA officials said that the soil from the grasslands in front of the entrance of the site of the factory had been seriously polluted by dioxin, which would definitely be unacceptable if someone planned to use the meadow as a playground, although it might be safe for residential use.
They also said that the soil in the estuary of the Luermen River contains much higher concentrations of dioxin than any other river in Taiwan.
When EPA head Hau Lung-bin (
"Now we need more detailed information about the pollution inside the factory site," Hau said, saying it was necessary to collect more samples for further analysis.
China Petrochemical: An Innocent Victim?
Hau's demand that surface soil be removed put a lot of pressure on China Petrochemical, which is currently working on a dioxin pollution treatment project to be submitted to Tainan City Government by June 6, a deadline set by the EPA.
Facing pressure from the EPA, China Petrochemical Vice President Wang Pai-hsien (
"The polluter should have been held responsible for it," Wang told the Taipei Times.
Wang explained that the site at Anshun had been used by state-owned Taiwan Alkali Industrial Corp (TAIC, 台鹼公司), which merged with then state-owned China Petrochemical in 1979.
When China Petrochemical became a private company in 1994, it inherited all the land used by TAIC, a company which no longer exists.
"China Petrochemical is an innocent victim because we have never used the land," said Wang.
"Since the pollution was caused by TAIC, which was a state-owned company at the time, the government should now be the one to take over responsibility for the treatment," Wang said, adding that the EPA should develop solutions.
EPA officials said, however, that it was China Petrochemical's responsibility because the company was aware of the pollution when it purchased state-owned TAIC in 1994. At the time, state-owned China Petrochemical spent more than NT$200 million removing pollutants from the site, unaware of the existence of the dioxin.
After becoming private, China Petrochemical spent another NT$100 million treating the polluted site. Now it is being asked to spend more on further treatment.
Liou said that the privatized China Petrochemical had the right to ask the state for compensation.
"I believe that controversial land purchasing cases similar to the China Petrochemical case will be common in the future, if firms don't pay enough attention to the history of the land they are buying," Liou said.
Liou said that the most serious long-term pollution occurred before 1980, when environmental concerns were not high on the political agenda.
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