Taichung’s air quality has improved greatly since 2015 and Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) has plans to cut pollution from the Taichung Power Plant, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday, ahead of a march against air pollution in the city today.
The city’s yearly average concentration of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or smaller — has dropped from 23 micrograms per cubic meter in 2015 to 18.8 micrograms per cubic meter last month, the EPA said in a news release.
Taipower has plans to update its coal-burning units at the plant and change its outdoor coal bunker into an indoor one to cut pollution, the EPA said.
Photo: Su Chin-feng, Taipei Times
The plans would eliminate 7,118 tonnes of sulfur oxide and 10,319 tonnes of nitrogen oxide emissions per year, the EPA said, adding that Dragon Steel Corp plans to cut 61.9 tonnes of total suspended particles per year by updating its air filtration systems.
The EPA also announced plans to curb pollution emitted by old vehicles and push operators of boilers to update their facilities in line with regulations.
The news release came before Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) of the Democratic Progressive Party convened a campaign rally at 6pm yesterday, which EPA Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Director-General Wu Sheng-chung (吳盛忠) said was aimed at addressing questions about air quality.
Former EPA deputy minister Chan Shun-kuei (詹順貴), who resigned last month, said before the rally that the city government has put more effort than other local governments into curbing air pollution.
The city government in 2015 began asking the power plant to cut generation when air quality was forecast to be bad, Chan said, adding that it tightened emissions standards for boilers in June last year before the EPA announced its changes in September.
Environmental experts on Friday launched a joint petition expressing support for Lin’s air pollution control policies, prompting tears from the mayor, which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) criticized.
“A mayor should be strong in the face of demands for better air quality, instead of shedding tears because of incompetence,” KMT mayoral candidate Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) said.
Additional reporting by Chang Hsuan-che and Su Ching-feng
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