The EPA finally began to consider vigorously the problem of enterprise waste. In October 1996 the EPA urged the cleaning squads of 36 townships who had served as agents to dispose of the enterprise waste to report the amount of waste precisely. (Chung-kuo shih-pao, 1996/10/03/7) The EPA also proposed to establish a center for the management of enterprise waste and a system of common treatment. (Taiwan shih-pao, 1996/11/15/7) Moreover, the EPA conducted investigations over the private waste disposal agencies. It was found that among 173 registered agencies, 32 were nominal companies without real addresses, going out of business, or actually engaging in other trades.

It was also found that gangsters were deeply involved with the waste disposal business. The statistics showed that by the end of 1996, only 26 of the 784 registered waste disposal agencies were qualified for the first grade; this indicated that the capacity of first-grade disposal agencies was not sufficient to meet the need of the current industrial scale. (Chung-kuo shih-pao, 1996/12/09/2; Tzu-li tsao-pao, 1996/12/10/7) On June 20, 1997 the EPA established the Enterprise Waste Control Center. It was expected to collect 85 percent of enterprise waste within one year, to get the disposal on the right track in five years, and to reach the standard of an advanced country. The EPA's target is that by the year 2011, the proper disposal rate of waste produced by industry, agriculture, hospital, and construction can be raised to one hundred percent. (Tzu-li tsao-pao, 1987/06/21/7) Thus we at least know what is the target of the EPA concerning the enterprise waste disposal.

2. The problem of water pollution

     Although the Water Pollution Control Act was promulgated in 1974, it was no executed seriously until 1986. In early 1986 a series of events occurred along the southwestern coast of the island where oysters, clams, and shrimps cultured by aquatic farms died collectively. The reason was due to water pollution. To deal with the urgent situation, the Taiwan Provincial Government set up a special group in April 1986. At the same time, the Department of Health quickly passed the "Executive Points of the 20th Item of the Water Pollution Control Act." Accordingly, factories located in areas where the rivers had been seriously polluted would be posed a daily fine continuously until they improved their water pollution prevention equipment. (Chung-yang jih-pao, 1986/04/17/2; Chung-kuo shih-pao, 1986/04/25/3) In June, the Taiwan Provincial Government urged the central authority, then the Department of Health, to decide effluent standards for the wastewater. (Ming-chung jih-pao, 1986/06/02/2)