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FPG INSTRUCTED TO HANDLE ITS MERCURY-LACED WASTE PROPERLY

by CNA

TAIPEI, Taiwan, 1 April 1999 -- Taiwan's Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) on Thursday demanded that the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) take adequate measures to handle its toxic waste without provoking further international disputes.

Fu Shu-chiang, director of the EPA's Solid Waste Control Bureau, instructed FPG, a local petrochemical giant, to find a suitable destination as soon as possible to dispose of its mercury-laden industrial waste, in light of the fact that the US Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn a permit for the waste to be shipped to California for disposal following strong opposition from local residents.

Stressing that the EPA will closely monitor how the FPG handles the much-disputed toxic waste, Fu claimed that there is no evidence to back foreign wire service reports that the company is planning to transport the nearly 3,000 tons of toxic substances back to Taiwan.

At a news conference, FPG Manager Lee Chih-tsun also brushed aside the reports, saying that FPG is planning to transport the material to a third destination via the southern Taiwan port of Kaohsiung.

The foreign reports sparkled fierce protests from Ting Shan-lung, head of Kaohsiung County's Environmental Protection Bureau, and Liu Lung-chuan, chief of the local Jenwu Township, with the two men accusing FPG of long-term pollution of the environment in Jenwu, where several FPG plants are located. They demanded FPG relocate its plants elsewhere.

The 3,000 tons of mercury-contaminated industrial waste were produced by one of the Jenwu plants.

The toxic waste was shipped to Cambodia last November, where it was dumped at a landfill in a southern village. However, poor handling of the waste by the local contractor, and the discovery by environmental officials that the waste contained a wide range of toxicity levels, panicked local residents and prompted grave concern from the international community.

Forced to find another destination for the waste, FPG reached an agreement with a US waste disposal company which was going to store the waste at a California landfill, until public outcry from the people living in the vicinity of the proposed site drove the US EPA to revoke its previous approval for the shipment.

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