The project was the first year of the General Physical Examination for Soil and Groundwater Potential Contamination of Abandoned Factories. It contained two subsidiary projects, which were carried out by MWH Americas Inc., Taiwan Branch and Apollo Technology Co., Ltd respectively. The execution period of the project was from December 30, 2011 to March 29, 2013.
In this project, totally 34,827 abandoned factories were surveyed to obtain the current land uses and operation characteristics. Combined with the results from the previous projects “Investigating of Soil and Groundwater Contamination of Abandoned Factories” and “Nationwide Investigation for soil and Groundwater Potential Contamination of Abandoned Factories”, cumulatively 42,000 abandoned factories surveys were completed. That also meant nationwide surveys of abandoned factories with high pollution potential were completed. According to the result of 34,827 abandoned factories surveys in this project and the screening principles in the project of “Environmental Risk Integration and Industrial Sites Screening Risk Map Construction” conducted by Taiwan EPA in 2012, 105 sites were selected as high priority sites for environmental assessments. Base on the assessment results and the quantitative screening system, 20 sites were selected as high priority sites for investigation and further verification if needed.
In the investigation stage, the preliminary investigation of soil and groundwater was executed for the 20 sites. There were 222 soil samples sampled and 60 temporary groundwater wells installed. Totally 16 of the 20 sites were selected for further verification in order to confirm the concentration of contaminates and extent of contamination. In the verification stage, 61 soil samples were sampled, 15 standard groundwater monitoring wells were installed, 15 groundwater samples were analyzed. Soil contamination was verified in 15 sites and groundwater contamination was verified in 1 site only. It is recommended that these contaminated sites should be declared as the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Control Sites according to the Article 12 of Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Act or necessary response measures should be implemented according to the Article 7, Paragraph 5 of the Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Act.
For the purpose of completing nationwide abandoned factories surveys, investigations and verifications in limit time, and ensuring the qualities of the results, a computer-assisted system including cloud computing and tablet PCs had been established in previous projects. In this project, the computer-assisted system was updated and integrated with results of the current surveys, environmental assessments, investigations, and verifications. Using the computer-assisted system enabled to enhance the efficiency of investigation and supervising management. Moreover, other tasks including brochure productions, educational materials, workshops of pollution prevention of land, 3- Dimension animation of project achievements, and formulation of strategy and management framework were completed in this project as well. Strategy and management framework could be used as future reference of conducting investigations and controlling of abandoned factories.
