Thousands of tonnes of slag have been found upstream of the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) in Nantou County’s Sinyi Township (信義), with contractors ordered to remove the slag within a week amid fears over water pollution.
An estimated 3,000 tonnes of gravel mixed with blast furnace slag was dumped on the bank of the Heshe Creek (和社溪), a major source of drinking water for local residents and a branch to the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪), a report by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) said on Saturday.
Residents tested water around the dump site using pH level test strips and found the water was highly alkaline, with pH levels peaking at 14, they said.
Residents filed a complaint with police and the Nantou Environmental Protection Bureau, saying they had seen frequent gravel truck activity in the area since Monday last week, and had noticed unfamiliar substances washing out from gravel heaps, the report said.
“The creek supplies more than 70 percent of local drinking water. As the wet season is approaching, toxic substances might be washed downstream and affect peoples’ health and crops,” township representative Lee Kuo-yuan (李國源) said.
Nantou Environmental Protection Bureau Waste Management Section Director Chang Ching-nan (張請男) yesterday said that no pollution has been found in the area.
However, the contractor has been ordered to remove the slag within seven days.
The bureau has collected samples to test if the gravel heap contains excessive heavy metals, Chang said.
The slag was allegedly from Kaohsiung-based CHC Resources Corp — a subsidiary of China Steel Corp — and was to be used for ground grading and road construction, according to the contractor, who has been conducting dredging operations upstream.
Blast furnace slag can be reused to pave roads, but the slag pile will be removed beginning today because of residents’ concerns over potential pollution, the contractor said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said on Facebook that although blast furnace slag is a by-product, it has little market value because no one wants to use it, resulting in repeated dumping in farmland and waterways.
Other types of slag, such as electric arc furnace slag and bottom ash, are frequently illegally disposed of due to their low market value even though they are defined as reusable materials, she said, adding that it is why she has convened hearings and meetings to deal with the disposal of those “products” and “reusable materials.”
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