The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday issued a resolution that Wanta Mining Co’s plan to start operations in Yilan County’s Dabai Mountain (大白山) is to undergo a second-stage environmental impact assessment (EIA) over concerns about the damage mining could inflict on Taiwanese beech trees (Fagus hayatae), an endangered tree on the Forestry Bureau’s list of rare plants.
The 12 hectare space allocated to Wanta by the Bureau of Mines for the company to set up a mining complex is just 180m away from a clump of Taiwanese beech trees, with excavations set to take place near the foot of the mountain.
Yilan County Environmental Protection Bureau officials who attended the EIA meeting opposed the plan, citing concerns over potential rockfalls and water pollution the mining activities could cause, affecting local Atayal Aborigines of the Wuta tribe (武塔).
Since the mining site is home to a dozen protected animal species, including the Formosan Reeve’s muntjac, Formosan rock monkeys, Swinhoe’s pheasants and civets, they were also concerned about the impact the project would have on local flora and fauna.
Citing a document issued by the Forestry Bureau to Yilan County Government in February last year, which stated that the Taiwanese beech trees are growing on the reserved area for a nature reserve, Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan, researcher Pan Yi-ting (潘怡婷) criticized the plan.
She also questioned the Forestry Bureau’s plans to delay the delimitation of the nature reserve’s scope, which the agency had originally scheduled to announce in 2012.
“This is the most ridiculous EIA meeting in history. Had the Forestry Bureau announced the scope of the nature reserve as it promised, we would not have had to go through all this,” she said.
She also warned of the possibility of Wanta demanding compensation from the government when the national land planning draft act, currently under review by legislators, is passed, because the proposed draft, set to replace the Regional Plan Act (區域計畫法), will bar developments from taking place in an ecologically sensitive zone.
“In a couple of years, the national land planning act will come into effect and there will be zero chance that mining would be allowed on the site. However, if the passage of the EIA report precedes the act’s enforcement, the developer [Wanta] will very likely demand state compensation — which will be issued on taxpayers’ money — and the environment will have suffered irreparable damage,” she said.
“It would result in a zero-sum game among the company, the people and the environment,” Pan said.
Wanta general manager Chien Ming-ta (簡銘達) said his companies had spent about NT$180 million (US$5.7 million) over the nine years since it obtained mining rights in the area.
The EIA committee members later resolved that the development plan should undergo a second-stage EIA, during which the company is to propose solutions to all the problems mentioned and explain why its soil samples produced abnormally high levels of heavy metal pollutants.
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