Four million tons of furnace slag dug up from farmland in Qishan, and the Environmental Protection Bureau provided no supervision during the removal process

A 5.2-hectare piece of farmland in Dalin Village, Qishan District, Kaohsiung City, had been illegally dumped with a million tons of converter stone (basic oxygen furnace slag) since May 2013. Seven years later, the Kaohsiung City Environmental Protection Bureau finally held a briefing this year (2020) in March, at which one of the original burial operators, Wanda Material Technology Company, promised to complete the removal of the million tons of converter stone within three years.

However, no one could have imagined that the more this farmland was dug, the more horrifying it became. Today (September 15), Wanda Company stated in a briefing to the Kaohsiung City Council's Police, Fire, Health and Environment Committee that the originally planned removal volume was 1 million tons, but after actual excavation and investigation, the total amount was found to be as high as 4 million tons. In addition to converter stone, there was also a large amount of construction waste and unidentified waste.

Concerned individuals ventured deep into the pollution site for the first time, and only a little over a thousand tons were removed in three months

Today, the Kaohsiung City Council's Police, Fire, Health and Environment Committee made a large-scale inspection trip to Qishan, specifically visiting the farmland in Dalin Village where nearly a million tons of converter stone had been illegally buried. The scene included city councilors, assistants, Environmental Protection Bureau personnel, Agriculture Bureau personnel, local police, media, residents, and civil society organizations. More than fifty people stood under the blazing sun, and the scorching autumn heat made everyone irritable.