The lax management of six large chemical tanks owned by Kaohsiung-based petrochemical firms has resulted in the pollution of groundwater, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday. The agency said that about 3,000 similar tanks now await examination
The latest statistics reveal that concentrations of benzene in the groundwater near four major petrochemical firms are well above allowable levels.
Officials of the EPA's Bureau of Water Quality Protection (
Enforcing the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Act (土壤及地下水污染整治法), the EPA examined six chemical tanks in the south in late March. Inspectors said they were surprised by the pollution they found.
At Chinese Petroleum Corporation (CPC)'s Linyuan Plant in Kaohsiung County, the highest concentration of benzene was 47mg per liter, or about 940 times the allowable level of 0.05 mg per liter.
Concentrations of benzene at the Grand Pacific Petrochemical Corporation's (國喬石化) Kaohsiung Plant, the CPC's Kaohsiung Refinery in Kaohsiung City and the Taiwan Styrene Monomer Corporation were 3.09mg per liter, 0.164mg per liter and 0.06mg per liter, which are 62 times, 3.3 times and 1.2 times the allowable levels, respectively.
"These companies have to either dry their tanks or enhance their ability to prevent future leakage," Lin Chien-hui (林建輝), deputy director-general of the bureau, told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Lin said that roughly 3,000 similar storage tanks around the country pose a threat to the public and that the EPA would examine all of them within two years.
Public relations officials for the CPC's Linyuan Plant's said yesterday that more liners would be inserted in the bottom of the tank to mitigate the leakage.
The officials said that leakage was discovered last October at the plant and control strategies had been carried out. Last November, the concentration of benzene was 57 times the allowable levels, much better than the readings taken by investigators in March this year.
The CPC's Kaohsiung Refinery is in the same situation. The concentration of benzene has increased from 0.064mg per liter last November to 0.164mg per liter in March.
"We will continue monitoring the quality of the groundwater, since we have ample monitoring wells at our factory sites in the city," Lin Teh-shun (
The 400 monitoring wells were installed in 1989 after leakage problems at the refinery were exposed in 1988.
Yesterday, the Kaohsiung City Government's environmental protection department formed a task force to supervise petrochemical companies that need to carry out pollution prevention strategies.
However, officials have warned people living around polluted sites to avoid drinking the groundwater.
In addition to petrochemical companies, the EPA has been closely monitoring gasoline station tanks.
The EPA has asked the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to carry out a comprehensive examination of 19 gasoline station sites where soil and groundwater might have been polluted.
EPA official Lin said that five stations in Taoyuan County, Kaohsiung County and Tainan County, have been confirmed to be polluted by benzene and that further investigation and follow-up treatment will soon be carried out.
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