Taipei Times (2)--Environmental activists criticize lax laws - 環境保育討論

Environmental activists criticize lax laws

ENSURE RIGHTS: Environmentalists say it is imperative that the government revis
e certain laws in order to guarantee the public is protected against harmful pr
ojects
By Chiu Yu-Tzu
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Sep 29, 2003,Page 2
"It's time for us to emulate European people, such as the Germans, who voted to
shut down operational nuclear power plants."

Eugene Jao, DPP Legislator

Recent discussions pertaining to legislation surrounding the nation's first ref
erendum law have prompted environmentalists to urge the government to have lax
laws revised in order to ensure people's environmental rights.

One of the most controversial laws criticized by activists for its failure to p
revent foreseeable environmental deterioration is the Environmental Impact Asse
ssment Act (EIA Act, 環境影響評估法). The lack of public participation and acce
ss to information provisions have been attributed to protests emerging in an en
dless stream, activists said.

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) came under fire last week aft
er its head, Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), suggested that a public development project
, whose EIA had already been passed, should be exempted from the application of
a proposed referendum law currently drafted by the Cabinet.

Hau was immediately bashed by both legislators and environmentalists. Democrati
c Progressive Party (DPP) Legislators on Thursday pointed out that Hau, the onl
y Cabinet-level agency chief with pan-blue leanings, was expressing a view oppo
sing the DPP-dominant Cabinet.

According to Hau, the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be
completed anyway, because its EIA had been passed in the early 1990s.

DPP Legislator Eugene Jao (趙永清) said the construction of the plant needed to
be inspected for environmental impact.

"In the last few years, we've seen the loss of sand on the beach near the plant
's wharf. Why was the problem not addressed by the EIA committee?" Jao asked.

In addition, Jao said the capacity for each power-generating unit has been boos
ted to 1,350 megawatt from 1,000 megawatt by its builder, Taiwan Power Company
(Taipower), which did not redo an EIA.

"It's time for us to emulate European people, such as the Germans, who voted to
shut down operational nuclear power plants," Jao said.

The EIA system was first utilized by the US in the early 1970s. It soon influen
ced advanced countries in Europe, as well as New Zealand, Australia, Canada and
Japan. Developing countries in Asia did not begin to promote the EIA system un
til the 1980s. In Taiwan, after spending a decade preparing a draft for the leg
islature, the government enacted the EIA Act at the end of 1994.

"It's quite sad that the lax law helps process controversial development projec
ts pertaining to industrial complexes, reservoirs and others," said Eric Liou (
劉銘龍), secretary-general of the Taipei-based Environmental Quality Protection
Foundation.

Liou said that other examples illustrating sloppy EIAs include two conflicting
national projects -- Tainan Science Park and the nation's first high-speed rail
road.

The National Science Council (NSC) selected Tainan as the site for Taiwan's sec
ond science park in 1994, two years after the Ministry of Transportation and Co
mmunications had designated a route for the rail project running through the si
te. Both EIAs gave project proponents the green light. To date, vibrations caus
ed by the passage of bullet trains remain a minus in the park's attraction to h
igh-tech firms. The invitation for bids for construction pertaining to vibratio
n reduction will be completed in March next year.

In addition, activists said that the lax law gave dishonest developers space to
dodge their responsibilities.

Chen Jian-zhi (陳建志), director of the waste policy committee of the Green Cit
izens' Action Alliance, said scoping out regulations for diverse development pr
ojects become tools used by project proponents to avoid processing EIAs.

For example, Chen said, the EIA Act designates that it is not necessary for a p
roject constructing a waste incinerator on less than five hectares of land to h
ave an assessment completed.

"That's why residents in Taoyuan have no alternative but to accept the establis
hment of a large incinerator, with a daily capacity of 1,350 metric tonnes of w
aste, on a site covering only three hectares of land. This is just one of many
similar cases in Taiwan," Chen said.

Green Formosa Front chairman Wu Tung-jye (吳東傑) said the government's credibi
lity had been seriously damaged by assessment committees, whose members were em
powered to approve projects, but not asked to shoulder any responsibility if en
vironmental problems emerged later.

"The EIA system will never gain people's trust if public participation remains
unavailable," Wu said.

According to the EIA Act, public hearings only have to be held after the approv
al of the first phase of the assessment, which gives developers the green light
.

Agency officials stressed that the fundamental spirit of the EIA Act is to prev
ent and mitigate adverse impacts of development activities so as to attain the
goal of environmental protection.

"We know the importance of public involvement. But, under economic pressure, th
e EIA Act is often blamed by developers for the long process of having assessme
nts completed," said Tung Te-po (董德波), director general of the EPA's Departm
ent of Planning.

Tung said the agency would consider having the law revised by allowing the publ
ic to express their opinions before conducting the assessment.

Shih Shin-min (施信民) of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union said that,
before revising the act, establishing a legal basis of public referendums for p
eople to challenge questionable policies or environment-unfriendly projects wou
ld be an effective way to ensure satisfactory public involvement.

"The more democracy we have, the better the environment will be protected," Shi
h said.


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