Protest against underestimation of naphtha emissions at Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township

20-Jun-13

Several environmentalists protested at the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday morning, saying that the calculations used to assess levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC) emitted by the nation’s sixth naphtha cracker in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township had led to emissions being underestimated. Based on the revised proposal for expansion of the nation’s third naphtha cracker that state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC) submitted for an environmental impact assessment (EIA) in 2009, annual VOC emissions from 141,435 equipment components at the plant totaled 1,300 tonnes. However, a survey in April by Yunlin County Government’s on the sixth naphtha cracker which is owned by Formosa Petrochemical Corp found that the VOCs emitted by more than 160,000 equipment components at the plant last year was only 811 tons, raising suspicions that the number is much too low.