Air Clean Taiwan (ACT) yesterday suggested southern Yunlin County’s Mailiao Harbor (麥寮港) as a potential location for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, saying that it would save algal reefs and 20 million lives in western Taiwan.
Addressing Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) in a news conference at the Legislative Yuan, ACT Yunlin representative Lin Fu-yuan (林富源) blasted CPC Corp, Taiwan’s planned location for its third LNG terminal.
The project would sacrifice the algal reefs off the coast of Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), Lin said, urging the ministry to come up with an alternative plan.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
He suggested the Port of Taipei for the Taoyuan terminal and Mailiao Harbor for another site, as the southern port at Mailiao is lying idle and is near an empty plot of land.
Taiwan Power Co could then construct a temporary gas-fired plant nearby, as an intermediary option while the nation transitions away from fossil fuels, he added.
Pollution in central and southern Taiwan is a serious problem, especially in Yunlin County, which has been worst in the nation for seven consecutive years, said Hwang Yuan-her (黃源河), head of an association representing victims of pollution in the county’s Taisi Township (台西).
The county is the nation’s worst for carcinogenic aerosols such as fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), and cancer rates in Taisi have been correspondingly high, Hwang said, calling for action on the danger that has claimed so many of her neighbors.
Aside from the station, ACT also requested that the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee instruct Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Chang Tzi-chin (張子敬) to give a report on why Taipei, New Taipei City and Hsinchu County all exceeded PM2.5 levels appropriate for their rating.
The EPA in its revised ratings for air pollution control zones released late last year lowered Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Hsinchu County from its most severe class-three rating to class two.
However, ACT said that according to EPA data and legal designations, the latter three regions did not meet the criteria for class two and should be downgraded.
ACT chairman Yeh Guang-perng (葉光芃) said the agency’s unsolicited upgrade has caused the regions’ leaders to mistakenly believe that they are meeting the standards, he said.
Yeh called on Chang to provide a report and the local governments to submit proposals on how they plan to deal with pollution.
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