In accordance with the ITB of “2009 Tainan County Air Quality Maintenance and Management Plan” (hereinafter “Project”), the execution of each work item is summarized below:
1. Environmental Burden and Trends
(1) The shift in the activities in the past few years that cause air pollution results in the decrease in emission sources. In the period of 1996 - 2006, the population increased gradually in Tainan County, but since 2006, the population has been on decline. Presently, the population is around 1.1 million (or 547 persons per square km).
(2) The number of factories has been decreasing since 1997. Currently, there are 6,102 factories (or 2.8 factories per square km). This has been contributed to by the changes in industry composition, economic policy and general business environment of Tainan County. The dominant industries include manufacturing of metal and plastic products as well as machinery.
(3) There had seen increases in the number of companies in Tainan Science Park since opening, up to 2009 after which the growth has slowed down. Currently, there are 273 companies in Tainan Science Park.
(4) The number of automobiles and motorcycles per square km in Tainan County is 143 and 404 respectively; while the latter is in line with national but lower than Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan averages, the former is higher than both national and Yunlin-Chiayi-Tainan averages. Despite the higher-than-average automobile density and the average-to-lower motorcycle density, the growth of diesel trucks has come to a halt since 2007 whereas motorcycles have increased by 55.2% between 1996 and 2009 and shown no sign of slowing down. This trend may have resulted from the rise in petroleum prices and the promotion of energy savings by the government.
(5) There have not persistent trends in the growth of construction in the past decade; it grew significantly between 2003 and 2005, dropped in the period of 2006-2007 and gone back up in the following 2 years. At present, the number of constructions is 5,916.
(6) The majority of environmental pleas are factory, burning and construction related and have been on ascent. This may be contributed to by the increasing environmental awareness among the public.
2. Air Quality Trends
(1) The air quality has been improving in the past 3 years; in 2009 was seen the lowest poor air quality ratio in 5 years. The poor air quality ratio was 3.7% in 2009. which was under the control target 5.41%. The focus on improvement of the suspended populated matter in 2009, might have contributed to that progress. The main sources that cause poor air quality are suspended particulate matter and ozone pollution.
(2) Suspended particulate matter and ozone pollution have mostly resulted from climate changes, meteorological conditions, mega developments such as Southern Science Park and No 6. Naphtha Cracking Plant, large-scale pollutant transport between counties, etc.
(3) While the poor PM10 ratio dropped from 3.4% to 0.5% in the period of 1994-2003, it rose to the range of 3.3%-4.6%in 2005-2007 and then decrease to 2.46% in 2009. The PM10 improved significantly and the poor PM10 ratio dropped.
(4) The poor ozone ratio increased from 0.4% to 3.3% in the period of 1994-2004; it dropped to 2.3% in 2005 but rose again to 3.3% in 2006 and 4.6% in 2007. In 2008-2009 was seen the decrease in the poor ozone ratio ( 2.05% and 1.23% respectively).
(5) Based on the sources of pollution in Tainan County, controlling ozone concentrations and PM10 should start with area sources, followed by point and then line sources. Therefore, the control strategy in Tainan county should aim at area sources, in particular the improvement in naked land.
3. Air Pollution Emission
We have updated 2008 emission inventory based on TEDS-7.0, as follows.
(1)TSP emission: 34,726 tons per year, originating mainly from area sources.
(2)PM10 emission: 18,291 tons per year, originating mainly from area an line sources.
(3)SOX emission: 7,021 tons per year, the majority of which originated from point sources.
(4)NOX emission: 30,248 tons per year, originating mainly from line sources.
(5)NMHC emission: 41,107 tons per year, originating mainly from area sources.
(6)CO emission: 66,488 tons per year, originating mainly from line sources.
4. Air Quality Management Strategy Review and Air Pollution Control Plan Modification
Some of the goals in the 2009 Air Pollution Prevention and Control Plan have not been achieved. This is attributable to two factors. Firstly, during the execution of the plan, more goals were added. In addition, the number of goals might have been overambitious. Nonetheless, the overall achievement is more than satisfactory. The execution of the 2010 Air Pollution Prevention and Control Plan is expected to carry out as planned.
We had been in discussion with the EPB as regards to the assessment of success of the 2009 Tainan County Air Pollution Prevention and Control Plan since the start of the execution, which was finalized after a few revisions and approved by EPB. Based on the approved criteria, the Air Purification Program was the best performer. The Air Source Allowance Program was the worse performer, due to slow progress. We suggested that Tainan city implement air quality control strategies separated into general, urban and rural type for a total of 108.
5. Air Quality Management Strategies in 2010
• Poisonous substance removal
• Control of specific population of vehicles
• Improvement of sand storm/ high concentration of TSP
6. Survey of people satisfaction
• Survey of public satisfaction with air pollution: in general, the public felt that there had not been enough promotion from the government but there had been less pollution than 2008.
• Survey of public satisfaction with ethics of construction industry in Tainan County: the public awareness of ethics has greatly improved; more than 80% of people surveyed said that they would report bribery, should it happen.
