Millions of tons of furnace ballast polluted farmland, torturing residents for seven years and finally dawning. The Kaohsiung city government and operators promised to clean up in three years, and the regiment worried about secondary pollution.

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After six years and eleven months of delay, the dispute over "China Steel Converter Stone burying farmland", which is located in the forest of Qishan District in Kaohsiung City, has finally appeared a glimmer of light! The Kaohsiung Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau held a briefing on the morning of March 26, and one of the companies originally buried: Wanda material Technology Co., Ltd., explained to the public the content and schedule of the clean-up plan.

Lin Liqi, the company's project manager, said that the clean-up plan will be carried out in three years, and if unidentified wastes other than converter stones are dug up, they will be placed on the site for testing in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Bureau. Wu Jiaan, deputy director of the Environmental Protection Bureau, promised, "We will definitely not just remove the converter stone. Even if we dig more than 990000 tons today, everything will be cleared."

However, residents and environmental groups are worried that if improper excavation may cause secondary pollution, "what about the exposed waste during the rainy season?" Will it cause follow-up pollution? " In addition, with regard to the fact that the excavated converter stone will be transported to the Dafa industrial zone in Daliao, residents of Daliao are worried that "the government and operators must go online openly for the converter stone to carry information to the Dafa industrial zone. I don't want the pain of the Qishan people to be transferred to Daliao."

Lin Liqi, the project manager who explained the clean-up plan on behalf of Wanda Materials Technology Company. (photo / Li Huiyi) the plight of burying stone farmland without growing crops is painful. Residents have tortured Gaoshi Environmental Protection Bureau and operators in the past seven years and are finally willing to come forward to solve it.

The storm of converter stone burying agricultural land is a portrayal of the plight of Taiwan's rural areas. when agricultural development is declining and the output value of land decreases, agricultural land becomes a place for illegal factories or for all kinds of waste.

The victimized farmland of the Qishan forest was first stolen in 1996, digging a deep pit with a total area of 5.2 hectares and a depth of more than 20 meters. Seventeen years later, in May 2013, residents began to find large trucks dumping unidentified waste into deep pits.

Zheng Miaozhen, president of the anti-waste furnace ballast self-rescue association in Dalinli, said that between May 2013 and June 2014, these pits were filled with nearly 1 million tons of converter stone bought from China Iron and Steel Company during the steelmaking process of China Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., and Dai Wenqing, who is also in charge of Jianfa construction.

On October 27, 2013, the unburied pit became a bizarre blue lake in Tiffany after the rain. (courtesy of Zheng Miaozhen, self-help Association)

However, all these actions cannot be controlled, because in 1999, the Kaohsiung municipal government approved that the steel-making scrap furnace stone of Sinosteel was registered as a "product" in the factory registration certificate, so when the Environmental Protection Bureau received a report from the residents of Dalin, it was unable to exercise public power with the "waste cleaning Law," so it had to impose a fine of 60,000 yuan on the industry in accordance with the "Regional Planning Law."

Over the years, the converter stone backfill has been ill-fated, and it has become increasingly difficult for people who want to protect farmland. In May 2014, residents and environmental protection groups went to the Supervisory Yuan to lodge their complaints. In September of the same year, Zheng Miaozhen, president of the self-help Association, went alone to inspect the converter stone backfill and was seriously injured and hospitalized for a month. In February 2015, the Supervisory Yuan put forward a correction case against the Kaohsiung municipal government, arguing that the Kaohsiung municipal government seriously damaged the government's public trust and violated the law. On May 31, 2017, the Kaohsiung High Administrative Court ruled that "the waste cleaning Law shall apply, and the competent authority has the obligation to order the actor to remove it."

Until March 12, 2020, the Kaohsiung Environmental Protection Bureau finally did something, actively reviewing and approving the clean-up plan put forward by the industry.

The industrial roads and greening in front of us are planted, burying nearly one million tons of converter stones and unknown amounts of unknown wastes. (photo / Li Huiyi) many city councillors appeared concerned that the city government should give an account to the people of Qishan.

With regard to the Qishan forest farmers' land case, those responsible for the removal of converter stone and other wastes include Wanda Company (responsible person Dai Wenqing), Construction and Development Company (responsible person Huang Yinyi, who is also the landlord) and Zhonglian Resources Company. However, at the briefing held on March 26, only Wanda sent staff to attend and explained that Zhonglian Resources only sent an employee surnamed Zhu to sign in.

Compared with the attendance of those responsible for handling the matter, the enthusiastic appearance of city councillors attracted attention, including eight city councillors or assistants from the Kuomintang, non-Party, Democratic Progressive Party, and time Power, who spoke in turn to care about the case. Song Libin, a member of the Kuomintang, said, "Why only Wanda comes out? No one else who was involved in the illegal process showed up? "

Lin Fubao, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, said: "the government agencies and civil servants responsible for this case should be found out. I think the source lies in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the central government cannot ignore it." Li Shunjin, a non-party member, stressed that the municipal government had to deal with it in accordance with the waste cleaning law, but did not use the soil pollution law (soil and groundwater pollution control law) to check the gate. "I think the municipal government should give an account to the people of Qishan."