The Taitung County Government on Tuesday began testing the systems at the county’s long-dormant incinerator, saying that it is to begin trial operations in June provided the systems are functioning correctly.
The county said that launching operations at the plant would relieve trash problems in the area and would, over the long run, help keep Taitung clean.
The incinerator has faced myriad problems. There was more than 21 years of deliberation before construction began in 2001. Since its completion and trial operations in 2006, the county government had refused to approve funds for it to become operational, meaning it was idle for more than 16 years.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
The lack of a local incinerator had forced Taitung to transport trash to be burned elsewhere in Taiwan.
If other local governments refuse to burn Taitung’s trash — as Kaohsiung has done — the county faces a trash issue, the Taitung County Government has said.
The county and the firm that was contracted to operate the incinerator sued each other, with a final ruling in 2011 stating that the contract should be terminated and that the county must buy back the plant and the land for NT$1.96 billion (US$70.45 million).
Taitung Mayor Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) on Tuesday said that the plant would only begin trial operations once it is fully ready.
Having a local facility that can process trash would markedly alleviate Taitung’s trash problem, Yao said.
The Society of Wilderness’ Taitung branch said that the county should establish transparent oversight measures for incinerator reciprocation funds.
The society said that a committee should be established to oversee the plant’s operations.
The county should make its plans public, including how ash is to be dealt with, the society said.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS