Chiayi County’s Budai Township (布袋) Mayor Chen Feng-mei (陳鳳梅) yesterday said she has not broken a law in her 30 years as a politician and plans to fully comply with an investigation into alleged illegal landfill operations.
The Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday searched the Budai Township Office, Chen’s (陳鳳梅) residence and the office of a Chiayi County councilor surnamed Lo (羅) as part of an investigation into an alleged illegal landfill in November last year.
The office on Friday summoned all individuals involved in the case, releasing Chen on NT$100,000 bail, and releasing a Budai Township Office Division of Construction director-general surnamed Fang (方) and a solar power company manager surnamed Hsieh (謝) on NT$50,000 bail each.
Photo: Lin Yi-chang, Taipei Times
Three construction soil disposal business owners surnamed Wang (王), Yang (楊) and Hsieh (謝) dumped leftover construction soil on agricultural land in a fishery as part of their work on a power generation project in Budai in November last year, the prosecutors’ office said.
The three ignored warnings in December last year from the Chiayi County Bureau of Environmental Protection, but allegedly continued to contravene the law as late as February, the office said.
Further investigations led prosecutors to allege that Chen, Lo, Fang and Hsieh were involved in the decisions to dispose of the material, it said.
The office on Friday asked the Chiayi District Court to detain Wang and revoke his rights to visitation, citing the possibility of collusion and destruction of evidence, while Yang is to serve 18 months in prison for a separate offense.
Lo did not respond to the summons and must make an affidavit by tomorrow or be subpoenaed, the prosecutors’ office said.
“I will not stand for anyone to use the fishery and solar power generation project to illegally refill farmland with leftover construction soil,” Chen said.
The township has cooperated with the county government’s efforts and requested that the owners remove the leftover soil from the site, she added.
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