[Project goals]
The goal of this project is to establish environmental background data of the farmland soil, fish farm sediment, river and drainage sediment and groundwater in Mai-liao, Tai-si, Sih-hu, Lun-bei, and Dong-shih Township near the No. 6 Naphtha Cracker Complex. Until December 28, 2012, we had completed the works according to the contract. Various environmental media sampling work was completed from April 16 to May 3 and September 6. The measured content includes eight heavy metals, poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH). Besides, the investigation item of the farmland soil and groundwater had additional measurement of dioxin and total phenols. Furthermore, for the operating characteristics of The No. 6 Naphtha Cracker Complex, we build a frequently used chemical material safety data sheet (MSDS), and achieved 4 emergency cases with the Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB).
[Survey results]
1, The first work of this project is to collect relevant reports about the No. 6 Naphtha Cracker Complex. The environmental media sampling plan and the subsequent analysis of the reference data were based on the contents of report.
2, According to the results of this project, the detected anomalies were found in some locations:
(1) From the 50 groups of the farmland soil measured data display all the detected values have no significant abnormal situations. The dioxin detected values compared with the other survey areas of the Yunlin County showed none of the significantly higher value of farmland soil. That means heavy metals may not yet be as indicative of pollutants. 3 TPH samples were detected in the concentration of certain content (higher than 100 mg/kg) and belong to the substance of the diesel class (heavy oil). It is suggested to clarifying what the reason of high TPH values are come from the air pollutants of The No. 6 Naphtha Cracker Complex air or nearby steam oil pollution.
(2) From the 30 samples of the fish-farm sediment, among 16 samples showed the content of heavy metal (such as As, Cu, Zn, Hg) had exceeded the lower limit of the sediment quality guidelines. Among there, there are 3 samples detected and found the content of heavy metal such as As, Cu had exceeded the upper limit of the sediment quality guidelines. The high As content might caused by pumping groundwater and thus accumulated at the bottom of fish farms. The high content of Cu, Zn may be caused by the owners’ using algaecide with copper sulfate component, feeding containing Cu, Zn and other substances in the feed or fish ponds foreign soil (pollution foreign soil). 3 TPH samples were detected and found in the concentration of certain content (higher than 100 mg/kg) and which belongs to the substance of the diesel class (heavy oil). About the abnormal oil content, we conclude preliminarily it may be caused by fishery machinery oil leaking or backfilling polluted soil.
(3) The measured results of 8 samples of river and drainage sediment showed the content of heavy metals such as Ni, As, Cu, Zn had exceeded the lower limit of the sediment quality guidelines. Hou-An Bridge (R03 point) was also found that the concentration of Cu, Zn had exceeded the upper limit of the sediment quality guidelines. It is estimated that the content of heavy metal As, Cu, Zn in the sediment were come from polluted substance of upstream, such as agricultural –recycle water, or the wastewater from animal excreta and factories. 3 TPH samples were detected to be higher than the concentration of 100 mg/kg, and the TPH concentration of Hou-An Bridge (R03 point) was 4,830 mg/kg. The oil pollution may be caused by the dumping of waste oil.
(4) The measured results of groundwater showed that it were detected As, Fe content exceeds groundwater pollution monitoring standards in some locations. It is generally believed that should be related to the releasing of substances from stratum. The groundwater sampling (W08, land No.2009 Ming-lun paragraph, Dong-shih Township) was detected higher As content, which is close to the groundwater pollution control standards. By further way of detection, it is found that soil quality of this farmland was lower than the standard, but the As concentration of groundwater also met the standard monitoring situations.
(5) The detection of 16 restricted PAH content in this project were N.D. (not detected). According to this result, we analysis further other suspected chemical composition. It is found there are other 5 PAH substances which are high levels , such as 2-Fluorobiphenyl(SS)、Chrysene-d12(IS)、Naphthalene-d8(IS)、Phenanthrene-d10(IS) and p-Terphenyl-d14(SS), and we suggest those items should be take attention.
3. This project refers to "Air pollution and health among residents near a petrochemical complex in Yunlin County (2009)", and 255 MSDS of chemical substances commonly used in The No. 6 Naphtha Cracker Complex had collected. And we also collected other 79 MSDS of chemical substances from "The investigation and verification of soil and groundwater pollution potential on the No. 6 Naphtha Cracker Complex plan (2011)". This work collects 334 MSDS totally and has been published and made CD which have the function of inquiries and selection.
4. This project also helps the Yunlin EPB completing 4 emergency cases. One of the main purposes of this work is the detection of heavy metal As content of groundwater (raw water) for tap water purification plants. Finally we found 5 samples what the As concentration are higher than the drinking water quality standards. Therefore, 5 pumping wells had close up upon the law of drinking water source quality standards. Furthermore, this work also detected the fluorine content of agricultural soil in the south side of Fu-jiao Company which is located at Central Taiwan Science Park (Hu-wei Park). According to the detection, the fluorine concentration has exceeded the normal range. Central Taiwan Science Park has been monitoring of this area now.
[Recommendations]
1. This project and another project of Agriculture Department have done detection about farmland soil. All measured results did not exceed the monitoring standards. It is recommended that the measured results should use for reference data, and the monitoring work around this area should continue for tracking the accumulation of air pollutants.
2. There were partly samples of fish farms sediment which is detected and found abnormal heavy metal content. It is recommended that forwarding these results to Agriculture Department for teaching the skill of cultivation to the owners of fish farm, and further investigation about other environmental or biological data are necessary.
3. Some contaminants such as heavy metal As, Cu, Zn form the sediment of Hsin Hu Wei River were detected. We recommended those data should forward to Water Resources Department for monitoring and managing. Although there is no regulation about the sediment quality of the drainages, but it should be planed to continue investigating in order to providing the spread of pollution.
4. This project has been initially collected 334 species of MSDS. That can be used for future plan and further management of the air contaminants from the No. 6 Naphtha Cracker Complex.
5. " Air pollution and health among residents near a petrochemical complex in Yunlin County (2009) "referred to numbers of volatile organic compounds and heavy metals can be used as indicators of pollutants. It is recommended that those indicators of pollutants should be conveyed to the Agriculture Department for adjusting the monitoring substances of further project.
