Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Pollution Case: Yunlin County Continues to Strengthen Oversight

Formosa Ha Tinh Steel was fined 16.1 billion by the Vietnamese government for wastewater that poisoned fish. The Yunlin County Government stated it will strengthen oversight of Formosa Plastics' No. 6 Naphtha Cracking Complex in Mailiao, and will not tolerate a similar situation occurring; in addition, over the more than 20 years since the No. 6 Naphtha Cracking Complex was established, incidents related to environmental pollution and damage to public health have occurred, and to date Formosa Plastics has not properly responded to or handled them. The county government calls on Formosa Plastics to fulfill its corporate responsibilities and concretely safeguard the health of local residents and the sustainability of the environment.

The Yunlin County Government pointed out that because of the lack of definitive research data and scientific evidence regarding the severe impact and effects of Formosa Plastics' No. 6 Naphtha Cracking Complex on the local environment and residents' health, Formosa Plastics has been able to evade, make excuses, and give perfunctory responses. Therefore, last year the Yunlin County Government and Formosa Plastics Group established a communication platform, and proposed on the platform the establishment of a "Health Promotion Fund" to care for the health of coastal residents and to establish long-term follow-up research. However, a year has passed and Formosa Plastics has still not given a good-faith response. This is not the attitude of a responsible enterprise.

The Yunlin County Government emphasized that, in order to protect the health rights and interests of county residents, after Magistrate Lee Chin-yung took office, regulation of environmental pollution from Formosa Plastics' No. 6 Naphtha Cracking Complex was strengthened. In addition to enacting the "Yunlin County Self-Governance Ordinance Prohibiting the Use of Raw Coal and Petroleum Coke in Industrial and Commercial Plants and Facilities" and the "Yunlin County Self-Governance Ordinance Governing the Use of Raw Coal and Petroleum Coke by Stationary Pollution Sources in Public and Private Premises," many administrative control measures have also been tightened, such as the "Stricter Standards for Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Equipment Components," the "Stricter Standards for Air Pollutant Emissions from Electric Power Facilities," and shortening the term of raw coal and petroleum coke operating permits and reducing permitted usage amounts to tighten permit review, so that an incident similar to Vietnam's will not be allowed to occur in Yunlin.