The Keelung City Government on Thursday listed the Hsieh-ho Power Plant as a soil pollution control site, and suspended all land use and development until a comprehensive pollution control plan is formed.
A project to convert the plant into a gas power plant with a liquefied natural gas terminal has sparked environmental concerns, following allegations of excessive contaminants, such as total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) and heavy metals, in the soils of the plant’s site.
Environmental groups on Thursday gathered in front of the city government, calling for the plant to be listed as a soil pollution control site in accordance with the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Act (土壤及地下水污染整治法).
Photo: Lu Hsien-hsiu, Taipei Times
An investigation conducted by the city government in June found that nickel contamination exceeded the standard by eight times at one of the nine sampling spots, while TPH contamination was up to 42.4 times higher than the standard at another spot, Waimushan Conservation Action convener Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) said.
Therefore, the plant should be listed as a soil pollution control site to suspend land use and limit personnel entry, in accordance with Article 17 of the act, he said.
Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association attorney Tsai Ya-ying (蔡雅瀅) urged the city government to set up a task force with citizen members to oversee the pollution control progress.
An information disclosure platform should also be established where supervisory results could be posted, such as the city’s environmental protection bureau’s Web site, she said.
Waimushan Conservation Action spokeswoman Chen Wei-chung (陳薇仲) said that the environmental groups chose to demonstrate at the city government, as they no longer believe that the Ministry of Environment would uphold transitional justice while driving the energy transition.
The ministry on Thursday reiterated that soil pollution control and environmental impact assessment (EIA) reviews are two separate legal proceedings and neither precedes the other.
Regarding whether the developer, Taiwan Power Co, intentionally excluded evidence of soil contamination from the report it submitted to the EIA committee for review, which would have contravened the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法), the ministry said that a civic group had reported the case to judicial authorities who would investigate.
The Keelung Bureau of Environmental Protection on Thursday said that 45 hectares of the plant’s site have been listed for soil pollution control, including where the wastewater treatment plant, oil tanks, generator units, switchyard, ash silo and main gate are located, as well as the surrounding land.
The range covered almost the entire area within the wall of the plant, it said.
The developer must submit a pollution control plan within half a year to the city government’s task force in charge of soil and groundwater pollution site remediation for review, the bureau said, adding that no development is allowed until the remediation is completed.
Additional reporting by CNA
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