A proposed mining project in Hualien County was yesterday rejected by the Environmental Protection Administration in a rare ruling that effectively prevents the developer from resubmitting a mining application.
The project, which proposed a 13-hectare mining site inside a forest near Hualien’s Sioulin Township (秀林), was ruled “impermissible” because it would endanger 11 protected animal species and primary forest, and the developer cannot file a reapplication if the reasons of the rejection persist.
Conventionally, the EPA’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) grand assembly rejects an application by returning it to other authorities — usually the Ministry of Economic Affairs — and requesting that they reject the development application.
However, applications rejected in this manner can be refiled.
The assembly’s decision is considered a major move following EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan’s (李應元) pledge to phase out quarry projects inside national parks.
“The assembly’s rejection of the project was purely based on experts’ decision to protect 11 rare and endangered species. Developers should know from this case that they should always comply with environmental protection and conservation regulations,” Lee said, brushing aside suggestions that the rejection was made to honor his pledge.
The mining application was filed in 2009 and was rejected in April after four EIA reviews, because the proposed mining site is a habitat for Taiwanese serows, Lue’s japaluras and other protected species.
At the assembly yesterday, which was convened to review the original rejection made in April, the developer volunteered to reduce the area of the planned mining site from 39.77 hectares to 13.18 hectares to circumvent primary forest and protect rare animals, but the rejection was upheld.
“The developer did not want to accept the EIA committee’s suggestions to reduce potential environmental effects, so various development plans it submitted were more or less the same,” EPA Deputy Minister Thomas Chan (詹順貴) said. “To prevent the developer from resubmitting the application, the project should be rejected as an impermissible application on the ground that the area is unsuitable for development. That is how the EPA shoulders responsibility.”
Saying the proposed mining site was too close to primary forest and animal habitats, assembly member Lee Chien-ming (李堅明) said the EPA should send a clear signal to businesses that development in sensitive areas would not be allowed.
Meanwhile, Chan said the EPA is planning to conduct a strategic environmental assessment for the nation’s cement industry to establish new criteria for evaluating mining proposals or extending mining rights.
The EPA is also working to review an EPA decree issued in 2000, which exempts mining operations licensed before the enactment of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法) in 1995 from having to undergo EIA reviews when seeking to renew their licenses if no changes have been made to the original mining practice.
The EIA system is also to be streamlined so that a development application would not undergo more than three reviews, Chan said.
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