State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) received three separate fines totaling NT$9 million (US$275,351) after an underground pipe ruptured in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止) on Monday, spilling oil in several rivers.
The pipe, which carries boiler fuel oil, ruptured near Jhongsing Road in Sijhih, covering nearby roads with oil. Several motorcyclists were reportedly injured after slipping on the oil.
The New Taipei City Environmental Protection Department said it has cleaned up 630,000 liters of oil in Tsaolan Creek (草濫溪) and Neikou Creek (內溝溪) so far.
Photo provided by Taipei City Councilor Chien Shu-pei
The department said it fined the company NT$3 million on Monday night right after the spill entered Tsaolan Creek. The initial fine was followed by another NT$3 million penalty on Wednesday for the company’s failure to prevent the spill from spreading to Neikou Creek.
The Taipei City Government on Thursday fined the company another NT$3 million after the spill reached the Keelung River.
The city government demanded that the company complete decontamination work today or face further disciplinary action, adding that the city would seek compensation from the company to cover cleaning costs.
As the oil spread to the Keelung River, contaminants were found in various sections of the river in Taipei’s Neihu (內湖), Nangang (南港) and Shilin (士林) districts.
Taipei City Councilor Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培) on Friday gave the media pictures of contaminated areas along the river, showing turtles covered with oil, saying that the spill could threaten the river’s ecosystem and must be taken under control as soon as possible.
CPC Corp said that a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that hit eastern Taiwan early on Monday morning might have caused the fracture, adding that further investigation would be needed to determine the exact cause of the incident.
The tremor had generated a local intensity of 1 in New Taipei City.
Previously, the maximum fine stipulated by the Water Pollution Control Act (水污染防治法) was NT$600,000, which was raised to NT$3 million after a plant operated by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) discharged wastewater into the Houjing River in Kaohsiung in 2013.
The Sijhih oil spill is the biggest financial penalty the New Taipei City Government has meted out since the penalty hike.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS