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by Chiu Yu-Tzu, Taipei Times

A controversial shipment of 4,611 tonnes of mercury-contaminated waste is finally coming home, after more than a year of sitting in limbo in temporary storage at Kaohsiung Harbor and a trip to Cambodia, Environmental Pro-tection Administration (EPA) officials said yesterday.

The officials said a plan to "import" the 357 cargo containers of waste and process them at the Formosa Plastics Group's factory in Jenwu, Kaohsiung County, for final storage was approved last month.

"Formosa Plastics will use a technology called `heat recovery' to treat the waste and currently is buying the required equipment and facilities from the US," said Fu Shu-chiang, director of the EPA's Bureau of Solid Waste Control.

The controversial waste was dumped illegally in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, in December 1998 by a waste handler, Jade Fortune Ltd, that had been contracted by Formosa Plastics.

Discovery of the waste in Sihanoukville caused panic among residents there, leading to a stampede that killed one person and injured several others.

The Cambodian government ordered Formosa Plastics to return the waste to Taiwan last April, but Taiwan authorities refused to grant an import permit. Until now the containers holding the waste were held in a transit terminal at Kaohsiung Harbor. Proposals to send the cargo to the US for reprocessing also fell through.

In addition to establishing treatment facilities for mercury-tainted sludge at Jenwu, Formosa Plastics will also establish another facility at its factory in Chienjen, Kaohsiung City, to treat 1,200 tonnes of similar waste which will be stored there for at least 15 years.

"Local residents don't need to worry about possible pollution during the reprocessing operations because the technology, currently being used in advanced countries, has been used for decades," Fu said.

Fu stressed that a newly organized monitoring team, composed of environmentalists, experts and EPA officials, has been evaluating the scheme and would keep its eye on all stages of the process.

Members of the team told the Taipei Times yesterday that they would ask Formosa Plastics for testing machines so that they will be able to check the efficacy of the reprocessing.

"We will act as a third party, like an environmental technology consultant company, to monitor emissions, waste water and residue left in the factory to ensure that the environment is not polluted," said Liu Ming-long, a member of the team and secretary-general of the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation.

"The Formosa Plastics case should be a benchmark for Taiwan's hazardous industrial waste management. I'm looking forward to seeing a model for treating such waste established because of this case," Liu said.

Liu also suggested that Formosa Plastics should do more, by taking back thousands of mercury-tainted waste previously dumped illegally around the island by its contracted waste handlers.

However, Liu said that people should applaud the action taken by Formosa Plastics this time because the reprocessing plan showed the company's sincerity.

The waste sitting at the Kaohsiung port will be removed by the end of April. Formosa Plastics will transport the 357 cargo containers by truck to Jenwu, which is about 25km from the port.

The company has said no special equipment or preparations are needed for the trucks that will ferry the waste because all the waste has already been packed properly.

In the event of any opposition by local residents during the transfer process, negotiations will be carried out on the spot.

Environmentalists from the Basel Action Network (BAN), a US environmental group that monitors hazardous industrial waste worldwide, told the Taipei Times yesterday they were glad that Formosa Plastics was finally taking responsibility for its own waste rather than passing the problems on to others.

"Now it becomes imperative that they truly use the best available technology and do not inflict yet more pollution on Taiwan. There should be an open public discussion in Taiwan about the disposal plan and technology," said BAN's secretary-general, Jim Puckett.