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The problem of Industrial Pollution in Taiwan

it was only 2 percent in 1985 and 4 percent in 1988, but gradually increased from 35 percent in 1989 to 88 percent in 1998. The second curve shows the percentage of inspected cases that had been analyzed; it declined from 59 percent in 1985 to 26 percent in 1998. The third curve is the percentage of cases qualified among those analyzed; it increased from 53 percent to 74 percent. The fourth curve shows the weighted percentage of qualified cases; it is derived by using the rate of inspection and the rate of setting up special responsible personnel as weights. There is a gap between the reported and the weighted qualified rates. This indicates that although the rate of analysis was declining and the rate of setting up responsible man was increasing, the two rates did not fully counterbalance to each other. The space for improvement is still quite large.

     Moreover, Table 4 presents the statistics of dealing with those enterprises that made no improvement in wastewater control. First of all, quite a large proportion, between 30 and 54 percent, was treated with unspecified measures. In 1990 and 1991, nearly a half of the enterprises was penalized with suspension of business and another half with unspecified measures. From 1992 to 1998, the proportions varied. No penalty decreased from 38 to 8 percent. Continuous daily penalty increased from 2 to 7 percent. Suspension of business maintained more or less stable between 4 and 8 percent. Setting a due time for correction varied greatly between 17 and 55 percent. It is notable that legal sanction was imposed only in 1998 and counted only for 3 percent; of the 53 cases subjected to this penalty, 43 were found in Changhua County.

The problem of soil and underground water pollution by industry was highlighted again in 1998 and the case of RCA (Radio Company of America) was taken as a typical example. (Tzu-li tsao-pao, 1988/02/28/11) The RCA factory was built in Taoyuan in 1970 for electronic and electrical products. For more than 20 years, the factory's wastewater was poured into wells and thus contaminated underground water and soil. Legislator Chao Shao-k'ang first explored the RCA issue in June 1994 and the EPA investigated it afterwards. (EPA 1996:206) Moreover, Legislators Chao Yung-ch'ing and Su Huan-chih urged the government to make a thorough investigation into sources of pollution at all factories and industrial zones and that seriously polluted sites should be made public. (Lien-ho pao, 1998/03/31/6) In order to assure that no wastewater was poured into deep wells, the EPA commanded in April 1998 to make an inspection over all industrial zones where there were common wastewater treatment plants. Although no wrongfulness was found this time, the EPA still provided NT$1.5 million to help local environmental bureaus to carry out inspection and monitoring of underground water and soil conditions at 20 industrial zones.


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