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By Chiu Yu-Tzu, Taipei Times

Kaohsiung County officials agreed yesterday to issue the necessary documents to the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) soon so it can import its controversial mercury-tainted waste from Kaohsiung Harbor.

FPG reached an agreement on Monday to offer residents in Jenwu township, Kaohsiung County, compensation in exchange for the right to transfer its 4,400 tonnes of mercury-tainted waste from Kaoshiung Harbor.

"Since the agreement between the firm and residents has been reached, we will help the firm to import the waste smoothly," Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yu Cheng-hsien said yesterday.

The waste has been in temporary storage at the port since April 1999, after it was returned from Cambodia.

FPG earned a notorious reputation internationally after its contracted waste handler dumped the waste illegally in Cambodia in 1998, leading to several deaths.

After several countries subsequently rejected advances from FPG to treat the waste, the firm began to consider importing it back to its factory site in Jenwu for treatment.

But Jenwu residents immediately objected to the plan, expressing little confidence in FPG, which had previously concealed related information about the controversial waste.

Following months of negotiations with residents, FPG agreed to offer NT$15 million in compensation to Jenwu township for local infrastructure and hire experts to monitor FPG's treatment on the waste.

In addition, FPG said it would offer a guarantee in the form of a NT$100 million check made out to the township to ensure that the company finishes the treatment job within eight months without producing any pollution.

Environmentalists told the Taipei Times yesterday that using the compensation properly would be the next focus.

"The last thing we want to see is that FPG gets involved with hiring experts, who are to monitor the treatment," said Joyce Fu, secretary-general of Green Formosa Front (GFF).

"FPG's attitude has never been sincere since the waste was discovered in Cambodia in 1998. We regret to see that the firm tends to leave the public in the dark while controversy continues," Fu said.

Fu said the compensation would be used to buy health insurance for residents or pay for utilities.

FPG officials have confirmed the company would take delivery of heat recovery facilities used in the treatment and purchased from the US on June 18. Also a treatability test would be conducted soon.

Members of a monitoring team under the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said that they would travel to Kaohisung County to exam the machine after it is installed.

"In the future, the EPA-led monitoring team might not need to become involved since local residents may use the compensation money to hire professionals to monitor the treatment," said Liu Ming-long, a member of the team and secretary-general of the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation.

Liu said that treating mercury-tainted waste was much easier than treating nuclear waste and that the necessary technology to carry out the job would not be difficult for FPG to acquire.

Liu said he was more concerned about hazardous industrial waste that remains untreated.

"Don't forget that part of 7,000 tonnes of mixed waste secretly dumped at Hsinyuan township, Pingtung County, contained FPG's mercury-tainted waste," said Liu, adding that the cleanup work had been halted due to a shortfall in the budget.

Liu said that the budget for the last step to remove the waste from the site was about NT$960 million.

"Why hasn't the EPA explained to taxpayers why they pay for such industry?" asked Liu, adding that the EPA should establish a comprehensive mechanism to manage hazardous industrial waste as soon as possible.