Members of an anti-substation self-help group from New Taipei City’s (新北市) Taishan District (泰山) yesterday said that state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) is illegally hiding the fact that it is constructing a substation on the Shanjiao Fault (山腳斷層) and causing soil liquefaction.
Holding photographs of tilted apartment buildings seemingly suffering from subsidence, as well as cracked and collapsed road surfaces, the members of the self-help group told a press conference at the legislature that Taipower’s construction of the Taishan Substation has caused damage to the nearby buildings.
Chang Yue-tao (張月桃), head of the self-help group, said her family is worried because their home has tilted about 3cm in only a few months and that Taipower did not do a proper evaluation of the site before it started construction in 2003. Chang called on the company to cease the construction and help repair the damage.
Chang said the geological structure of the land in the area is prone to soil liquefaction because of the high level of underground water and a sandy soil, but Taipower continues to pump water, causing nearby building to subside.
Taiwan Electromagnetic Radiation Hazard Protection and Control Association chairperson Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said the company, in its geological report in 2003 deliberately neglected the fact that the substation is located near the Shanjiao Fault and that the geological conditions indicate possible soil liquefaction.
Liu Shih-ting (劉詩丁), a section chief at the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Central Geological Survey, said the ministry could only confirm that the fault was indeed near the substation, but it did not have data to prove that it was directly underneath it or that it had been affected by the construction.
The responsibility to affirm that fact and prove the structure was safe from earthquakes should be carried out by the developer, he added.
Kuo Chao-kun (郭晁坤), deputy director of Taipower’s Department of Transmission Line and Substation Projects Northern Region Construction Office, said that a substation has existed at the location for many years and the construction that began in 2003 is only a renewal project.
Tsay Ing-sheng (蔡英聖), the head of a construction section in the department, said the office has spent many years communicating with local residents and even assigned four professional civil engineers’ associations to do on-site investigations and evaluations.
The residents were not satisfied with any of the four evaluation reports, Tsay said, so they filed a lawsuit against Taipower and lost. Tsay added that the residents were still unhappy about the results of a fifth evaluation report done by a professional group that they chose last month.
Tsay’s remarks upset a couple of the residents at the press conference, who said they had not received any such notification.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) wrapped up the press conference by asking Taipower officials to prove they notified the residents and to further investigate whether the substation is built on top of the fault.
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