Environmental activists said yesterday that a land reclamation project is not suited for the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park (彰濱工業區), as the government’s reports have already shown that groundwater in the area contains high levels of arsenic.
The group made the remarks at a public hearing held yesterday at the legislature in Taipei that aimed to address public concern about the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ plan to use industrial waste, such as basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag and coal ash as landfill material, which could contaminate the area’s groundwater and negatively affect the health of local residents.
The Taiwan Water Resources Protection Union said a land reclamation project creating 353 hectares of land using BOF slag and coal ash as landfill material passed an Environmental Impact Assessment in 2010.
Photo: CNA
However, now with the ministry’s Industrial Development Bureau is proposing another 19.7 hectares of land be reclaimed with BOF slag, the group said it is concerned that heavy metal pollution would spread to nearby wetlands, farms, fish farms and contaminate drinking water.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) said the bureau’s own report in 2010 stated that levels of arsenic, considered carcinogenic, in the groundwater were found to exceed drinking water quality standards by as much as seven times.
The report also showed that groundwater near the coast can flow from the industrial park toward the inland areas, so it could contaminate the groundwater in other areas, Liu said.
He said that the majority of residents still rely on groundwater as their main source of drinking water, so the government should stop the land reclamation project.
Several Greater Kaohsiung residents who live near the South Star Plan area said the government has not effectively monitored landfill material deposited in the area in the past 20 years, leading to medical waste being discovered in the area earlier this year and heavy metal contamination being found in ocean sediment.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator and former Environmental Protection Administration deputy minister Chiu Wen-yen (邱文彥) said he is concerned about the location of the land reclamation, "because unlike Tokyo Bay, which is surrounded by land, Changhua faces the open sea and is hit by stronger waves. If the diffusion effect of seawater is not good enough, the fish farming industry along the coast may be affected."
"We should carefully and comprehensively review this policy, so we don’t end up creating even more problems," he said.
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS