Hundreds of residents of Changhua County’s Jhutang Township (竹塘) yesterday rallied in front of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) office in Taipei to protest against the Central Taiwan Science Park’s fourth-phase expansion plan, which they said could contaminate thousands of hectares of farmland.
About 600 demonstrators took over a pavement in front of the agency before a scoping meeting for the project, blaring horns and holding up banners that read: “Protests against turning quality rice into toxic rice.”
The proposed expansion, which is undergoing a second-stage environmental impact assessment (EIA), calls for the construction of an underground pipeline to carry effluent from the science park’s base in Erlin (二林) through Jhutang before flowing out into the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪).
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Chi Tsung-cheng (紀宗成), leader of a local self-help group, said that Jhutang produces some of the nation’s best agricultural products.
Jhutang rice has often been selected by the Council of Agriculture as one of the nation’s top 10 rice products, Chi said.
The town also boasts thousands of hectares of watermelon farms, he said.
If the proposed pipeline is ruptured during an earthquake, chemicals being transported from the science park would seep through the soil and into groundwater used for irrigation, Chi said.
“Once the farmland is contaminated, it will be impossible for future generations to grow anything there,” he said.
Jhutang is about 14m to 18m higher than Erlin in altitude, and a heavy-duty water pump will be needed to transport effluents from the park, increasing the chances of a pipeline explosion as well as driving up operating costs, Jhutang Township Mayor Chuang Yi-lieh (莊宜洌) said.
Having such a pipeline pass though Jhutang would also jeopardize its produce sales, Chuang said.
When the EPA was reviewing Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co’s plan to set up a petrochemical complex near the township, Chuang said one of his customers told him that he would never buy rice from Jhutang if the firm operates close to the community.
Fangyuan Township (芳苑) Anti-Pollution Self-help Group head Lin Lien-tsung (林連宗) said that about 100,000 people live in Fangyuan, Jhutang and Dacheng (大城) — an area known as the Changhua Southwest End — who depend on groundwater for their everyday needs, and the science park’s plan poses a serious threat to public health.
The protesters delivered their petitions to EPA, council and science park officials who attended the scoping meeting.
The EIA committee said it would forward the opinions recorded yesterday to the EIA grand assembly.
The planned expansion aims to set up a precision machinery complex in Erlin Township and would cover 631 hectares.
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