A physical altercation broke out this morning at a meeting to assess the environmental impact of Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) plan to build a fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Keelung, as fierce opposition to the proposal continues.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators raised concerns over the meeting’s procedures and the completeness of the environmental impact assessment (EIA).
Discussions resulted in a clash between those in support and opposition, with opponents forcefully occupying the speaker’s podium and temporarily suspending the meeting.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
Deputy Minister of Environment Yeh Jiunn-horng (葉俊宏), who chaired the meeting, announced a recess before continuing at 12:17pm.
However, the conflict continued after the meeting reconvened, leaving Taipower representatives to complete their report amid the chaos.
Today’s meeting was to review a preliminary draft of the EIA for Taipower’s plan to transform the Hsieh-ho Power Plant from an oil-fired facility into one powered by natural gas, as well as reclaim land off Keelung’s Waimushan (外木山) to build a fourth LNG terminal.
TPP legislators Chang Chi-kai (張啓楷), Chen Gau-tzu (陳昭姿) and Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) attended the meeting.
The assessment appeared to be missing data concerning groundwater pollution, Chang said.
Furthermore, of 25 ship maneuvering tests, there was one collision and two to three occasions deemed to be high-risk, he said, adding that these issues should be detailed clearly to legislators and the public before the project is “forced through.”
Whistle-blowers have uncovered that Taipower hid data concerning soil and groundwater pollution and did not publicize this information to the EIA review committee and the public, Chen said.
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) said the meeting should be delayed until the situation had been clarified by the Keelung Bureau of Environmental Protection.
These comments provoked a clash between supporters and the opposition, who began shouting at each other before pushing and shoving.
Opponents of the project stormed the podium, shouting that the procedure was illegal.
They refused to continue the meeting, where they remained as of 10:30am.
Once the meeting resumed this afternoon, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said that Taipower had submitted a full report on Feb. 17 with no missing data, which was sent to committee members on Wednesday last week.
The report states that the project site is not classified as a soil or groundwater pollution control area.
In addition, contraventions of the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Act (土壤及地下水污染整治法) are reviewed separately to EIAs and should be handled by the relevant authorities, the EPA said.
Taipower said it had already conducted an independent pre-construction investigation of soil pollution as per regulations, finding that the plant was not designated as a polluted site.
Only one site on the coast was found to have polluted soil, which was attributed to a past leakage of transformer oil, it added.
Additional reporting by Chen Chia-i
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