One of seven recent fires at Formosa Plastics. This one was in late July 2010: Photo courtesy of MFCU. Excessive pollution levels have long been common place at Formosa Plastics Group’s petrochemical complex in Mailiao, Yunlin County. Formosa Plastics was the 2009 recipient of the infamous Black Planet Award; for those who have committed themselves to the destruction and downfall of our Blue Planet in an outstanding way. One would think that after been singled out for having such a horrendous environmental track record that Formosa would take steps to clean up their image. Not on your life. Unbelievably Formosa took their toxic output to new levels. There have been seven chemical fires at the complex in past year.
After two fires at the complex just last week local residents have had enough. On Monday residents from the surrounding townships of Taisi (台西), Baojhong (褒忠), Dongshih (東勢) and Lunbei (崙背) came out in protest demanding a full suspension of operations at the plant. Tomorrow, residents of Mailiao Township(麥寮) will protest to send an "ultimatum" to Formosa to clean up or face continuous mass protest action.
The Formosa Plastics Group’s petrochemical complex in Mailiao is built on reclaimed land that was once prime pink dolphin habitat. Current and planned reclamation projects at the plant are further reducing the little remaining habitat of the critically endangered Taiwan pink dolphins. Shipping traffic at Mailiao Port and excessive pollution levels from the Formosa Plastics Plant are serious threats to the continued survival of the Taiwan pink dolphins.
See Rally planned at Mailiao plant and Industrial accidents show up safety talk in today's Taipei Times.
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