Taiwan Today

Polluters are finding out that new environmental laws and a troop of young inspectors should be taken seriously.

Until the establishment of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in August 1987, Taiwan's environment had been largely neglected through forty years of the island's rapid economic growth, Since the administra­tion was set up, one of its major efforts has been to push for the formation of a sturdy and comprehensive legal frame­work for environmental protection, The goal is to correct a virtually unregulated climate that has for decades sanctioned growth achieved through industrial and individual abuse of the environment.

So far, legislators have written a total of forty-three laws and regulations regarding environmental protection. These include the basic law for environmental protection, a dispute settlement law, a waste disposal act, a toxic chemical control act, a waste disposal act, as well as revised acts covering noise, air, and water pollution control. Some of these, such as the waste disposal act and the toxic chemicals control act, have already been enacted. Others are still waiting for final reading in the Legislative Yuan.

In the meantime, the EPA has been working on preventing further damage to an already abused environment. In July 1989, it set up a system requiring factories to file regular detailed reports on their pollution levels, measured ac­cording to EPA guidelines, In 1990, it became mandatory for all new cars to be equipped with catalytic converters in order to reduce air pollution. (In 1990, the standards for limiting pollution from auto exhaust emission were equivalent to those established in the United States in 1983, the highest in the world.)

In January 1991, the EPA an­nounced two new standards to limit water pollution. The first will become ef­fective in 1993, and the second, stricter standard will be enforced in 1998, A new regulation against motorcycle exhaust, which will be among the most stringent in the world, will become effective in July 1991. The EPA means business. The number of motorcycles and scooters in Taiwan has been increasing rapidly, and Taipei alone has over 700,000, a large portion of them with poorly main­tained two-cycle engines. Motorcycle manufacturers that fail to comply with the regulation will be closed down.

The EPA has recognized the impor­tance of educating the public, and plans to increase community awareness and participation in the environmental pro­tection movement. Under the leadership of administrator Eugene Chien, the EPA has probably received the most media coverage of all government agen­cies. This has not happened by accident, because the EPA has tirelessly drum­med up many well-publicized environ­mental protection campaigns.

Under an operation code-named Flying Eagle, the EPA dispatched hel­icopters which detected and then hov­ered over industrial smokestacks while inspectors rushed to the scene to carry out a thorough investigation. In 1990, the operation resulted in penalizing 709 factories, 21 percent of the 3,366 raided.

Under Operation Rambo, inspectors raided hundreds of factories, often at night, to check for unlawful emissions of waste water. Around 70 percent of the factories were caught red-handed and fined. Although some of the factories were equipped with advanced facilities for processing waste water, they left them idle to save on cost. Some of the factories had built secret drainage pipes stretching several kilometers to empty untreated waste water into rivers or streams.

The EPA is also rallying public sup­ port for its campaigns. One Sunday last summer, Operation Sea Gull gathered hundreds of Taipei residents at a resort beach near the city to participate in a cleanup. And on another Sunday, scores of divers participating in Operation Seal donned their scuba gear on Lungtung Beach, a popular diving spot in northeastern Taiwan, and scoured the nearby sea bottom to rid the area of as much gar­bage as they could.

There are many more campaigns under way. Among them are Operation Clean Spring, which focuses on protect­ing and conserving underground and reservoir water; Operation Ham, which calls for diligent efforts on the part of pig­gery owners to clean up after the island's 7 million pigs; Operation Parrot for noise control; and Operation Lupan (named after a master carpenter in an­cient China), which is geared toward reining in all sorts of pollution caused by public construction projects.

The EPA is also doing something about the omnipresent garbage in the is­land's larger cities. The residents of Taipei and Kaohsiung are now being en­couraged to separate their trash for recycling. Large receptacles for glass bot­tles, plastic containers, and aluminum cans have been placed along streets in many residential areas. Later, the recycl­ing program will be extended to include other urban waste such as office paper, rubber tires, lubricant oil, and fluores­cent lamps. The EPA hopes to establish an island wide recycling system capable of eventually recycling 35 percent of Tai­wan's garbage.

Schoolchildren have a vital role to play in these programs. Much of the EPA's educational effort is directed at children in hopes that they will develop a better understanding of environmental issues and influence their parents and other adults to be more aware of their environmental responsibilities.

Government officials are also at the receiving end of the education programs. After all, to be able to clean up Taiwan, the EPA needs the cooperation of government agencies as much as the general populace. For example, the various ministries could play larger environ­mental roles: the Ministry of Economic Affairs in controlling industrial pollu­tion, the Ministry of Communications in automobile pollution control, the Coun­cil of Agriculture in keeping a watchful eye on piggeries, and the Department of Health in guarding against careless disposal of hospital waste. The EPA has al­ ready requested that the various minis­tries of the Executive Yuan set up their own in-house environmental protection agencies.

The EPA is also asserting its authori­ty in mediating the growing number of environment-related disputes. This is a critical step in the development of the economy and the spread of environmen­tal concern. Environmental impact reports are now also required for all major public and private construction projects. In 1990, the EPA rejected twenty out of the 100 reports submitted, in effect stall­ing the initial construction of the projects.

Confronted with the enormous task of cleaning up the island's seriously polluted environ­ment, the EPA has expanded rapidly over the past few years. It now has a staff of 445, and their average age is thirty-four. The administration is also well-financed. For FY1990, it had a budget of US$200 million, and US$120 million for FY1991. The EPA budget is partially supported by the profits of the government-owned Chinese Petroleum Corporation (CPC), which has main­tained higher gasoline prices based on the premise that cheaper fuel will lead to energy waste. CPC passes on its excess earnings to the EPA.

Abundant human and financial re­sources have enabled the EPA to extend strong support to the city and county en­vironmental protection agencies that are responsible for enforcing EPA regula­tions. For example, the administration has provided local agencies with funds to build dump sites or incinerators to help solve their garbage disposal problems. Efficient and environmentally safe garbage disposal is the most urgent environ­mental protection task for many local governments. In 1988, the EPA itself re­cruited and trained 520 young inspectors and dispatched them to local environ­mental protection agencies throughout the island. At present, in addition to Taipei and Kaohsiung, fourteen out of the total twenty-one city and county governments have set up their own agen­cies. The rest will follow suit by mid­ year 1991.

The EPA has promised to shoulder the salaries and expenses of the inspec­tors for their first two years on the job. After three years, the local governments are expected to cover the cost of the inspectors by using the fines collected from violators of anti-pollution regula­tions. The EPA foresees that the inspec­tors will be able to apprehend an increas­ing number of violators. In fact, the inspectors have greatly intensified in­spections around the island. Made up of young men and women in their twenties, the inspectors raid factories around the clock, often wading into puddles of in­dustrial waste to collect samples.

The local agencies themselves have been responsive to growing public con­cern about pollution. For example, in 1986, the Taipei city government's De­partment of Environmental Protection opened a twenty-four-hour telephone line to handle complaints. The line re­ceives some 10,000 complaints annually. Half of the calls concern pollution kicked up by construction projects or emitted by factories, and noise from places of entertainment. The department also has set up eleven automatic air quality detection stations and four automobile exhaust detection stations in the city. It even has thirty volunteers to sniff out the sources of malodorous smells. This troop is only part of the 3,500 volunteers the department hopes to recruit to seek out and identify pollutants.

In general, the local agencies are the weakest link in the island's environmen­tal protection network. One major rea­son is the lack of funds to pursue environmental programs, because most local governments are in serious financial dif­ficulty. Another is influence-peddling by businessmen. The political and financial support of businessmen is critical to the election of local government officials. Therefore, to show their gratitude for the business community's support, elect­ed officials often exempt factory owners from paying the fines imposed by the inspectors.

Revenue from fines registered neg­ligible growth last year, despite the substantial increase in the number of inspec­tors and investigations. It is suspected that local environmental protection agency officials notify factory owners be­ fore a raid is carried out. As a result, the EPA has begun conducting some raids on its own, and they are running up more discoveries of violations than achieved by local environmental officials.

But officials at the local agencies do not deserve all the blame. They face a myriad of problems, many of which are daunting. For example, members of the community often counter the officials' attempts to enforce environmental regulations by offering bribes, threatening physical harm, or actually resorting to violence. Physical assaults on the envi­ronmental officials have prompted the EPA to authorize inspectors to carry electric clubs while on duty. The offi­cials' lack of clout can also be traced to the slowness of the Legislative Yuan in passing environment-related laws be­ cause of political strife between the ruling KMT and opposition legislators.

The agencies are also short of techni­cal staff, as low pay levels have made it very difficult to recruit skilled manpower such as chemical analysts, environmental engineers, and technicians to maintain incinerators. But this problem may not be around for much longer. The rapid proliferation of local environmental agencies has opened up ample promotion opportunities for young people interest­ed in pursuing careers in environmental protection. The EPA also provides many opportunities for overseas study or train­ing, and in July this year it will establish its own training institute.

The EPA is also attacking the serious garbage problem on several fronts. Big incinerators are being constructed at various sites throughout the island to reduce the size of garbage dumps, which are sources of air, water, and visual pol­lution. Two incinerators in Taipei county are now under construction, while construction work on three other incinerators-one each for Taichung, Chiayi, and Tainan-will begin this year. Another ten incinerators are in the plan­ning stage, and will be completed over the next few years. The building of these incinerators is only part of the govern­ment's US$3.7 billion garbage disposal plan, which includes the building of 200 garbage dump sites throughout Taiwan. By 1997, the EPA wants to see the proper disposal of 85 percent of public waste, and 50 percent of industrial waste.

The program is actually part of a bigger picture: the just-approved Six­ Year National Development Plan (1991-1996). Total investment outlays for environmental protection projects during the six-year period will top US$11 billion. In all, there are sixty-eight environmental projects, subdivided into five major categories: garbage disposal, industrial waste disposal, water pollution prevention, construction of sewage sys­tems, and air pollution control. By the year 2000, the government hopes to achieve a level of environmental protection standards equivalent to that of in­dustrially developed countries today.

Investment activity in environmen­tal protection hardware is indeed vigor­ous. But EPA administrator Eugene Chien believes that education is still the most important tool to further environ­mental protection goals because the ef­fects of environmental education are longer-lasting. Success in educating the public should lead to important changes in attitudes toward the environment­ from disregard to active concern, and from misuse and abuse to protection and conservation. - Philip Liu (劉柏登) is the editor-in-chief of Business Taiwan, an English-language weekly newspaper pub­lished in Taipei.