Public funds should not be wasted on a road widening subproject for a proposed incinerator in Nantou County’s Mingjian Township (名間), as the project, which has caused strong controversy, might not even pass the second phase of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) review, environmental advocates said yesterday.
The project, proposed by the county government, would build Nantou’s first incinerator, but is facing vocal backlash from local residents due to its potential impact on the local tea industry.
At an EIA meeting held at the county’s Environmental Protection Bureau on Saturday last week, protesters knelt in front of a row of officials and police while expressing their concern for the impact of the project.
Photo courtesy of the Minjian Township Anti-Incinerator Self-Help Association
Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) on Tuesday said the incinerator would not be set up in the township without a solid EIA, considering that it is responsible for the majority of tea production in Taiwan.
The 7.5-hectare land planned for the incinerator is located within a special agricultural zone with many tea gardens, orchards and crop fields, he said.
To build the incinerator, the county government must obtain a permit from the Ministry of Agriculture, Chen said, adding that the ministry would strictly review the proposal.
The bureau on Saturday last week said that permission is not required for the county government to use existing roads for access to the site, and that permission has already been obtained from relevant landowners to widen the primary access road.
Works to widen the roads could be completed by the end of this year, it said, adding that the matter is separate from the EIA review.
However, environmental advocates yesterday at a news conference reiterated that the bureau has not yet fully obtained permission from the relevant authority to go ahead with the site itself.
Government Watch Alliance organizer Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) also said the National Property Administration has not granted permission for the use of the state-owned land located along the primary access road.
The road is within the range of leopard cat activities, and its surrounding farmland should not be subject to road widening before its permit classification has changed, she said.
It is rare that the bureau initiates road-widening efforts far before a proposed project passes its EIA review, Chen Jiau-hua said.
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