Do oil spills love nature reserves the way tornados have a thing for trailer parks? It sometimes appears that way. Taiwan's east coast is a fragile environment, and development has a profound impact on it:
Estimates of the damage caused by the Tzini oil spill on the nation's east coast last month will be delivered by Friday next week, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday. The Maltese cargo ship went aground off Suao Port (
蘇澳港 ) on Dec. 24.Hsu Jen-tse (
許仁澤 ), chief of the EPA's marine pollution section, said in an interview with the Taipei Times yesterday the compensation package will include two parts.The company, he said, must not only pay for the costs the government is facing to clean up the mess, but it must also pay for the damage done to local fishery resources as well as the damage to the marine environment.
According to Hsu, a preliminary estimate shows that the company will have to pay the central government at least NT$10 million (US$312,500). Regarding the damage to local fishery and other natural resources, the administration has asked the Suao Fishermen's Association (SFA) to quickly calculate their losses.
The development of the east coast for cement firms, whose activities have done so much to shape Taiwan's built environments, also has consequences for Taiwan's offshore waters. A Maltese paper reported:
The Tzini was travelling empty from Japan to Hualien Harbour where it was expected to be loaded with mineral cargo from Taipei Cement and then head back to Japan.
The ship ran aground on Sunday morning when it drifted to within 70 m of the shoreline and was grounded. Then one of its oil tanks was ruptured and soon after it began to leak the fuel oil into the ocean off the cliffs between the Suao and Hualien County turning the ocean greyish in colour.
Other media reports say the cargo was indeed cement. Initially local EPA officials accused the operators of being asleep at the wheel, but the current story is that the ship lost power and then ran aground on a coral reef. The formidable cliffs of the area around Suao prevent easy access to the site for clean-up, according to reports. The location of the slick was near a protected area -- though it is difficult to wreck on the east coast and not be near a protected area. Which is probably why ship operations should be carefully controlled on that side of Taiwan.
Although some made links between this case and the disastrous Amorgos wreck off Kenting in 2001, the Tzini only fouled the waters off Suao with 100 tons of oil, whereas the Amorgos put more than 1,100 tons into the waters of Kenting National Park. The two ships have the same insurer, however. In the Amorgos case two crew members were detained for a month by then EPA head Hau Lung-bin, currently the new mayor of Taipei:
The Amorgos spilled roughly 1,150 tonnes of fuel oil into waters near Kenting National Park in January. With international pressure to release the two crew members mounting, a Cabinet task force on the matter convened yesterday to discuss the possibility of lifting the detention order, but was unable to reach a conclusion. Environmental Protection Administration officials said the meeting yesterday was just a preliminary discussion on the matter. "We will hold more meetings in the near future to develop strategies for using specific channels to urge both the shipping company and its insurance agent to offer Taiwan a letter of undertaking," said the administration's head, Hau Lung-bin at a press conference yesterday. The administration's officials said a letter of undertaking from the shipping company or its insurance agency would ensure the firms would not avoid responsibility for dealing with the spill. In addition to the environmental administration, the ministries of justice, foreign affairs and transportation and communications were also involved in yesterday's discussion. During the meeting, the administration explained to the foreign ministry the legal reasons for the detainment of vessel's Captain Evangelos Lazaridis and Chief Engineer Vasileios Sardis. Hau said the two were being held under the Ocean Pollution Control Act. "We need them to assist with the investigation into the cause of the accident, as well as help with its cleanup and issues related to compensation," Hau said. Hau denied rumors that Taiwan?s compensation request is unreasonably large and is keeping the shipping company, Nissos Armogos Shipping Corp, from giving Taiwan a letter of undertaking. "We don't even know the total losses yet because a foreign company is still estimating the total ecological loss and will not have any results until September," Hau said.
Hopefully the government will exercise greater vigilance in controlling the pernicious effects of development on Taiwan's unparalleled east coast.
[Taiwan] [shipping] [oil slicks] [Malta]
1 comment:
i felt so upset when i saw this on the news a couple weeks ago
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