A Nantou County Government project to build an incinerator in Mingjian Township (名間) requires public hearings in adjacent administrative areas that could be affected, environmental groups said yesterday, urging the Ministry of Environment to review the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) to prevent conflicts of interest.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Su-yueh (陳素月) told a news conference that flying ash from the incinerator planned in Mingjian Township would not be confined by administrative boundaries, especially as wind direction changes with the seasons.
The county government has held 10 public hearings in Mingjian Township, but more hearings should be held in neighboring regions as well, including Changhua County’s Ershuei Township (二水), Nantou County’s Jhushan Township (竹山) and Yunlin County’s Linnei Township (林內), Chen said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
Residents from Ershuei Township tried to take part in a hearing held in Mingjian Township, but they were expelled and told to “stay out of Nantou County’s business,” she said, calling for transparency in infrastructure development.
Changhua Environmental Protection Union secretary-general Shih Yueh-ying (施月英) said the site chosen for the incinerator is near the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) and within 1,200m of Ershuei Township, and could cause more severe pollution in Changhua County than in Nantou County.
The quantity of general trash generated in Nantou County increased by 1.3 percent to 97,959 tonnes last year from 96,630 tonnes in 2022, while the figure in Changhua County dropped to less than 242,536 tonnes from 286,214 tonnes over the same period, down by 15.2 percent, Shih said, citing data from the ministry.
“That shows the Nantou County Government’s passive attitude toward recycling,” she said.
The Changhua County Environmental Protection Bureau enforced waste sorting and trash bag inspections, and reduced the amount of waste generated per person per day in the county by about 20 percent from 2023 to last year, she added.
If Nantou County follows Changhua County’s example by strengthening resource and food waste recycling, its trash that amounts to about 45,000 tonnes could be processed more efficiently and reduced by up to 20,000 tonnes a year, Shih said.
All the existing or planned incinerators and solid recovered fuel facilities in Taiwan would provide an additional waste processing capacity of 2.22 million tonnes per year, she said, adding that Mingjian Township’s incinerator project is not necessary.
Chuang Li-te (莊理德), spokesman for the Mingjian Township Anti-Incinerator Self-Help Group, said that an incinerator is not suitable for Mingjian Township, as the region is a major production area of tea and leafy vegetables, which could be contaminated by heavy metals or dioxins from the incinerator.
The incinerator would also form a waste disposal industrial chain and attract illegal disposal of waste, which could undermine Nantou County’s natural resources as the local environment bureau’s inspection capacity is insufficient, he said.
Mingjian Township Mayor Chen Han-li (陳翰立) said the project’s EIA was restricted to the township’s Xinmin Village (新民), where the incinerator is to be constructed, but actually the whole of Baguashan (八卦山) would be heavily affected by the incinerator’s ash.
More than 200 protest banners against the project hung around the township were removed by the Nantou County Environmental Protection Bureau and Chen Han-li was fined NT$18,000 on charges of contravention of the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法), he said.
“We have the right to protest as a citizen living in a free and democratic society, but [the Nantou County Government] removed all the banners and reported me to the local administrative enforcement authority,” Chen Han-li said.
The Nantou County Government also paid “special attention” to local residents who voiced dissent at hearings by taking photographs of them, he said.
Taiwan Watch Institute secretary-general Herlin Hsieh (謝和霖) said the EIA committee’s experts responsible for reviewing the project were hired by the Nantou County Government and have conflicts of interest.
Therefore, the EIA should be reviewed by the ministry or representatives recommended by Mingjian Township instead, he said.
In response, the ministry said that incinerator construction should conduct a two-phase EIA and would have to inform adjacent administrative areas about the project in the EIA’s second phase.
Public hearings would also be held in the second phase as required by law, it said, adding that the ministry would encourage the Nantou County Government to hold hearings in adjacent administrative areas.
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