Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: 蔡嘉宇 tsaiga/WikiCommons/CC0
SCUFFLES BROKE OUT in March in Nantou over plans to construct an incinerator, with local residents demonstrating the potential impact on the local tea industry. The project is currently undergoing an environmental impact assessment.
Mingjian Township in Nantou is Taiwan’s largest tea-producing area. 4,700 tons of tea are produced annually. Likewise, the area is a habitat of the endangered Taiwan leopard cat.
Local government officials previously justified the incinerator on the basis that Nantou is the only county of Taiwan that lacks a waste incinerator. Likewise, the incinerator was touted as allowing for the reduction of waste by allowing factories to reduce emissions. Nantou had also previously seen incidents in which mountains of garbage, as in the Caotun Landfill, led to fires that were difficult to extinguish.
More generally, it has become increasingly common globally to see waste disposal framed as a form of renewable energy. Namely, combustible waste can be separated from other garbage and processed for fuel, which is then burned. Yet it is common to see local residents have concerns about not only the air pollution, but also the impact on groundwater.
The facility can reportedly process 500 tons of waste a day. This has been justified as necessary to handle the 200,000 tons of unprocessed waste in Nantou. It is also claimed that Taiwan’s other waste processing facilities are at capacity. Nevertheless, local residents have criticized this as being more than Nantou leads by some 16,000 tons.
There is significant local opposition to the incinerator, including from local figures influential on the tea industry, such as renowned expert Simon Chang. Local residents have formed the Mingjian Anti-Incinerator Association to oppose the incinerator.
Nevertheless, the KMT government of Nantou has cited surveys to claim that 80% of Nantou residents support the incinerator and that it will be beneficial to the local area. On the other hand, Nantou is one of Taiwan’s more impoverished counties, and criticisms are that the facility is being foisted upon them. This is criticized as similar to other cases in which local communities had infrastructure foisted upon them, as when the Indigenous residents or Orchid Island were told that a nuclear waste disposal facility was a canning facility. Past construction of nuclear reactors occurred in a similar manner.
Pushback against the incinerator is similar to other cases in which infrastructure development threatens the local agriculture industry. In August last year, demonstrators from Dacheng Township in Yilan protested plans by a developer to construct three wind power turbines on a coastal levee. The wind power turbines would generate a combined 12.78 megawatts.
Local residents criticized the project on a number of grounds. For one, a number of residences and barns are nearby. Although development plans state that there are 12 homes nearby, within 500 meters of the turbines, in actuality, there are 80 houses. And though original plans were for four turbines, scaling this back to three turbines, this still affects homes in the vicinity. Some homes are only 65 meters away from wind turbines, while schools are 1,300 meters away. Many residents of the area are elderly farmers. Furthermore, experts have warned that the soil in the area is vulnerable to liquefaction.
The project was significant for agriculture, aquaculture, and biodiversity. 70% of Taiwan’s national supply of freshwater clams is farmed in the area, an industry worth more than 200 million NT. 40% of Changhua duck farming is also in the area. Noise frequencies from turbines are thought to affect milkfish and clams farmed in the area, as well as other livestock such as ducks, hens, sheep, and pigs.
Still, the dynamics of local agricultural communities being thrown under the bus for infrastructure development is nothing new in Taiwan. As most projects in Taiwan pass environmental impact assessments and are approved for development, without significant public outcry, the incinerator will likely be approved.